Who Are The Premier League's Most Efficient Buyers?

With the Neymar transfer inflating the market exponentially, bargains are few and far between, especially for Premier League clubs, who the world knows are armed with the extremely lucrative deals from broadcasting and sponsorship rights.

In this light, it is extremely impressive to know that a team barely heard of, signed half their first team for about the same price as Manchester City signed Bernardo Silva.

Brighton and Hove Albion exceeded expectations last season just by staying up in the Premier League, having been one of the favourites for the drop.

However, after an explosive season in the Championship, the board were quick to recognise the demands of a gruelling season in Europe’s top flight. Brighton went all out FIFA career mode and made 7 major signings before last season’s culmination, becoming the most efficient buyers in the Premier League.

It is generally seen that a vast plethora of new arrivals usually disrupts the balance of the club as Ronald Koeman found out; he made 9 major signings in the summer last season for Everton, but was relieved of his duties midway through the season.

Or even former Tottenham Hotspur manager, Andre Villas-Boas, who sought to replace Gareth Bale with 7 new arrivals, only 1 of who established himself as a regular.

Sigurdsson was bought by Koeman for nearly 50m

It is a huge testament to the ability of the board to secure the signings so quickly and even further still to ensure they were exactly to the manager’s liking. This is recognised in the fact that 5 of the 7 became first team regulars, and 2 of those 5 (Jose Izquierdo and Pascal Groβ) became the men around whom the entire system was built.

Groβ, having created 95 chances before he was signed for a paltry €3m, further laid on 79 chances for his teammates last season.

The fact that half their first team were signed for just over €45m in a market of rampant inflation only adds to the impressiveness.

In January, PSV Eindhoven’s Jurgen Locadia was brought in for then a club record fee in January, to ease the pressure off Glenn Murray’s shoulders.

Locadia is a signing full of promise, and although he hasn’t been able to completely adapt to the Premier League just yet, a sound pre-season tour could be just what the doctor asked for.

Locadia v/s Coventry City

Marcus Suttner, the left full-back was one signing not to crack the first team, with Gaetan Bong making that spot his own. This season, Brighton have aimed to upgrade there too, with Bernardo being signed from RB Leipzig for just under £9m.

Brighton have also signed young defensive midfielder Yves Bissouma from Lille, to add further depth to the central midfield. Bissouma averaged a match rating of 7.62 each time he played as a CDM last season for Lille (as per Whoscored).

And finally, we come to the grandest of all signings: Alireza Jahanbakhsh. The mercurial Iranian winger excelled in the Eredevise last time out, finishing top of the scoring charts and also being the joint third highest creator in the Dutch top flight, notching up 12 assists.

Jahanbakhsh represents a game-changing signing

The 2 footed winger is capable of playing on both flanks, and is quite direct in his approach, receiving an average rating of 8.35 and 7.86 per game when starting as a right and left forward respectively.

To put that into perspective, the average ratings of Leroy Sane at left forward and Raheem Sterling at right forward last season were respectively, 7.66 and 7.75

For a club that well exceeded expectations in simply maintaining their top-flight status last season, such ambition in terms of the signings reflects an extremely positive atmosphere. Jahanbakhsh in particular, can be considered a truly wonderful coup, at only €19m.

Pending the arrival of a senior centre halve, the transfer team has once more showed its shrewdness in operation done its job quite admirably. Over to you Chris Hughton.