• last year
Frankie Elliott discusses the key talking points from Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi's press conference ahead of their trip to Wolves.
Transcript
00:00 Hello, my name is Frank Kelly, I'm a football reporter for Sussex World Online. I'm currently
00:07 leaving the Brighton-Hope Albion First Team training ground after Roberto Di Zerbi has
00:11 just spoken to the press ahead of their Premier League clash against Wolves this weekend.
00:16 Of course the big talking point this week has obviously been the sale of former Brighton
00:20 midfielder Moises Caicedo and the Ecuadorian international were finally left the club after
00:25 months of speculation for a British record transfer fee of £115m to Chelsea. So obviously
00:32 that dominated much of the discussion in the press conference at the start but Roberto
00:36 Di Zerbi was very very very complimentary of the midfielder and wished him well as he
00:40 started his new life in London but also said that Brighton had to prepare for life without
00:46 him. Now obviously he and Alexis McAllister who were the pivotal midfielders in Brighton's
00:51 season last year, they have now both been sold and Di Zerbi was keen to stress that
00:56 the new squad had to adapt to life without them and be prepared to change up the style
01:01 of football from what we'd usually seen from a Roberto Di Zerbi Brighton side. On top of
01:06 this Di Zerbi was also talking a lot about transfers, he was asked about replacements
01:10 for Caicedo obviously. Brighton have been linked with a number of players before the
01:14 transfer window closes on September 1st including the likes of Carls Belber, the Lille midfielder,
01:20 who is expected to be subject to a bid of around £16m from the club. Di Zerbi wouldn't
01:27 comment much on that, he was very tight lipped on if Brighton would bring in another player
01:31 but did say there was a lot of work going on behind the scenes so we expect Brighton
01:36 to be active at the end of this transfer window. He also talked a lot about outgoings as well,
01:42 he said his three players could be expected to leave the club on loan before September
01:46 1st, that's obviously when the window shuts. The players he named were Yassir Maiari, the
01:50 young Swedish midfielder who was signed in January of this year, hasn't featured much
01:57 to young 18 year olds but he is expected to go out on loan, as is another January signing
02:01 for Kundo Buonatte, the Argentinian attacking midfielder again, another one that is wanting
02:06 to get more game time and is unlikely to get much here on the south coast. And the final
02:11 player is Steven Alzate, now Alzate was out on loan last season, the midfielder was out
02:16 playing for Standard Liège and impressed and was expected to feature a lot in the first
02:20 team this year but after pre-season it seems that De Zerbi is not as keen on Alzate as
02:24 he first thought potentially and is expected to ship him out on loan again in the coming
02:29 days or weeks. So that's all the transfer talk that's dominating much of the press conferences
02:34 for the first few weeks of the season. Going into the actual game itself, Brighton have
02:38 a full bill of health for their trip to Molineux this week. Adam Larner and Adam Webster missed
02:43 the first game of the season, that first game of the season of course being a 4-1 win over
02:47 Luton at the Amex Stadium last Saturday. Defender Adam Webster and Larner missed the game but
02:51 they are now back both fit and available for De Zerbi for the trip to the Midlands. Tariq
02:56 Lampety as well, another player that has been out for a long, long time. We haven't seen
03:00 him in a Brighton shirt since March of this year, he's been out with a knee injury but
03:03 now he is back in training this week and is expected to play for the under-21 team today,
03:10 the day before the Wolves game because Roberto De Zerbi is assessing his condition, obviously
03:16 getting him more match fit and wants him available when the Europa League campaign starts in
03:21 September and Brian has to play three games a week. So Tariq Lampety is edging closer
03:26 to being available for Brian but he's not going to feature this weekend. But other than
03:31 that it's a clean bill of health as Brian continue to look to claim their second victory
03:36 of the season and continue their 100% winning start to the season. Their opponents, Wolves,
03:42 they came off the back of a disappointing defeat at Old Trafford on Monday night. They
03:46 were much the better team against Eric Ten Hag's side, creating much more chances than
03:51 them but eventually going down as 1-0 losers due to a Ralph Varane header. But they felt
03:58 much aggrieved by in the injury time the goalkeeper, Onana, for United seemed to clatter into one
04:04 of the Wolves defenders and a penalty should have really been given but it was not, even
04:08 Novar checked the decision by the on-field referee and there was no penalty given which
04:13 obviously angered Gary O'Neill and the rest of the Wolves playing staff and coaching staff
04:19 as well as the fans as well. The refereeing, the PGMO, the refereeing body for the Premier
04:25 League issued an apology to O'Neill and Wolves after the game but they will look to bounce
04:29 back this weekend and try and get three points on the board after what has been a difficult
04:33 summer for the club with Julian Lopetenghi leaving after failing to get any number of
04:40 key players that he wanted to sign this summer. He had been the manager last season to help
04:43 them to stay up last year. He left the club in the summer along with talismanic midfielder
04:48 Rupert Neves and striker Raul Jimenez. So a lot of change at Wolves this summer but they
04:52 started well on Monday and were unlucky not to get the victory. Gary O'Neill's first time
04:57 game as Wolves boss, he will be hoping to get the three points against Brighton. He
05:01 has a full clean bill of health as well. He's got no injuries to worry about. He's expected
05:06 to have Mateus Cunha, the only real major signing this summer who played up front against
05:11 United on Monday. He's expected to lead the line with Pablo Sabrera. Lamina will likely
05:15 be in midfield. Neto will likely be on the wing with Nunes taking up the left flank and
05:20 Lamina in the midfield. So all the same players we saw on Monday are expected to start on
05:27 this weekend as well. So it's a big game coming up for both sides. The second game of the
05:31 Premier League season with the transfer window still open for a number of weeks. We expect
05:35 to have a lot of stories and discussion surrounding Brighton leading into September 1st. You can
05:40 catch all of that on the Sussex World website including analysis from tomorrow's game, pre-match
05:45 coverage and all the transfer speculation that goes on. You can catch all of that at
05:49 Sussex World online and keep up to date on our social media pages. That's all from me
05:53 today. Have a great weekend.

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