Brighton & Hove Albion

A huge win for Brighton to open their tour in Japan, but what did you learn from Fabian Hurzeler's first game in charge?

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Brighton chief executive and deputy chairman Paul Barber says the club has to "carry on being smarter" if they want to "compete financially" in the Premier League.

After securing European football for the first time in 2022-23, Brighton finished 11th under Roberto de Zerbi last season.

Barber says his "vision" under new manager Fabian Hurzeler is to "maintain a top-10 position" in the English top flight.

"We very much enjoyed playing in the Europa League last season - it was a great experience for the club," Barber told the media during Brighton's pre-season tour in Japan. "It was the first time in our 123 year history that we have played in that competition.

"The Premier League is the most competitive league in the world, so we have to work particularly hard to maintain a top-10 position. That is our vision: to be a top-10 Premier League club on a regular basis.

"So we have to carry on being smarter. We are never going to be able to compete in terms of huge football club brands like Manchester United or some of the bigger names like Liverpool.

"We have to use the resources we do have. We can't waste any time, money or energy. We have to keep competing in the best way we can and we are confident we can do that.

"But there are always bumps in the road. It is never a straight line of progress and it hasn't been through the past 12 years - but we have built resilience, learned a lot from last season, and now we are very excited to go into another Premier League season.

"It is a very exciting time to be a fan of the club."

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Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler has revealed that Kaoru Mitoma will be a "very important player" in his squad and has also shared his hopes that the Seagulls' pre-season tour will create "lifelong memories" for the Japan international.

The Seagulls are preparing to take on J1 League side Kashima Antlers at Japan National Stadium on Wednesday (11:00 BST) before facing Tokyo Verdy on Saturday (10:30 BST).

The games will mark Mitoma's return to action, after the winger missed most of the second half of last season through injury.

"He is a player who can make a difference and decide an equal game with one action, by dribbling or shooting," Hurzeler said. "So, he is a very important player in my thoughts.

"I hope that this week will be special for him. We will try to give him everything he needs, especially this week.

"All of the team are here to play for him and to make this week a good memory in his life."

The German manager also spoke about his desire to implement a "winning culture" at Amex Stadium, stating: "The club has already created its values. These are values we will try to continue.

"On top of that, I want to create a culture of winning. We want to challenge the establishment and bring higher standards in our training because winning needs a lot of work invested.

"I want to build this culture of winning."

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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It isn't quiet in one specific part of the major football clubs - the acquisitions department.

I know that because I was once the acquisitions department - well me and the manager mostly. While each player returned from holidays like a bronzed Adonis, we were cooped up in a small darkened room, beavering the daylight hours away like vampires.

There is plenty of guesswork in the media and a fair bit of leaking from the players and their people, but the clubs usually try to keep their transfer moves as quiet as possible.

If word gets out that a player is available, they know they might lose him to another club or else the price will increase as a bidding war erupts.

‌These are high stakes games and many are impressed by those who gamble and go early.

Manchester City have always been good enough, and let's be honest wealthy enough, to be able to do this well.

The problem is that some clubs are trying to do the same thing and are ending up paying top dollar for less able players, because they haven't done their due diligence in the market.

This is another area where the use of data, or maybe over-reliance on pure data, comes into play - feed all of the numbers in, let the technology do the crunching, and out comes the answer.

The problem is that everyone else has got the same or similar data.

What is needed, of course, is good human knowledge and the vision to aid the use of the information they have got. This is why these departments should be busy just now, they shouldn't just be doing deals which are admittedly very complex legal and financial documents these days.

Even more time should be spent on ensuring the new £75m player hasn't got a hidden weakness in his game or even the odd skeleton in his closet.

Pat Nevin was writing for the BBC Football Extra Newsletter

Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter

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Brighton are edging closer to signing Paraguay midfielder Diego Gomez from Major League Soccer side Inter Miami.

Gomez, 21, will be part of his country's Olympic squad later this month, so he would not be able to link up with Albion until after the tournament.

However, sources say talks over a deal are close to completion, with the fee expected to be about $18m (£13.9m).

