Gus Poyet has signed Spanish midfielder Andrea Orlandi from Swansea City after selling popular winger Craig Noone to Cardiff City.
Noone, 24, joined Brighton and Hove Albion from Plymouth Argyle for £300,000 in January last year and helped the club to win the League One title.
He scored four goals in 69 league games and one FA Cup appearance for Albion. The cup match was against Liverpool where he was on the books as a schoolboy.
Cardiff are believed to have paid about £1.8 million for the 5ft 8in Scouser who worked as roofer in his teens. He signed a four-year contract with the Welsh championship side late last night (Wednesday 29 August).
The deal to sign 28-year-old Barcelona-born Orlandi was confirmed today (Thursday 30 August) by Swansea manager Michael Laudrup.
Orlandi, who made one league appearance for his hometown side, has played 90 times and scored three goals for the Swans, who are currently second in the Premiership.
Last season the 6ft tall midfielder made just five league and cup appearances. He will join Vicente Rodriguez, Inigo Calderon and Bruno Saltor.
Poyet described the departing Noone as a great guy and said: “There can come a time when a club meets our value of a player, the player is willing to go and it is the right move for all concerned.
“That is what has happened with Cardiff and Craig Noone.
“Everything has come together – the price of the player, the player’s decision and the timing.
“We know Nooney is very popular at the club, with the staff, players and fans, and he will be missed.
“Since signing for us from Plymouth, he has been a great guy to have around and a real character – but it is football.
“We thank him for what he has done at this club in the last year and a half, we wish him well and we will be watching out for him.
“I hope he personally does very well with Cardiff.”
Poyet said this morning that he expected to be busy ahead of the closure of the summer transfer window tomorrow night (Friday 31 August).
He said: “We are very close to the end of the window but we are heavily in the market.
“Anything can happen within the hour or at 11pm tomorrow night.
“We are looking for the striker and a strong midfielder or a different type of midfielder.
“Maybe that will be easier with the short amount of time we have left.
“This transfer window has been absolutely crazy.
“In previous years, we have needed to complete stuff on the last day but we were practically done a few days before.
“This time we could well be in the offices until late at night.
“My phone has been ringing so much that I’ve had to charge my phone four times on each of the last two days. It’s been non-stop.
“For the first time in a long time I will not be out on the training ground today because I have got to be in constant contact with different people.
“It will be like that until tomorrow night.”
The players are preparing for the away match against Burnley on Saturday (1 September).
Poyet said: “In terms of the way we want to play we are much better than we were last season – that’s including the game we lost and the game we drew at home.
“We are much more dangerous and the opposition have different decisions to make.
“That doesn’t mean that we are going to win but if we perform well we will do better than last year.
“It was a very strange game at Burnley last year and hopefully it will be a normal game this time.
“If we go and play our game we will have a very good chance.
“At home it was even worse because of the two red cards.
“There were too many incidents and problems in both games and unfortunately it went against us.
“We know a lot about them and there will be no surprises.”
