Brighton have signed Amario Cozier-Duberry a week after the winger’s contract came to an end at Arsenal.
The Gunners tried to persuade the 19-year-old to stay at the Emirates but with his path to first team football blocked by Bukayo Saka, you can understand why he turned down a new deal in favour of trying his luck elsewhere.
Understandably, the Seagulls are delighted to recruit such a highly-rated youngster and are expected to include him in their first team squad.
We’re delighted to confirm the signing of Amario Cozier-Duberry on a contract until 2028! 😁🤝
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) July 7, 2024
“We’re really pleased to be able to bring Amario to the club,” said technical director David Weir.
“He’s got attributes we like and we believe he is a player who can flourish in our environment. We’re looking forward to working with him and helping his career to progress.”
Having moved to another Premier League club after five years at Arsenal’s Academy, the Gunners will be eligible for compensation.
Elsewhere, there are new rumours linking Jakub Kiwior with a return to Italy.
AC Milan have been long-term admirers of the defender but it’s Juventus who have now come to the fore with it looking increasingly likely that Arsenal will pip them to the signing of Riccardo Calafiori.
The Italy international, 22, has a similar profile to Kiwior – both are left-sided centre-backs – and it’s suggested he’ll be a direct replacement with the Gunners open to cashing in on the ex-Spezia man.
Kiwior arrived for a fee in the region of £22 million and you’d imagine Edu will want to recoup that and more from any suitors.
🔴⚪️🇵🇱 Jakub Kiwior could leave Arsenal in case of good proposal, with Riccardo Calafiori close to joining.
Understand there’s possibility for loan but only with a mandatory buy clause.
Italian clubs are keeping close eye to the situation, no formal proposals yet. pic.twitter.com/9eytbwcYaF
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 7, 2024
Finally, it’s reported by journalist Alan Nixon (on Patreon) that Arsenal have made contact with Wolves’ keeper Dan Bentley about the soon-to-be vacant third keeper role at Arsenal.
It’s expected the Gunners will allow Aaron Ramsdale to depart this summer and with Karl Hein in need of a loan, Mikel Arteta needs two keeper recruits to make up the numbers behind David Raya.
Bentley was on Arsenal’s books for seven years as a kid before moving to Southend United in 2008. He has since played at every level of English football (98 appearances in League Two, 43 in League One, 260 in the Championship and 7 in the Premier League).
It’s notable that the 30-year-old crossed paths with Gunners keeper coach Inaki Cana at Brentford before moving to Bristol City where he became captain. Bentley moved to Wolves on a free transfer in January 2023 and has played nine games as backup to Jose Sa.
I do not understand the logic of selling Kiwior (who is a really good option in defence) just to replace him with an almost identical player 🤔
I think Riccardo is much more suited to the inverted fullback role and I believe he’ll also be a good replacement for Gabriel.
Riccardo Calafiori is a far more versatile player than Kiwior, he’s incredibly highly thought of. It’s a very good signing and an upgrade.
I’ve never been called childish. Infantile, small-minded, sure, but never childish. But did anybody else notice at the end of the Italy v Croatia game, when Calafiori lay prone on the turf, the size of his bulge protruding into the air? Remarkable. The cameraman even lingered on it for much longer than necessary.
Calafiori may even give Big Willy a run for his money.
So mayor, are you saying Ricky (Dick?) Calafiori could be better than Kiwior because he has a bigger bulge protrusion? How childish of you. There, now you have.
I think I’m saying that Big Willy and Big Dick will be solid for us.
Now this is tactical analysis! 😎
Thanks, Futsboller. It comes from years of observation in the change room.
So you’re saying they will be stiff competition for anyone trying to burst into the box?
They’ll definitely provide our team with fantastic long balls
Between the 2 of them, they will be on top of all the balls in their area and will make it very hard on attackers, who will have to go to great lengths to attain any satisfaction.
OP said it’s not logical to sell Kiwior and buy Calafiori, but I’d argue it is. It’s not a phallusy.
Arteta has finally signed the Martinez profile that he always wanted who is taller and much better in the air. Arteta doesn’t miss on big money signings, Riccardo will be a gem of a player.
From the little I’ve seen of Calafiori on YouTube highlights he looks tailor made to play left back for us. He seems to be a strong and proactive defender with great composure and technical ability. He isn’t afraid to take the ball and carry it from deep to dangerous areas and that could be key to us unlocking new avenues of attack this season. I hope we get this one over the line.