Meanwhile, though Brighton have rejected Napoli's £8m bid for midfielder Billy Gilmour, sources say it was regarded as an initial approach.

This suggests the Serie A side believe a transfer can be completed and will return with another offer.

Brighton are looking to advance negotiations over a deal for Mainz's 20-year-old Germany Under-21 winger Brajan Gruda. (Fabrizio Romano), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Saturday's full gossip column

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It seems inevitable a host of Premier League managers will point to fixture congestion in the months to come.

When injuries mount, or when time on the training ground is squeezed, coaches often reference the intense nature of the calendar.

But research conducted by the respected CIES Football Observatory has delivered data which shows clubs are - on average - not playing more competitive games than they have in the last couple of decades.

The CIES looked at 677 clubs across 40 leagues. In looking at a period from 2012 to 2024, its findings show in 2023-24, the average club played 42.4 competitive matches. In 2014-15 that figure was 42.6 and in 2020-21 it hit 43.9.

And if focus is placed on sides competing in the Champions League, data gathered between 2000 and 2024 also shows sides are not setting fixture records in the current game, as some managers may like to loosely imply.

In looking at the five major European Leagues, the CIES claim Champions League competitors played an average of 50.8 matches last season.

In 2020-21 they averaged 57.9 and in 2002-03 they contested 55.2.

Manchester United played in 52 competitive games last season, down from highs of 71 in 2020-21 and 66 in 2008-09.

Across all of the clubs analysed, only 4% played more than 60 games last season. In 2012-13, the figure stood at 5.1%.

While clubs may play added friendlies and - it would be fair to say - individual matches tend to be longer given increased injury time in the current game, the data shows that competitive fixture numbers are flat or have in most cases fallen, even if disgruntled managers say otherwise.

The full study is here, external

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New Brighton winger Yankuba Minteh is "lightning quick" but has learned how to "control" his game, says Dutch football writer Lentin Goodijk.

The 19-year-old joined the club from Newcastle United in June in a £30m five-year deal.

The Magpies signed Minteh from Danish club Odense in June 2023 but he did not make a first-team appearance for the club.

He spent last season on loan at Dutch club Feyenoord, scoring 10 goals in 27 league games while also finding the net against Celtic in the Champions League.

"I followed Feyenoord at a training camp a year ago in the summer in Austria and he was one of the players that stood out in different ways because he was not so much a controlled player at the time," Goodijk told BBC Radio Sussex.

"I think one year ago he was still playing in Africa and then he went to Denmark for a season and then he went to to Feyenoord and was playing in the Champions League which was a huge leap.

"He is lightning quick and you could see in those pre-season games when he started pressing defenders they were scared of him when he had the ball and looking back at where he was again.

"He surprised a lot players in pre-season and Arne Slot liked the fact that not only was he providing depth and goals but he was really putting the effort in the press as well. So he was a great player but he had to learn a lot of things and during the season he got more and more control in his actions."

Listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds

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New Brighton midfielder Mats Wieffer is "not the player who attracts the most attention" but he had "a big role" in Feyenoord's title-winning season.

The 24-year-old has joined the Seagulls in a deal until 2029 and has cost the club a reported 30m euros (£25.4m).

Wieffer came through the FC Twente academy in the Netherlands before dropping down to the second division for two seasons with Excelsior.

In 2022, he joined Feyenoord, who were managed by new Liverpool boss Arne Slot, and scored nine goals while contributing 11 assists in 79 games across two seasons.

"Feyenoord took a gamble to take him for half a million euros and, after half a year struggling with some kind of injury, he came in the team and gave them great balance immediately," Dutch football writer Lentin Goodijk told BBC Radio Sussex.

"They won the league for only the second time this century. It was a big moment and he had a big role in it.

"He's not the player who attracts the most attention but does his role well. Arne Slot really worked with him and developed him physically.

"He can run a lot. He is winning a lot of duels - I think he had most times for possession won in the Eredivisie last season, so not just good at tackles but reading the play and winning those balls. He really played very well in the Champions League and controlled as the number six for Feyenoord.

"Wieffer really loves to get the information [from his coach] and can really channel it and do everything he gets told, which is another quality of course.

