A January farewell for Glenn Murray looks likely but Brighton must sign another striker

There’s a very good chance that if those legendary balls in the velvet bag had kept Manchester City and the Albion apart in the FA Cup Semi Final draw, the Seagulls might have made it to the Cup Final in May, but perhaps would now be plying their footballing trade in the Championship.

As in 1983, swapping top flight football for a day out at Wembley, and having lived through the whole experience as a wide-eyed teenager, I can assure any young fan reading this it was very much a case of short-term gain for extremely long-term pain.

Thankfully Chris Hughton’s men lost in the semis to City, and their Premier survival, albeit by the skin of their teeth, owed as much to the actions of Fulham and Palace against Cardiff as to the Albion creeping over the Premier League finish line.

Which is why, despite the dreadful 90 minutes of FA Cup fare at the Amex, I wasn’t that disappointed when the Albion went out to Sheffield Wednesday at the first hurdle on Saturday.

Whilst I don’t buy into this school of thought that points-wise the Albion aren’t really that better off than at this point last season, the early cup exit is in my opinion part of the foundations for the Albion to now push on for comfortable Premier League survival.

Another part of those foundations would be an active January transfer window, granted it’s clear under Graham Potter the Albion do play the kind of attractive, attacking football, we never saw under a Hughton, but quite simply the Albion WILL NOT SURVIVE this season with just Neil Maupay and Aaron Connolly as their front line options.