Latest TV: Brighton and Hove Albion 2024 preview
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [Outro Music]
00:29 Welcome back to the Christmas special of Latest TV News and I'm Sam Morton here with
00:36 Henry Bryant to talk about Brighton's upcoming year and we made some predictions of how we
00:40 think it's going to go. So Henry, it's a fast start to January with an FA Cup tie away at
00:45 Stoke and a away trip to West Ham in the league. On the FA Cup tie, how did you assess that
00:52 draw away at Stoke?
00:53 Well it was slightly underwhelming wasn't it? It wasn't the sort of star striking teams
00:59 that we've got and because we're so used to playing in Europe now and we're cruising and
01:06 we're sort of used to doing well against the big teams it seems like something that will
01:12 be a breeze for us. I hope that I don't go to bite my words and swallow my pride in that
01:19 aspect but I think that it's slightly underwhelming and just a few games that we need to progress
01:25 with and get through in the best possible fashion. Hopefully with a few young players
01:30 making appearances and even debuts.
01:32 Yeah and the FA Cup itself, Terby has commented that he wants Brighton to be competitive in
01:38 every competition and he was angry when they were beaten by Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.
01:43 But when you consider the number of competitions they're playing in, the number of injuries
01:47 and suspensions they've had, do you think the FA Cup will take any priority at all?
01:54 Well I think it all depends really because I don't want any upsets in these next few
02:01 games in the FA Cup and I'm sure that De Zerby doesn't or neither does his squad or any other
02:06 fan but if there was the situation where we did get knocked out of Europe and we were
02:11 still in the FA Cup then I think that that domino would then fall onto the priority of
02:18 the FA Cup and doing well in it and obviously last year we managed to get to the semi-final,
02:23 lost out to Manchester United on penalties which was a gutter and although the FA Cup
02:28 meant a lot to us last season because of how well we did, I think that the Europa League
02:33 is just that step ahead right now in the priority list for De Zerby at the moment.
02:40 And as you mentioned, Man United came out on top in that semi-final last year, is that
02:45 going to be playing on their mind do you think if they were to get to the latter stages?
02:48 They really want to put that right because they were so, so close to making an FA Cup
02:52 final and just to win a trophy would be fantastic wouldn't it?
02:56 Absolutely, I think having some silverware would back up the performances that we've
03:02 been putting in and also just put a stamp of credibility on us because we're a team
03:08 that is pushing to be one of the top clubs, not in terms of money, not in terms of history
03:15 but in terms of just the form right now and I think having an FA Cup or a trophy similar
03:22 to that or even a Europa League trophy would be something that shows the world who we are,
03:27 who Brighton Over Albion are.
03:30 And we've mentioned West Ham as the first league game of the season, it's obviously
03:35 going to be a tough one that one, just generally going into that month from what we've learnt
03:40 this few months with the injuries and suspensions, who do you think Brighton, what areas do you
03:45 think Brighton need to strengthen in the Magindri transfer market if they can?
03:49 Well I think that we need to shore up the defence a little bit, I think that we've got
03:53 a lot of young players playing at the moment and despite them doing exceptionally well
03:57 for us, when we've got that many players injured you need a few quality starters that
04:03 are going to be able to secure victories and not players that might make a few mistakes
04:09 that will cost us an entire game and if we've got a run of games coming up every few weeks,
04:14 almost two a week, most weeks, it's going to be hard for us to not have a player or
04:20 a few players that can step in and be the difference in terms of quality so I think
04:26 some defenders would definitely be useful and I think even a striker, to be honest with
04:31 you, I think a striker would help and benefit because although we've got a João Pedro
04:36 that's doing brilliantly at the moment, you need to think of the way that we're performing
04:42 in general and hoping that we've got a few more players coming back in terms of Evan
04:48 Ferguson finding his feet because he was injured for a little bit but I still feel like we
04:54 need someone of a good quality and maybe use a bit of that Caicedo money to show what sort
05:00 of team we are and boost that.
05:02 Obviously the future of Denis Undov is in the air a little bit, he's been out on loan
05:06 at Stuttgart this season, there's some that think that was a bit of a mistake letting
05:09 him leave on loan when you consider Welbeck's been out for a long period of time, Evan Ferguson's
05:13 had injuries, obviously João Pedro has stayed fit for that entire time but you do wonder
05:18 if Undov has still been there, if he'd have actually got the minutes he probably craved
05:21 when he considered leaving.
05:24 So just a word on his future, would you like to see Brighton bring him back as soon as
05:28 possible?
