Only time will tell if Brighton & Hove Albion made the right move at the right time with new record signing Georginio Rutter, but the moment was chosen carefully.

On 14 August, Rutter took to the field for his final appearance for Leeds United. They were two goals down at home to Championship side Middlesbrough when Daniel Farke brought him on as a 63rd-minute substitute, and were eliminated 3-0 from the first round of the Carabao Cup.

The result was bad enough for Leeds fans, but they were unaware of Brighton’s planned transfer of the French U21 international striker a few hours after the final whistle.

A release clause in Rutter’s £40 million ($52.8 million) contract expired at midnight this Wednesday. Brighton triggered the clause minutes before the deadline, ensuring Leeds would not be able to increase the asking price.

Leeds had previously rejected exploratory offers of £29m and £35m as Brighton courted the 22-year-old throughout the summer. He was keen to move and Brighton unveiled Rutter five days later, signing a five-year contract 48 hours after opening the Premier League season under new head coach Fabian Hurzeler with a 3-0 away win over Everton.

Rutter after his last appearance for Leeds (George Wood/Getty Images)

Brighton are breaking new ground. The £40m transfer fee is £10m more than they have ever paid for a player, eclipsing the £30m they spent on Newcastle United winger Yankuba Minteh this summer, which is the same as the fee they paid for Brazilian striker Joao Pedro from second division Watford in May 2023.

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The timing of Rutter’s arrival requires closer examination.

Five days before his release clause was triggered, the final sale of Deniz Undav to Stuttgart was announced, ending a summer saga. The German international had scored 18 goals and provided 10 assists in 30 Bundesliga games while on loan for Stuttgart last season, but Brighton had control of a complicated option to buy in the terms of his move. Stuttgart made several offers for Undav, who had helped them finish second and qualify for the Champions League, and although Brighton were reluctant to lose him, the 28-year-old striker wanted to stay in Germany for the sake of his family and his career.

The price continued to rise until they agreed on a deal worth an initial £28 million, which could rise to over £32 million if additional clauses were met.

So the net cost of changing Hurzeler’s attacking options from those two transfers (one came, one went, one went) in the space of ten days is £12 million – a drop in the ocean by Premier League standards when it comes to strikers.

Brighton have traded a goalscorer for a more versatile goalkeeper who better suits new head coach Hurzeler’s style of play and has more room for improvement (Rutter is six years younger than Undav).

Undav’s departure came five days before Brighton exercised Rutter’s release clause (Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)

Undav is a penalty area hunter and his goal rate in the last three completed seasons with Stuttgart, Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise in the Belgian Pro League is impressive – 52 in 96 games. Rutter fares worse over the same period: he scored 17 goals in 115 appearances for Leeds and Bundesliga club Hoffenheim.

Rutter is not yet an accomplished finisher. The expected goals (xG) metric measures the quality of a player’s chances and using this metric we can see that Rutter was statistically below average in front of goal last season. He amassed 13 xG in the Championship last season but only scored seven times and converted 22 percent of his “big chances” as defined by Opta.

However, the picture changes when assists are included.

Rutter has made 23 assists over the past three seasons, including 17 in 48 appearances last season for Leeds. Undav is not far behind with 20 assists, but only one of those came in his 30 games (along with eight goals) for Brighton in the 2022-23 season under former head coaches Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi.

The Frenchman has attracted Brighton with his ability to play along the attacking line, particularly as an explosive and elusive number ten, and his diligence out of possession – qualities that make him a good complement to Hurzeler’s fluid, high-pressing intensity style.

Hurzeler said of Rutter in a press conference after the win against Everton: “He is very good against the ball. He has a special quality with his feet. He makes a lot of assists because he has the perfect timing for the final pass, the perfect timing or the perfect position between the gaps.”

Before the match against Manchester United on Saturday, Hurzeler again told the media: “He is a bit German, a bit British and a bit French, so there is a mixture of everything in his character. He will help us on the pitch, through his attitude without the ball, through his qualities in possession. There is something special about him. I have known him since he played for Hoffenheim and have followed his career.”

“He can help us because he has a very good sense of positioning and finding gaps between the lines. He always tries to play vertically and I also like his reaction and behavior when he is out of possession and after losing the ball.”

Hurtzler says Rutter has “a special quality” (David Horton – CameraSport via Getty Images)

Rutter not only has to prove his goals and assists, but also more important things.

How will he cope with the expectations that come with Brighton’s most expensive signing? And after failing to make a positive impression in difficult circumstances at his first attempt in the Premier League (more on that later), can he be as productive now as he was last season in the second tier?

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s 2-1 home win over United, Hurzeler said of the award: “I have never seen a player laugh so much on his first day. Every time I see him, he has a smile on his face. That is also my feeling when I see how he deals with this award. I don’t think it puts any extra pressure (on him).”

“He can handle it, but he knows that this price is normal in the Premier League. Good players are expensive. He knows that and is trying not to focus on his price, but to integrate himself into the team as quickly as possible.”

“That’s what I’ve been getting from him in the last few days, a lot of luck, a lot of joy, a lot of hard work on the pitch. We don’t talk about the price, we talk about the quality and advice on how to improve him. That’s the only thing we’re focused on.”

Rutter was also a record signing for Leeds. They paid Hoffenheim £35.5m in the January 2023 transfer window and gave him a five-and-a-half-year contract. It was a costly attempt to bolster Jesse Marsch’s attack in a bid to stave off relegation from the Premier League, the kind of panicked deals Brighton wanted to avoid in the mid-season transfer window.

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For Rutter, it was a turbulent start to the English top flight. Marsch was replaced by Javi Gracia less than a month after his appointment, who in turn made way for Sam Allardyce, who coached the team in the last four games. Allardyce was a fireman without hoses. Although he told the club management that there was a lot of good about Rutter, he also stressed before a game against West Ham United that the Premier League “demands a lot more than ability”.

Rutter had a turbulent time in the top flight with Leeds (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)

In 20 league games under three managers, Rutter started just once, came off the bench ten times and started nine times, lacking confidence. On the final day of the season, he failed to score a single goal and provided just one assist in the 4-1 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur – a game Leeds needed to win to have any chance of avoiding relegation. His fleeting appearances totalled just 264 minutes of Premier League time.

Amid the carnage there was a hint of the quality Brighton hope to tap into. Borussia Dortmund enquired about Rutter’s availability. Farke, who became Leeds’ fourth manager in six months in July last year, said: “There was a lot of interest in him, big names from all over Europe, but he was very committed.”

A season in the Championship was a restful one for Rutter, although it ended in further disappointment as Leeds lost 1-0 to Southampton in the play-off final.

“The first season (2022-23) when I came to England was a bit difficult, so it was a good decision to stay there (at Leeds) and improve in the Championship,” Rutter told Brighton’s YouTube channel.

“It (last season) is the first time in my young career that I have played almost every game of a season. I was prepared and now I am ready for the Premier League.”

The fulfilment of the £40 million release clause shows that Brighton also believe Rutter is ready to take the step back.

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(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)