Nothing about Billy Gilmour's transfer to Napoli makes sense – Brighton transfer window recap

It's seems odd to focus on a £15m exit when Brighton have spent north of £200m during a remarkable transfer window.

The Seagulls smashed their incoming transfer record as they paid Leeds United £40m for French striker Georginio Rutter, while the excellent Yankuba Minteh signed from Newcastle for around £35m.

Dutch international midfielder Mats Wieffer came in from Feyenoord, Turkey left back Ferdi Kadıoğlu joined from Fenerbache, Matt O'Riley arrived from Celtic and Brajan Gruda jetted to the south coast from Bundesliga club Mainz. All four arrived for around £25m each.

A further £16m was spent on Ibrahim Osman from Nordsjælland, while talented young midfielder Malick Yalcouyé came in for £6m from IFK Göteborg.

This is new territory for Brighton. Never before have they spent so much and their impressive new head coach Fabian Hurzeler now has the strongest and most expensive squad in the club's long history.

Albion's shrewd approach to the transfer market in the past few seasons has allowed them to spend big this summer. In recent seasons they have sold the likes of Ben White, Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister, Yves Bissouma, Leo Trossard and Rob Sanchez for big money and chairman and owner Tony Bloom has decided now is the time to reinvest in the squad.

It's a change from their recent approach but the summer arrivals are all young enough, and could potentially be worth much more in the years to come – if they progress well in the Premier League under Hurzeler and his coaching team. It's a change in terms of the scale but the strategy remains the same.

However, alongside this, the situation with Billy Gilmour remains a mystery. The Scotland international joined Brighton for around £6m from Chelsea in 2022 and had two years remaining on his contract.

He struggled in his first season with the Seagulls – due to the form of Caicedo and Mac Allister. He then impressed under Roberto De Zerbi last term and this season was expected to be the one where he really delivered on his potential. Serie A will now see the best version of Gilmour.

The first offer from Naples of £8m at the start of the window seemed very low. It was swiftly rejected by Albion but around £15m was ultimately enough to get the job done.

That's £15m for a top-quality 23-year-old international midfielder with Premier League experience, who is just approaching his peak years, with two years remaining on his contract.

Let’s be clear, Brighton are financially sound and did not need to sell, especially at that price. They also have injury issues to the unfortunate O'Riley, while Wieffer and Gruda are also struggling with knocks. Carlos Baleba remains raw at Premier League level, James Milner is 38 and the excellent Jack Hinshelwood is yet to complete a Premier League season. It is a gamble to let Gilmour go so cheaply.

Albion chief executive and deputy chairman Paul Barber said they wanted Gilmour to stay and went on to praise his character and his talent. Hurzeler was asked by Sussex World if he expects Gilmour to be at the club by the end of the window and the German head coach responded with an emphatic, "yes."

From the outside it seemed as though Gilmour was wanted and he was set to be a major player this season but Naples is now his destination.

It all feels a bit odd. Either Gilmour, or his agent, were pushing hard for the move behind the scenes, or they felt under-valued by the club and that Brighton felt as though they could could upgrade with O’Riley and Wieffer.

Brighton had a proven Premier League player but let him go for £10m less than they paid for Wieffer, O'Riley, Gruda and Kadıoğlu. None of it seems to make sense.

Brighton don’t tend to get many wrong in the transfer market of late, but is this one they will regret?