Alexis Mac Allister admissions show Brighton position after $75m Liverpool transfer ‘done’ claim

Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi has conceded that Alexis Mac Allister and Moisés Caicedo could leave the club this summer despite the south coast side’s improvement this season — with Liverpool interested in acquiring the former.

What’s happened?

De Zerbi has made a big impact since moving to Brighton to replace Graham Potter, who departed for Chelsea, with the Seagulls having already confirmed a place in next season’s Europa League.

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But the Italian has essentially accepted that Brighton will still likely have to sell some big stars this summer, with Argentinean outlet TyC having reported that a move to Liverpool for Mac Allister has already been tied up for a fee of around $75m (£61m/€70m).

What’s been said?

“We can offer Moisés and Alexis the opportunity to play in Europe,” De Zerbi explained in his press conference ahead of facing Manchester City on Wednesday.

“Our level is bigger now. They are very good guys and it will help. I think for myself and the club but also for the players — they have one life and we can’t decide for them.”

That follows Brighton CEO saying of Mac Allister earlier in the week: “At the moment, he’s focused on doing what he can for us during his final two games.”

That hardly ruled out a sale but was a diplomatic way of saying that Brighton is anticipating interest. “If I lost sleep over every report that I read about one of our players doing that then I wouldn’t be sleeping very much at all,” Barber claimed.

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What does it mean?

There appears to be an acceptance that Brighton will lose some players this summer and Liverpool is very keen to sign Mac Allister. Fabrizio Romano said earlier this week on Twitter that personal terms were almost agreed.

Brighton is aware of its place in the pecking order, and that has not changed all that much despite it qualifying for European competition, with a move to Anfield clearly a step up.

It would work well for Brighton to let a couple of players leave to allow the conveyor belt of talent to continue and others to emerge without seeing those in front of them being blocked from leaving.

And as long as it is only Mac Allister and Caicedo, for example, who are allowed to leave, rather than others as well — including Kaoru Mitoma, for instance — then the turnover should not be too great to disrupt its progress that much.

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