It’s only eight months since the low point not only of Brighton‘s season but also head coach Fabian Hurzeler’s tenure. A dismal 1-0 home defeat by rivals Crystal Palace was played out to chants of ‘sacked in the morning’ from Seagulls supporters after a run of one Premier League win in 12.
Sacked in the morning? As Daily Mail Sport revealed at the time, that was never going to happen. Owner Tony Bloom stood by his man, Hurzeler went back to basics and recalled James Milner, and Brighton won seven of the next 11 to climb from 14th to eighth and qualify for the Conference League.
On Sunday they welcome Palace again, this time third in the table after winning four and drawing one of their first six games. They have won their last three by an aggregate score of 10-0, including a complete domination of champions Arsenal.
Hurzeler was Manager of the Month for September, Pascal Gross Player of the Month and captain Lewis Dunk winner of Goal of the Month for his audacious 30-yard screamer in the 5-0 rout of Coventry. So how have they done it?
It all began with a pre-season like no other, partly spent in Austria, partly on the south coast. Club insiders rate it as ‘elite level’, not just on the grass but with every spare minute used for meetings and discussions with Hurzeler and senior staff.
The summer transfer window was also key. Brighton brought in players high in character who were already disciples of the Hurzeler way of playing and a work ethic that has required a serious buy-in from all.
Fabian Hurzeler celebrates another Brighton win with Ferdi Kadioglu in what has been a fantastic start to the season for the club
Brighton have scored more goals than any other team in the top flight, netting 18 times in their first six games
They also decided to introduce a ‘no more Mr Nice Guy’ attitude. Hurzeler wanted the team to be difficult to beat, ruthless in personal duels and Brighton to no longer be perceived as a ‘nice’ club. He relayed this to all staff.
Brighton have also been ruthless in front of goal and are the league’s top scorers with 18, despite selling their own top scorer last season, Danny Welbeck, to Chelsea. ‘Who is going to score the goals?’ was an oft-heard refrain after Welbeck’s departure, which the club did not seek out. The answer? Everyone else. Algeria left-back Jaouen Hadjam, a £10.3million summer signing from Swiss side Young Boys, became Brighton’s 12th different scorer this season in the 2-0 win at Sunderland on Saturday.
A visit to the club’s training ground helps to explain the feel-good factor. There is a coffee wagon parked up and goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen makes a point of buying everyone a hot drink whenever he keeps a clean sheet. He already has seven those this season of those in nine appearances in all competitions.
There is also new padel court for staff use, and next to go in might be a crown green bowls arena after the success of a staff tournament on Hove seafront. It was held as a way of building connections among staff and for Hurzeler – who didn’t win the tournament – to say thank you to the people in the background at the club.
It was organised by Mike Anthony, the club’s head of player development and high performance. He spent 14 years with the All Blacks rugby team, filling a variety of senior performance roles in strength and conditioning, performance science, player development and elite culture building. In fact, ‘culture’ is a word you hear everywhere at Brighton.
‘Bowls is more a game for, I would say, experienced persons, older persons,’ Hurzeler said, ‘and when we were there, we took the average age down a little bit.’
Bloom has hinted that he regards a top-five finish, and with it Champions League qualification, as within reach and says Brighton have their best-ever squad. Its depth will be tested in the coming weeks by the Thursday-Sunday grind of the Conference League. But Hurzeler could field two different teams of good quality and Brighton’s starting XI against Palace may well bear little resemblance to the side they put out in a 4-0 win over Lithuanian outfit Kauno Zalgiris on Thursday.
Welbeck leaving allowed Greek striker Babis Kostoulas, 19, to move from bit-part player to main man. Injured wingers Yankuba Minteh and Kaoru Mitoma are yet to feature this season, but Belgium left-back Maxim De Cuyper has stepped forward into Mitoma’s berth on the left wing with two goals and two assists, while Paraguay forward Diego Gomez has taken Minteh’s place.
Bart Verbruggen buys every Brighton player a drink from the coffee wagon outside the training ground when he keeps a clean sheet – that’s seven rounds in his nine appearances this season
Babis Kostoulas has been able to become the main man up front after Danny Welbeck’s exit, and the Greece striker smashed in a fine goal in the hugely impressive 3-0 win over Arsenal
Maxim de Cuyper (left) has been converted from left-back to left winger and has proved a revelation, scoring twice and adding two assists
Few complained about the sale of Carlos Baleba to Manchester United for £70m after they saw his replacement, Spain Under 21s midfielder Chema ‘Baby Rodri’ Andres, signed from Stuttgart on deadline day for a fraction of the Baleba windfall.
It would be an exaggeration to claim that most Brighton signings are from the bargain basement. But for every £44m Luka Vuskovic, there is a £3.5m Yasin Ayari, while Andres (£15.5m), Gomez (£11m) and De Cuyper (£17.5m) hardly broke the bank by Premier League standards.
Players who struggled for game time last season, such as French defender Olivier Boscagli, are now regulars, while Malick Yalcouye has been a revelation in midfield after two years out on loan, earning an Ivory Coast call-up.
And of course, there is always Gross. The 35-year-old continues to defy Father Time, stepping seamlessly into Milner’s role since the latter’s retirement during the close season.
He still looks like the Premier League’s all-time bargain buy at a total profit to Brighton of £3.5m. They signed him from Ingolstadt for £3m in 2017, sold him to his boyhood club Borussia Dortmund for £8m in 2024 and bought him back last January for £1.5m. Last weekend he became the oldest player since Ryan Giggs to provide an assist in three successive Premier League matches, and along with Kostoulas and Andres, found the net in the 3-0 win over Arsenal.
Gross’s example inspires the relentless pressing of opponents that drove both Manchester United and Arsenal to distraction before the international break. For the press to work so well so often, everyone has to be committed.
‘You have to be intense,’ said Sweden midfielder Ayari recently. ‘To play the way we play, you have to be fit. We emphasise this every day and we train hard to be able to play like this. Everyone knows the standards. When we started this summer, everyone was fit and had been doing their own training.’
The willingness to keep pressing until the final whistle depends on a team spirit and togetherness that appears to be off the charts. The substitutes and coaches rose as one to applaud Dunk’s goal at Coventry, and the bench cleared at the Stadium of Light as team-mates rushed to congratulate Hadjam on his first goal in English football.
Chema Andres, 21, celebrates scoring against Arsenal. The Spain Under 21s midfielder is known as ‘Baby Rodri’ and signed from Stuttgart on deadline day
The bench cleared at the Stadium of Light last weekend as team-mates rushed to congratulate Jaouen Hadjam on his first goal in English football
Pascal Gross looks like the Premier League’s all-time bargain buy at a total profit to Brighton of £3.5m
Not everything has been perfect. Chaos reigned at the back as Brighton went 3-0 down at Chelsea in a 4-3 defeat. Blooding several new faces all at once caused early confusion in a Carabao Cup tie away to Manchester United, but once a much-changed team had settled down, they recovered from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
And you have to wonder how many analysts at the other 19 clubs spent the international break working out how to beat them. Does Hurzeler have a Plan B if so?
‘If you think you are perfect, then you are done,’ he has said. ‘It’s about finding other solutions, it’s always finding different approaches.
‘There will always be some non-negotiables in our game but there are always different elements and different adaptations we need to do to stay competitive. You can never be satisfied, you can never stop.’