"Arne Slot was really proud of his development."

Listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds

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The football never stops.

Euro 2024 has barely finished but Premier League clubs have already started turning their attention to pre-season friendlies.

The games are spread across the globe, from Tokyo and New York to Sligo and Crawley.

So who will your team face? And when and where are the matches?

Keep across all the fixtures and results here

We asked for your views on Brighton's new 2024-25 home shirt.

Here are some of your responses:

Matt: I wish we’d stop having the massive white patch on the back, would prefer to see stripes front and back.

Daniel: I love the new home shirt. For me it’s a combination of the popular 2020-21 shirt plus our most successful ever European qualification season of 2022-23. I love the touch of yellow, as this is on our badge too.

Simon: Too much white especially on the back but glad the traditional stripes are still there.

Norm: New kit looks good. No messing about with bits of yellow that have been on recent shirts. The kit looks slightly retro, which is not bad thing.

Anton: Same and not very inspired, particularly from a town known for its creativity.

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Brighton's Julio Enciso has been called up to the Paraguay's squad for the 2024 Olympic football tournament in Paris.

Paraguay's opening match against Japan is on Wednesday, 24 July and the final will take place on Saturday, 9 August, eight days before the Seagulls' Premier League opener away at Everton.

Enciso, 20, started all three of Paraguay's games as they exited this summer's Copa America in the group stages and made 12 league appearances for Brighton in the second half of last season.

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Brighton have unveiled the home shirt they will wear during the 2024-25 season.

The Premier League club said the new shirt "takes pinstripe inspiration from the 2020-21 season with a fading white pinstripe on the five blue stripes sitting on a white base".

Brighton fans - what do you think of the new shirt?

Tell us here, external

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Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler has said new signing Malick Yalcouye has the ability to become a top talent.

Midfielder Malick, 18, arrived on a five-year contract from IFK Gothenburg on Friday.

"He is a talented midfielder with lots of potential to develop into a top-class player," said Hurzeler.

"He's excited about this next stage of his career and we're looking forward to helping him progress."

Yalcouye is Brighton's fifth signing of the summer following the arrivals of Ibrahim Osman, Yankuba Minteh, Mats Wieffer and Amario Cozier-Duberry.

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Kaoru Mitoma has spoken about the importance of preparing well following his long lay-off from injury and his excitement of playing friendlies in his home country with Brighton on their pre-season tour.

The winger's last game for the Seagulls was against Sheffield United in February, and speaking to Albion's official website, external he said "it was quite frustrating to finish the season with two or three months of not playing".

Mitoma added: "There were a few other injured players as well, so none of us could help the team. It's good for the team and good for me to be back in better shape then I was before the injury.

"It's important for me to prepare well so I can play to my strengths."

The 27-year-old joined the club from Kawasaki Frontale in 2021 and, before his return to play in Japan with Brighton, he said: "It's very rare for any team to play pre-season games in Japan.

"It'll probably be the first time many of the European players have travelled to Japan too. I hope they have fun, and we'll be playing against great J-League teams."

Brighton are due to face Kashima Antlers and Tokyo Verdy.

Stuttgart plan to make a new bid for Brighton striker Deniz Undav. (Bild, in German - subscription needed), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Tuesday's full gossip column

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Central defender Ben Jackson has signed a contract extension with Brighton and will immediately join Scottish Championship side Livingston for a season-long loan.

Jackson, 20, is now under contract until June 2025, with the club holding an option for a further year.

Men’s under-21 head coach Shannon Ruth said, “We were pleased with Ben’s progress last season. He is a player who has some strong attributes and is the type of centre back we like to have here in the academy.

“Now he has an excellent opportunity to take that step into a men’s first team environment. Gordon Greer’s department will keep a close eye on his development over the course of the season.”

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Brighton will host La Liga side Villarreal in their final pre-season friendly in August.

The game will be head coach Fabian Hurzeler's first at the Amex, following two games in Japan and a trip to Championship opposition QPR.

Villarreal and Brighton last met in 2013 - also in pre-season - when the Spanish side won 3-1.

The match will be played on Saturday 10 August, with kick-off at 15:00 BST.