Brighton's Tony Bloom must heed Roberto De Zerbi's £30m transfer warning after Tottenham heroics

In early November, the Italian said he would like to see how other teams handled losing three key players (Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister and loanee Levi Colwill) and then losing three big players through injury.

Just before Christmas, the 44-year-old said Albion need players in "three or four positions" and after the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, he added he has to “accept” the club’s transfer policy and that 19-year-old Carlos Baleba will be a great player one day but currently he is “perhaps not ready” to play in the Premier League.

Following the Seagulls’ stunning 4-2 win over Tottenham this week, De Zerbi was back at it again, saying it will be “very tough” to keep £30 million summer signing Joao Pedro, who took his goalscoring tally to 13 this season, for another year.

Brighton have done superbly well in 2023/24 as they are eighth in the Premier League and are in the last-16 of the Europa League – whilst being ravaged by injuries and having to rely on teenagers.

De Zerbi is in talks with the Sussex side over a new contract but stressed he and the board must have the “same target”. The former Shakhtar Donetsk boss will not want to see his top players leave the club time after time and rely on up-and-coming talent all the time.

As talkSPORT pundit Jamie O’Hara put it: “They [Brighton] have sold some top players. It gets to the point, though, when a manager like De Zerbi will maybe start getting the hump where he's like, 'We're losing another player, losing another player," and selling their best players all the time. If you want success... they are in Europe now and they have done well. If you keep selling your best players it gets to the point where you are going to become unsuccessful, a little bit like Southampton."

Lazy Southampton comparisons aside, Albion made approximately £175 million off the sales of Caicedo, Mac Allister, and Robert Sanchez in the summer and spent around half of that on new signings. De Zerbi himself has said his team’s starting XI is not as strong as last season and it could be argued they haven’t properly replaced Caicedo and Mac Allister in a midfield that dominated teams last season.

The former Sassuolo boss will want some new additions in January, of that there is no doubt. Brighton have got to this point following a brilliant formula of their own and they will not want to deviate too much from that. However, if they want to kick on, have a deep run in Europe, and push on up the table, the Seagulls will need to back him in January.

Albion’s head coach pulled off a tactical masterclass against Spurs, despite not having any wingers in a side that is very reliant on them, but he won’t always be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat. It’s a fine balance, keeping all parties happy, but making quality additions next month and retaining some top talent is likely to be key to Brighton’s success this season.