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Profit Players: Tariq Lamptey’s career has taken off since cut-price £2.97m move to Brighton
This article forms part of our Profit Players feature series, which is where Football Transfer Tavern takes a look at how well a player has fared since being signed or sold, using statistical figures and statements from pundits to prove how good of a deal the club managed to achieve.
Brighton begin their fourth Premier League season on Monday night with a home fixture against Chelsea. Their previous league meeting at the Amex Stadium took place on New Year’s Day, when the visitors included among their substitutes a player who would quickly become familiar with the environs of the Sussex venue.
Three days previously, Tariq Lamptey had been given his Premier League debut by Frank Lampard in the Blues’ 2-1 win at Arsenal, with the beginning of 2020 seeming to bring with it plenty of promise for the teenage defender.
A month later, his Chelsea days were over as he completed a permanent deadline day move to Brighton for a reported fee of £2.97m, as per TransferMarkt. It seemed like something of a gamble from the Seagulls to spend that much on a rough diamond who had played just three senior games at the time.
Lamptey was bedded in slowly at the Amex, not even making matchday squads in the first few weeks after his transfer and before the global pandemic caused a three-month halt to the football season. However, the evening of 23 June 2020 would prove a seminal moment in his fledgling career.
Graham Potter threw him into the Brighton team at right-back for their visit to Leicester, who were in third place at the time, and the 19-year-old looked to the manor born, winning 10 of his 14 duels and completing five successful dribbles (as per Sofascore) in a debut performance that his manager later described as “outstanding“.
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp also praised Lamptey after the 0-0 draw against the Foxes and he soon earned glowing praise from Seagulls team-mate Adam Webster, who said: “He’s got everything. Athletically, he’s so fast and so strong. He doesn’t get beat in a one-v-one. Technically he’s very good. The best thing is he is a lovely kid. He’s so humble. He has a bright future in front of him.”
Following his debut that evening, the young right-back featured in each of Brighton’s subsequent matches, starting all but one as he quickly became a regular presence in Potter’s first XI (as per TransferMarkt). His impressive form towards the end of the 2019/20 campaign earned him a call-up to the England under-21 squad for their recent European qualifiers.
Lamptey was given a start by Aidy Boothroyd in the Young Lions’ 2-1 win in Austria on Tuesday and made a valuable contribution, getting in a last-ditch tackle to prevent Barnsley’s Patrick Schmidt from opening the scoring in the first half (as per thefa.com)
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In little more than eight months, the 19-year-old has gone from barely getting a look-in at Chelsea to carving out a regular Premier League place with Brighton and making an impact with the England under-21s.
The Seagulls’ £2.97m investment looks better with each passing month, especially as the youngster now has a TransferMarkt value of £7.2m.
Lampard has spent more than £200m in strengthening the Blues’ squad this summer, yet he may still look on ruefully at how his one-time protege has flourised since leaving the Londoners when Lamptey’s current side play host to his former club on Monday night.
Brighton fans, have you been pleasantly surprised by Lamptey’s impact since his move to the Amex? Share your views in the comments section below!
