Brighton Fan View: Chris Hughton's transfer business flattered to deceive

Rather like a lot of our performances recently, Brighton’s January transfer window business offered signs of promise but ultimately felt like a missed opportunity.

The call going into this transfer window was for ‘two strikers’ and that is what we have got, so some context needs to be offered, but at the end of January I feel less hopeful of staying up than at the start of the month – and that is the reverse of how it should be.

Jurgen Locadio looks like he could be a good addition and I am pleased about the return of Leo Ulloa on loan from Leicester. But it is also fair to say we have signed one injured striker (Locadia) who will not be available for another couple of weeks and one striker very short of match fitness (Ulloa) having not started a first team game since August.

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I can only suspect Ulloa was not first choice for Brighton, but why did he not arrive early in January because if he had he may have been up to speed by now, with a few appearances under his belt?

Chief executive Paul Barber said he was ‘pleased’ with the transfer window for Brighton, but we actually ended the month with a smaller squad than we started it, with Steve Sidwell being ruled out for the season by injury, Izzy Brown returning to Chelsea with a season-ending injury of his own and Jamie Murphy moving to Rangers. Kazenga LuaLua also left, although he had not been in our Premier League squad.

Throw in the fact that Shane Duffy has suffered a dramatic loss of form and the window has left me feeling we are not strong enough all round to avoid relegation. If we had been able to bolster the squad with one or two more – certainly another central midfielder – then perhaps we would have had more of a fighting chance.

Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Southampton reflected this current mood. Some might argue it was a decent point away from home, but three points were there for the taking for Brighton and instead we were left clinging on for one.

Again it was the over-cautious approach which was frustrating. In the first 20 minutes, Brighton were all over Southampton and if we had gone for a second goal, I don’t think they would have come back. But instead of maintaining the positive start, Brighton suddenly decided to sit back and soak up Southampton pressure which to that point had been non-existent.

With 13 games to go Brighton need at least four wins to stand any chance of staying up and arguably we might need five. With games to come later in the season against both Manchester sides, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal, this current run of fixtures (which includes West Ham, Stoke and Swansea coming up) is where we need to be targeting wins. At some stage the shackles will have to be cast aside.

I can see three of the five teams below – West Brom, Southampton and Stoke – climbing out of trouble because they should have enough Premier League pedigree to do so. One of the other two is Swansea, who have recently beaten Liverpool and Arsenal. So finding three teams to finish below Brighton is currently difficult.

But let’s keep the faith, let’s keep supporting Chris Hughton and the boys, let’s hope we can get a win against West Ham on Saturday – and let’s believe that our two January signings will be enough to get us out of trouble.

@GriggoHome