Anyone know how much compensation we will get
It’s really judgemental and complex and usually takes a while. Article below gives a bit of insight into some of the biggest amounts which have been awarded. You would assume potentially the most significant bit of genuine compensation might link to a future sell on fee. If I was guessing I’d say we’d be looking at c. £1m up front, c. £1m in add ons, plus a 20% sell on fee based on historical sums. But if I were Arsenal I’d be pressing a case that’s too low in a market where similar players are transferring for £15-20m.
https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/sports/item/determining-the-level-of-compensation-for-out-of-contract-football-players-the-fpcc-danny-ings-award
Small thing but whenever I see someone write “Inaki Cana” it really bugs me, because there are two character changes there from the original name and it gives a bad idea of how it’s pronounced, which sounds like Inyaki Canya. I get that if you’re writing on a computer keyboard and don’t have those characters set up it makes it a bit more time consuming to copy and paste from somewhere but i bet it bugs native Spanish speakers (which I’m not) as much as if you pronounced Olivier Giroud like “Oliver Jirood”. And maybe this only bothers me more… Read more »
Well, we all tend to pronounce Bruno Fernandes as if it were Fernandez, when we should–at least say “Fernandesh,” though I gather it’s really closer to “Fernandsh.” (He’s the first example I could think of–I know we should call him other things as well.)
I tend to pronounce Bruno Fernandez as ‘despisable little toad’ but I’m not Portuguese and might be getting it wrong.
i am português and you got it right!
I thought it was pronounced 💩face?
It really depends on your accent. FernandeS is just as right.
But I find this pedantry really funny when most people can’t pronounce the name of the greatest player in the club’s history.
Never thought I’d see the day where there was debate about how to pronounce Ray Parlour
good example too, I do feel like Iberian, Latin American probably Scandinavian, African and eastern European players (though I’m less knowledgable on the latter three) get shafted on that stuff a bit more than say French or Italians… you really don’t tend to hear people pronounce our legendary striker as “Teary Henry” (with a vocal H) unless they’re complete twats. Nor have I ever heard a single person vocalise the G in Sagna or the T in Petit. Anyway I’m talking more about specifically getting the characters right rather than for everyone to know how to pronounce every language, obviously… Read more »
On the subject of pronunciation-while we’re at it- our illustrious Norwegian captain’s surname is pronounced in Scandinavia as ‘Oedergourd’, but it definitely looks much better as ‘Ødegaard’, methinks.. But most people will keep saying ‘Oh De Gard’ anyway, so I don’t know why I bother writing this.. Maybe I need a bit more sleep- or a bacon sandwich. Have a grand day,everyone.
I didn’t think you were supposed to pronounce the d at the end of Ødegaard?
Depends on which Scandinavian language/ dialect you’re speaking. Danes would never pronounce the ‘d’, whereas Norwegians and Swedes would give it a ‘soft d’.. As a fluent Danish speaker, I pronounce his name ‘Oedegore’, so you were correct in that respect. One-nil to you,sir! But ask a Norseman about what they might say before ‘celebrating too much’! I definitely think it should be looked at by VAR for the correct decision! Sorry, I know my way out… But one-nil sounds like a good omen, dunnit? Cheers for a great forthcoming season..⚽️👍
I wouldn’t dream to deny you a bacon sandwich but I’m with ya, i think it’s more like “Oedegore” and if we can all learn to say “Coquelin” and “Szczesny” reasonably correctly then we can do that too.
I’d rather try to pronounce Szczesny than spell it.
How come when I wrote the approximation “eurgh-de-gore” months ago it got down-voted to hell? Also, if you look up “Odegaard pronunciation” there is a video on the Sun (I know!) website where he says his own name and I don’t hear a d at the end; more of a rolled (the Scandinavian way) r.
Very interesting really and a good effort in trying to educate the simpletons, myself included, but I. Cana give a …….
Surely it’s pronounced ‘Gobshite’
It was quite funny how no one ever learned how to pronounce Kolasinac’s name correctly 🙂 More on the topic, I think that every country that uses special characters has an internal “system” how to replace them when needed (in website addresses, for example). The German speakers for example standardly replace the Ö, Ä and Ü with OE, AE and UE, but I have noticed that most of the other countries just drop the diacritics and write the “basic” letter. This is the case with Iñaki Caña and Ødegaard – it is their choice/their country’s “standard” to type their names… Read more »
It would be great if Wojciech Szczęsny became the keeper for a team in Waszyngton. Though he’s more likely to end up back in Poland, at Szczecin.
Tomato, Tomahhhto….Cazorla, Cathorla…..
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Califiori used as a holding mid replacement for Party. Him or Timber seem to have the versatility to step into that role.
Really excited about Calafiori. But why move Kiwior along instead of Zinchenko? The former is a far better defender with a long runway for growth. In timber, white and soon Calafiori we have more than enough inverting full backs!
