Brighton & Hove Albion have found their missing link in midfield if they are right about Mats Wieffer . Technical director David Weir claims the club have landed “one of the best deep-lying midfielders in Europe” by signing Wieffer from Feyenoord for £25million ($32m) . Living up to that billing would mean Brighton at last moving on from the influences of Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister in qualifying the club for Europe for the first time in 2022-23.
They were both hugely important to that sixth-placed finish in the Premier League , which earned Europa League football last season under former head coach Roberto De Zerbi. The sales of Caicedo to Chelsea and Mac Allister to Liverpool respectively for a combined total in excess of £160million last summer were healthy for the bank balance, but left two big holes in midfield. The signings made in last summer’s transfer window fell short of filling the gaps.
Carlos Baleba , the 20-year-old Cameroonian bought from Lille, is promising but raw, while Mahmoud Dahoud , signed from Borussia Dortmund , was loaned back to Germany with Stuttgart in January after failing to make an impact. The arrival of Wieffer, a hybrid of Caicedo and Mac Allister, cannot by itself compensate for the loss of that high-quality pairing, but it is designed to help redress the balance for De Zerbi’s successor, Fabian Hurzeler. Caicedo’s biggest assets were out of possession.
He shielded the defence with his anticipation and ability to regain.
