Graham Potter has laughed off talk of a £42 million bid for Moises Caicedo and said: That might get his boots. Albion are “calm and confident” about keeping the Ecuador midfielder on board. Caicedo is likely to be linked with other Premier League clubs going into the final hours of the transfer window. But it appears near certain he will be staying with the Seagulls. His focus will be on helping chase a win at Fulham this evening which would take them top of the Premier League.
Graham Potter said: “It doesn’t surprise me that people are looking at him because he is playing at a fantastic level. As soon as you do research on him you realise he is a top kid, great person, young, playing in the Premier League, has all the attributes to play at the very, very highest level. But we know the position he is in and we know the position the club are in, which is why we don’t want to lose him. We don’t think we will, but in football you never know. That is how it is, but we are quite calm and confident.”
Asked about speculation of a £42 million Liverpool offer,
Graham Potter said: “I think you’d probably get his boots for that, maybe, knowing the chairman! It’s not for me to talk about. It is what it is.”
Graham Potter has described questions about signing a 20-goal striker as unbelievable. Maupay has scored 26 top-flight goals for the Seagulls in three seasons and is believed to be commanding a fee of about £15 million. Potter is aware he will now be asked whether he will bring in a replacement. But, in his press conference ahead of the game at home to Leeds, he opened up in response to a question about his side having learned how to turn good performances into wins.
Graham Potter said: “Sometimes opinion isn’t very intelligent, especially in the world we’re in with 24-hour media. We don’t have too much in-depth analysis of anything. There’s always differences of opinion in football and, by definition, we played well. If you look at some of the performance data behind the performances, yes, we should have won. But that’s why the game is fantastic. Sometimes, even often, in football the better team doesn’t win. That’s why we like it so much and it can drive you mad. Then you get stuff like people saying you need someone who scores 20 goals in the Premier League. But how many people scored 20 goals in the Premier League last season and can you name them? It’s just two. Salah and Kane. But the amount of times I’ve been asked about signing a 20-goal striker at Brighton is crazy. Absolutely. I’ll ring up Tony Bloom and ask him to sign Kane, then! It’s unbelievable. But I’ve faced that for 18 months to two years. I have to be polite and respectful and answer. There’s not even that many people who scored 15 goals in the Premier League last year! But there’s a narrative out there that you have to have this goalscorer, who is a proven goalscorer and is just going to land on our lap – and nobody else is going to know about him. Because I think Salah and Kane are a little bit out of our budget!”
Albion’s seven league and cup goals so far this term have been shared between six players while they have kept three clean sheets. Potter is happy to share the scoring around, develop talent he has – and ensure his side do not need to score too many to win a game.
Graham Potter said: “I don’t think our supporters would be very happy if I just said, ‘Listen, I just need a 20-goal striker’. Certainly the ones who do any sort of research, because that’s just like passing the buck. What we try to do is improve as a team. How we attack as a team, how we defend as a team, how we are balanced as team. People make reference to how many goals we score. Football isn’t about how many goals you score necessarily. It’s about whether you score one more goal than the opponents. It’s not about the volume of goals. The rules of football are you just have to score one more goal than the opponent so it’s about balance. Obviously it helps if you can score millions of goals. But it’s not so helpful if you are conceding millions of goals.”
Pascal Gross scored the 66th-minute goal which secured a 1-0 success.
Graham Potter said: “The first half was a really strong performance. I thought we were the better team. We created some opportunities, restricted them to not too many. I can’t think of any. Disappointed not to have gone in ahead at half-time but credit to the boys. They started the second half well and got the goal and then I think Leeds came back into it, of course, because you are 1-0 down. It’s hard to control everything in the Premier League. Leeds are a good team, Jesse has done a really good job and they are hard to play against. So we had to suffer a little but I thought overall we deserved the win.”
