Brighton's new loans strategy is a sign of their rapid progress

Brighton & Hove Albion spent nearly £200million on nine new signings in the summer 2024 transfer window — but it was a temporary exit from their squad that shone the brightest light on the club’s progress.

Facundo Buonanotte’s season-long loan move to promoted Leicester City is intriguing for two reasons.

First, Brighton rarely let one of their Premier League rivals borrow a player — two fairly recent exceptions were Australia goalkeeper Maty Ryan going to Arsenal in January 2021 and Republic of Ireland central defender Shane Duffy joining Fulham the following summer. Second, Buonanotte had been a prominent member of Brighton’s first-team squad last season, whereas Ryan and Duffy had both lost their places in the side when they went out on those loans.

Buonanotte, a versatile attacker who made his senior debut for world champions Argentina last year at age 18, featured in 36 of 50 matches across all competitions in 2023-24 under the club’s head coach at the time, Roberto De Zerbi. The only Brighton players used more often were Pascal Gross (47 appearances), Lewis Dunk (43), Billy Gilmour (41), Joao Pedro, Simon Adingra (both 40), Jan Paul van Hecke (39), Carlos Baleba and Danny Welbeck (both 37).

Buonanotte’s departure demonstrates a new level of confidence in Brighton’s player trading and the extent to which the squad has rapidly evolved for De Zerbi’s summer replacement Fabian Hurzeler.

It is a deal they might have shied away from previously, rather than risk being made to look a bit silly by a loaned-out player starring for a club they are competing against in the same division. So, what has changed?

Loaning Buonanotte, who turns 19 in December, to Leicester ticks a lot of boxes. He will be ineligible for both fixtures against his parent club, but his early-August move still left 36 Premier League games in which he can hurt Brighton’s other 18 opponents.

And the early signs in that regard are encouraging.

A promising debut in a 1-1 home draw against Tottenham Hotspur was followed by an assist — a cross converted by Wout Faes for a first-half equaliser — in a 2-1 defeat at Fulham before scoring himself with a thumping finish in a 2-1 loss at home to Aston Villa.

Buonanotte started the first two matches, then came off the bench in the third. Seeing that much game time would not have been likely if he’d stayed at Brighton, where competition at the No 10 and right-wing positions — the ones he has normally occupied — has become even hotter this summer with the £40million record signing of Georginio Rutter from Leeds United, the £30m capture of Yankuba Minteh from Newcastle United, and the £25m arrival of Brajan Gruda from German club Mainz.

The writing was on the wall during the pre-season warm-up games, when Hurzeler used Buonanotte deeper, as a central midfielder.

That does not mean Brighton no longer rate the player, or that Hurzeler sees no place for him in seasons to come.

The move to Leicester was accompanied by a new contract until June 2028, replacing one that was scheduled to expire two years sooner. Brighton’s technical director David Weir, speaking on the club website at the time of the announcement, said: “This new contract is a reflection of the season Facundo had and that we see his long-term future being here.”

Leicester were able to meet Brighton’s financial requirements regarding wages, despite their issues with profit and sustainability rules (PSR), and Buonanotte can expect to learn a lot playing with hugely experienced former England striker Jamie Vardy. More game time opportunities will also accelerate the development of the talented teenager bought from Rosario Central in his homeland in January 2023 for a down payment of over £5million, which will be approximately doubled if add-on clauses are fulfilled.

The significance of Brighton’s outward loan transfers during the summer window extended beyond Buonanotte’s move.

Valentin Barco, another hot prospect from Argentina, has gone to Sevilla of Spain’s La Liga for the season amid defensive reservations about the 20-year-old — a left-back with an appetite for venturing forward.

Ghana forward Ibrahim Osman, another of the new signings, would also have been squeezed for game time with so much competition for places in attacking positions. The 19-year-old will have a learning experience instead in the Netherlands with Feyenoord, where Minteh thrived on loan from Newcastle last season. Feyenoord are a club Brighton know well, having recently signed midfielder Mats Wieffer from them.

Sturm Graz are also familiar to Brighton. Their Dutch goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen, 24, has started a second successive season-long loan with the Austrian club. Scherpen has been joined there by 18-year-old Malian midfielder Malick Yalcouye (another of this summer’s arrivals), while Senegal international striker Abdallah Sima, 23, has been farmed out to Brest in France.

In total, that is five young Brighton players loaned to clubs competing in top-flight leagues in Europe and in some cases in European football — Feyenoord, Sturm Graz and Brest are all in the Champions League.

Jeremy Sarmiento (Burnley), Carl Rushworth (Hull City) and Andy Moran (Stoke City) are playing at a good level too in the Championship, each of them for the second season in succession. Sarmiento, now 22, was on loan at West Bromwich Albion and Ipswich Town last season, 23-year-old Rushworth went to Swansea City and Moran, who’ll turn 21 next month, was borrowed by Blackburn Rovers.

Another of the club’s summer newcomers, 19-year-old former Arsenal winger Amario Cozier-Duberry, has followed in Moran’s footsteps with a temporary move to Blackburn. Striker Mark O’Mahony, also 19, is experiencing his first loan with Portsmouth in the same division.

The only players Brighton have packed off to clubs below the second-tier Championship are defender Odel Offiah (to Blackpool in League One, the third division of the English pyramid), Canada goalkeeper Tom McGill (MK Dons of fourth-tier League Two) and midfielder Benicio Baker-Boaitey (Port Vale, also of League Two).

The benefits of well-placed loans, whether through raising transfer value or preparing players for first-team contention, were demonstrated by the loans last summer of Deniz Undav to Stuttgart in Germany and Yasin Ayari to Championship sides Coventry City and Blackburn.

Undav was sold to Stuttgart this summer after a prolific 20-goal season for a £28million fee that could rise to £32m with add-ons. That is a healthy profit on the £6m paid for the now 28-year-old German striker when he was signed from Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium in January 2022.

Ayari, meanwhile, has grown into an option for Brighton under Hurzeler. The 20-year-old Swedish midfielder has featured as a substitute in each of the opening three Premier League fixtures that produced wins against Everton and Manchester United and a draw away to Arsenal.

Sam Baldock, who was part of the squad that won Brighton’s promotion to the Premier League in the 2016-17 season, has returned to the club as pathway development coach, assisting former team-mate and pathway development manager Gordon Greer in looking after the players Brighton have out on loan.

Brighton are not big fans of incoming loans — Levi Colwill helped them to reach Europe in 2022-23 before returning to Chelsea, but Ansu Fati’s temporary move from Barcelona last season did not work out.

Loaning out is a different matter. They are ramping up in that area, and it reflects the club’s rise.

(Top photo: Buonanotte playing for Leicester; Michael Regan via Getty Images)