Crystal Palace and Brighton may be fierce rivals on the football pitch but they are kindred spirits, if not best buddies, when it comes to transfer-window dealings.
Both the Seagulls and Eagles are among the best at identifying raw talent and nurturing it into highly sought-after commodities which attract the rich.
Brighton are especially adapt at selling their best players for a whopping profit and already having the perfect replacement ready to step up to the plate and make a telling first-team contribution.
Albion owner Tony Bloom is exceptionally sharp at this and is just as successful in buying racehorses which become winners at high-profile meetings like the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot.
Brighton and Palace are joined by Brentford, Bournemouth, Fulham and others in selling fan favourites for big figures which are then reinvested in fresh faces who keep around the top half in the top flight.
But clubs like this rarely sell more than one or two players in a window as they can’t afford big turnovers which threaten to destabilise the dressing-room.
The Eagles are constantly linked with moves for their star performers but Michael Olise was the only significant exit last summer when he moved to Bayern Munich for a hefty fee. This window, Eberechi Eze, Marc Guehi and Adam Wharton are among the players reportedly up for grabs from the FA Cup winners but they will be reluctant to sell too many with their first venture into Europe on the horizon.
Guehi, who has interested Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham in the past 12 months, is now reported to be happy to see out the final year of his contract if the right club fails to make the right offer so Eze could be the one to go.
Spurs are 3/1 with Unibet to buy him with a switch to any German club 6/1 with Bet Victor. A move to any French club is 12/1 with the same firm while Manchester City are 14/1 with Unibet to snap him up.
Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet have priced up 22/1 for a move to old Trafford but it’s 4/6 with bet365 he stays where he is and Oliver Glasner is allowed to keep the jewel in his team’s crown.
Newcastle are 10/11 with the same firm to buy striker Joao Pedro from Brighton but Chelsea, who can’t resist a shopping trip to the south coast, are 5/2 with bet365 to hijack the signing.
Tennis odds
Scotland’s Jacob Fearnley has climbed into the top 50 in the world rankings and his confidence will be further boosted after reaching the quarter-finals at Queen’s last week.
The Edinburgh-born British No.2 progressed to the second round at Wimbledon on his debut last year and is 11/10 with William Hill to beat fifth seed Flavio Cobolli in the first round at Eastbourne.
Backing winners
It was a decent Royal Ascot for us with True Love, American Affair, Field Of Gold and Trawlerman all successfully tipped to win in this column. But the best advice was Cercene to win Friday’s Coronation Stakes at 33/1 which was given on X.
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