05:29 I think that he would be great to bring back, the issue with him at the moment is because
05:33 he signed that loan deal he also had a release clause in that which is just over £10m so
05:41 for us to get him back we've also got to convince the club he's at at the moment to basically
05:46 hand him over and I think there isn't a lot of chance that that's going to happen to be
05:51 honest because in his last 10 games to recalling date in December he's got 8 goals in 10 games
05:58 and it's been the difference, there was a 2-1 victory on the weekend where his side
06:03 played and he was able to get a goal in the 72nd minute so he is making the difference
06:08 right now and potentially Brighton could look back at this and think 'ah we have made a
06:13 little bit of an error there, we didn't really see this sort of happening with injuries to
06:18 our first team strikers at the moment'.
06:21 Ansi Fati's obviously been out with an injury, hopefully coming back this month in January,
06:26 so how important will he be? We're not sure how long Brighton will have him, we presume
06:33 he will go back to Barstow at the end of the season, so to have him back in January, how
06:38 brilliant do you hope he'll be? Do you really think he'll show his best form?
06:41 I hope so, De Zerby's already said that he isn't at his best just yet and he always expects
06:48 more from Ansi Fati which is fair enough because he's a quality player and a world-class potential
06:54 player so for him to do well in this second part of the season would be not only vital
07:00 for him and potentially rectifying his career because this is a big test for him being at
07:05 Brighton, this is a deciding point basically for Barcelona to see how he performs but also
07:10 for us because we do really need him to make some of these results go our way in the second
07:16 half of the season so my hope is that he finds form, hits the ground running and to have
07:21 I hope potentially 10 plus goals from him because that would be the difference right
07:27 now, we've wanted him to be the difference but he's not quite there yet, can I redo that
07:34 bit? Yeah, do you want to start from that sentence again?
07:41 But he's not quite there just yet, I don't think he's there just yet so we'll have to
07:46 see.
07:47 And just on Evan Ferguson and Karim Matoma, both of them probably haven't been at their
07:52 best so far this season but they've shown in their times at Brighton how amazing they
07:58 can be, we've seen Hatrick from Evan Ferguson against Newcastle and we've seen Matoma absolutely
08:04 rinse defences on a weekly basis and as I say he's obviously not been at his best in
08:09 recent weeks but how important is it that Brighton keep hold of especially those two
08:13 players and how influential can they be in 2024?
08:16 Well Evan Ferguson is now an £100 million player and Tony Bloom will not want to sell
08:22 him at all because of the age he's at, the potential he has and also the quality he's
08:28 shown whilst being at the Albion so for us really it is all about making sure that we
08:33 say to these other teams, no they're not for sale and kind of shutting the door on any
08:39 speculation really, especially with Matoma as well, there was talks of him potentially
08:43 going to Manchester City in the summer, that didn't come into fruition and we just need
08:49 to make sure that the players that have made results count for us are in the squad for
08:55 January because otherwise we're going to be playing with a load of youngsters and whilst
09:00 we've got such a good academy we'll not be able to compete at that level that we're looking
09:05 for if we do that.
09:07 I think it'll also be something that Dezerby won't like either if we end up selling a lot
09:12 of those players because he wants to build something and there's every chance that if
09:16 we do he'll become frustrated, get an offer from a big club that will keep their players
09:20 because of the history and the money power that they have and he'll be gone.
09:26 Just in terms of your predictions for the year then, where do you see Brighton finishing
09:30 in the Premier League to start?
09:32 Well I feel like in terms of where we're at right now, eighth at the time of recording,
09:37 it's going to be tough for us because of the run of games we've got and we need to see
09:42 if we can keep some of the players that have been pivotal to us.
09:46 I think if we got seventh position that would be a victory and a really, really successful
09:51 season for us to have been in Europe and secure Europe in an aspect for the next season would
09:58 be really cool and also help us rebuild and still have that influence for the summer transfer
10:03 window as well with a bit of football in Europe for players.
10:07 How about the Europa League?
10:08 How far do you see Brighton going?
10:10 Is the final in Dublin a realistic aim?
10:13 The ticket's already signed, sealed and delivered but in seriousness I feel like we can make
10:19 it to the final, I really do.
10:21 Brighton are a magical club and they're a club that can always push through and make
10:26 sure that they have a fighting chance and there's every possibility, there's always
10:32 a possibility with Brighton, there's always a way and I think that we can get to the final
10:38 and we can win it and that's my prediction.
10:40 Excellent.
10:41 Thank you very much for watching latest TV news.
10:44 For the latest news from across Sussex, visit sussexworld.co.uk.
10:48 [Music]
10:55 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]