BRIGHTON have fired a cheeky dig at Leeds after signing Georginio Rutter.
The Seagulls completed the transfer of the French forward in a £40million deal.
The 22-year-old has signed a five-year contract on the south coast to link up with Fabian Hurzeler.
The new Brighton boss is familiar with the France Under-21 international from his time at Hoffenheim, whom Rutter left to join Leeds in January 2023.
However, ahead of the deal’s announcement, Brighton‘s social media team took to social media to tell fans: “Don’t go to bed just yet”.
And when revealing Rutter, they showed him appearing to write the tweet out before turning to the camera and winking.
The post came in reference to Leeds using the same line on social media back in 2014 when they famously said: “Don’t go to bed just yet… there is still work to be done #DeadlineDay #lufc.”
While fans would have doubtless been hoping for some new arrivals, it was instead followed up by the departures of Matt Smith and Dominic Poleon to Fulham and Oldham respectively.
And an hour later, the Whites signed off by saying they had concluded their business for the window.
Brighton chose to tempt fate by ironically echoing it almost a decade on, but actually secured their next deal swiftly.
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The Seagulls faithful clearly loved the banter, with one fan saying: “HE BANTERED YOU.”
A second said: “Nicely done, social media intern.”
A third added: “This is amazing.”
One Leeds fan saw the funny side, saying: “Hahaha we’ve been cooked.”
However, one fan was left furious at the post and Rutter’s part in it, replying: “Oh dear @georgi_hrt absolutely no grace, no class there at all.
“Most fans would have wished you well but this is a really stupid thing to do.”
However, considering Rutter would have been just 12 years old at the time of the original post, he may have not known the context behind the reference.
The deal to sign Rutter represents a club-record fee for Brighton, with owner Tony Bloom backing Hurzeler – the youngest manager in the Premier League – further following an opening day 3-0 win over Everton.
On the deal to sign Rutter, the former St. Pauli boss said: “Georginio is a player who has the capabilities to get fans off their seats and really showed what he can do in English football with Leeds last season, but I have known about him since he played in Germany for Hoffenheim.
“Now we have to integrate him into the team. We’re looking forward to working with him.”
Rutter is Brighton’s seventh signing of the summer, with some other big arrivals this window coming in the form of Yankuba Minteh, Mats Wieffer and Brajan Gruda – two of which we named in our most exciting xi of new stars this season.
He scored eight goals and added 18 assists for Leeds in 66 games in both the Premier League and Championship – though he failed to score in the top flight for Leeds.
Their next game comes against Manchester United at the Amex on Saturday.
Brighton have won four of the last five meetings against Man Utd in the Premier League.
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