Brighton chief on Tariq Lamptey and that bizarre and 'joyous' Bayern Munich transfer link

One of Brighton’s star performers this season has been full-back Tariq Lamptey, who moved to the south coast from Chelsea at the start of 2020 for £3m.

After a lack of opportunities at Chelsea, the defender has flourished at his new club and this week it resulted in talk Champions League holders Bayern Munich had registered an interest.

Lamptey has played just a handful of matches in the Premier League and Potter admits this 'false story' has taken him by surprise

“Firstly I don’t know and I am not aware of any interest or rumours," said Potter.

“Again it is another joyous part of the transfer window because all of a sudden these stories come out and it becomes the truth and you have to answer on these false stories.

“But the performances are down to him and his attributes, quality and personality. He has not been with us long but he has made a real impact in terms of how he is around the place.

“Everyone loves him, he is a great kid and he has a bright future. The short, medium and long-term future is hopefully with us.”

Potter is eager to get the focus back on “boring stuff” like coaching and developing players once the international transfer window shuts on Monday.

The Seagulls secured the services of Adam Lallana and Joel Veltman in July while, Ben White returned from loan spell at Leeds but the 'outside noise' to make further signings remains strong.

“I think it wasn’t so long back we were talking about football maybe resetting in the middle of the (coronavirus) pandemic and that seems to have gone out the window and now everyone is asking who you want to sign,” said Potter.

“We have done some good business in the last couple of windows, to add different players to the group and sometimes you have to let them settle and let them perform, grow and take their game to the next level.

“Unfortunately that is not interesting, especially when you have transfer window shows on. People don’t want to hear about this boring stuff where you help people improve.

“They want to hear about who you will sign and the external solution – 15 minutes of fame, Britain’s Got Talent that type of stuff. We want the easy fix and we don’t want to hear about the other stuff.

“There is only a few days left and then maybe we can get back to talking about coaching and developing players, that would be fun.”