Can Brighton ‘do a KV Mechelen’ in the Europa League all the way to Dublin?
Brighton have undoubtedly been the biggest surprise and the entertainers of England last season gaining their ticket to Europe and they deserved it thoroughly! So what could be next for Roberto De Zerbi and his team?what else than going all the way to the Europa League final in Dublin next May and doing a Mechelen!
By CHRISTOS SOTIRAKOPOULOS
They beat Arsenal at the Emirates, Liverpool in league and FA Cup at the Amex and drew at Anfield as well. They forced a first defeat as Chelsea manager on Graham Potter and celebrated a first double over the Blues when winning at Stamford Bridge.The Seagulls beat Manchester United, recording their first win at Old Trafford and forcing a first loss at Red Devils boss on Erik ten Hag last season but as well had inflicted another blow to the Red Devils this term.
De Zerbi looked like having a difficult job and would be compared perhaps fatally to Graham Potter when he arrived! But was no difficulty about it in the end.
As for Brighton’s budget? All this and the sixth place finished were achieved with some of the lowest financial spend in the division.
A typical example being the fact that the Albion XI team who beat Manchester United away from home 3-1 cost less than 8 million pounds! Brighton have a plan and it seems correct that Gus Poyet – speaking to me last May – described Tony Bloom as the best owner in the Premier League.
The Seagulls buy cheap like Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister, Kaoru Mitoma, Pascal Gross and Pervis Estupinan. They then sell expensive, filling their coffers. The case of the most expensive transfer in English football Moises Caicedo to Chelsea is the latest in the list like it was Cucurella who became the most expensive full back in world football when joining Chelsea for £62 million. Brighton took five times their money on Mac Allister, one of only 21 players in Premier League history to win a World Cup, when he joined Liverpool.
There are more young players ready to take over. Julio Enciso is one, Facundo Buonanotte another and Evan Ferguson who eventually will go for a huge amount of money…
Brighton combine all this with experience and is doing it perfectly well and so to my second thoughts watching and commentating The Seagulls to beat Newcastle I think that no one should be surprised that Albion had qualified for Europe.and a Greek team is standing on the way. AEK Athens is the team that had won the Greek league last season and is the first ever opponent of Brighton in Europe.
Brighton is a team that has no ceiling and is constantly growing in the consciousness of football fans. Are Bloom and De Zerbi destined to take the fairy tale all the way to the Europa League final?
Why not? In 1988 Belgian team KV Mechelen, playing for a town of 60,000 inhabitants, shocked the world by stunning giants Ajax in the European Cup Winner’s Cup final.It was their debut in Europe and crowning glory in a season where they finished second in the league to Club Brugge.
Nobody thought the Seagulls would even play in Europa League. What else can they do which nobody expects? How about “doing a Mechelen” next? Personally I would not net against them.