I think Kiwior hasn’t done enough. If we can recoup and more then that’s good business. However, I am confused about this signing given that we’ve got Timber back (LANS) so feels like we’re gonna be pretty over subscribed. Unless Timber is now intended as a replacement for Ben White, which I’ve always had a sneaky suspicion might be in Mikel’s mind…
Kiwior was fine but he was exposed by Fulham and Bayern, fine player, solid and good but Californication looks a step above him .
Incremental improvements in each department is the difference in winning the league .
Next up Eddie sale and reinvest in striker
Viva Californication
Moving eddie on should be the topmost priority. We are concerned about the smallest of marginal improvements in the defence but eddie as a second or third striker is the elephant the in room.
Amazing how the comments so far are focused on the Calafiori and the Bentley part of the article, and no mention about Amario joining Brighton. Probably we have numbed already, or we just want to focus on the positive side of the transfer season, but it doesn’t change the fact that we have made another miss where another club will capitalize upon.
Yeah I am a bit worried that it’s Brighton who got him, if he’d gone elsewhere I’d probably just assume he’d end up another Henri Lansbury or at best Alex Iwobi, a good player but somewhere between championship and relegation fighting PL type player who we won’t miss much. But given Brighton’s scouting department’s record of unearthing gems this definitely makes me anxious that we might have let a good one go…
But only time will tell one way or the other. Much as we’d all like to, it’s not possible to keep all the talented youngsters at any club, particularly if there’s not that much prospect of first team football. I assume Arsenal made the best offer they could to him in the circumstances but clearly Brighton made him a better one (as he saw it anyway) so good luck to him there.
Either you want to play for the Arsenal and will fight for your place, or you don’t, and you go elsewhere. It isn’t more complicated than that. And of course, there isn’t room for everyone. The team is getting better and better every season, and the first team has to make winning trophies its priority in a sustainable fashion. I think most people recognize this, and understand that the club does everything it can to keep young talent in the pipeline or make a profit from it while focusing on that first team goal of winning every single match. We… Read more »
He’s a right forward who isn’t going to play in the PL due to Saka. If he backs himself to play in the PL why would he stay at Arsenal. Club are focusing on Nwaneri and Obi Martin, as they should.
He’s not close to the first team because of nelson, not saka.
All the more reason why giving Nelson a new deal was dumb.
He’ll probably just go on loan to the championship.
I’ll look out for Amario in Ikea when it opens up in Churchill Square. Good luck to him
I actually lol at work. Thank you
We questioned the upgrade to Raya from Ramsdale, didn’t we?
This one’s more clearcut – Kiwior’s preferred position is LCB whereas Calafiori can also play LB and carries the ball a lot more comfortably.
Plus he has incredible hair.
And, according to several posts earlier on anyway, a significant “bulge” apparently.
The way keeper signings work boggles the mind. If we think highly enough of Hein to give him a new deal why shouldn’t he be the number 2? Why is he going out on loan so we have to sign two keepers after Aaron leaves? Surely every [million] pound counts and could be spent in other key positions?
Giving Hein a new deal and making him the No2 keeper don’t necessarily go together though. Hein is only just 22 after all and, unusually to say the least, has actually played far more games for his country (Estonia) than for his clubs in his career so far. It’s not that strange then for him considered too inexperienced at club level to be the Arsenal reserve keeper at this time. Changing from Ramsdale to the on-loan Raya was bound to be disruptive at some time as Ramsdale clearly wouldn’t settle for the No2 spot so his departure is inevitable now… Read more »
I actually don’t think Ramsdale’s departure is inevitable. He’s on a long contract with good wages. He’s young for a keeper. Already got bags of experience. We need a number 2 keeper. One Raya injury and he’s back in the best team in the country. Unless we get an amazing offer for him I think he might stay put.
I agree that it would be great if he stayed but clubs are rarely able to retain two top class keepers on the books at the same time. Ramsdale is also interested in his England prospects as well as furthering a club career and I don’t really see him doing that playing No2 at Arsenal or waiting for an injury to Raya to get him back to top position. As to an offer, who knows what Arsenal will consider “amazing” should one come in? Rather than have a potentially unsettled player on the books I suspect that they will sell… Read more »
We are protecting Hein’s value — he goes out on loan to prove he can compete at the top level, and we either give him a spot in the squad next season or we sell him for profit. That money then gets reinvested … Not mind boggling. What will boggle the mind, I think, is that Ramsdale will likely only be out on loan this year as well as I don’t think anyone is in need of a top level keeper who can pay his transfer value. Moreover, I actually think he won’t be going anywhere — he’ll be the… Read more »
Ha I just wrote my reply then read yours. Agree.
C-D looks suitably thrilled to be joining the Seagulls.