What Next for Brighton Following European Qualification?

22.05.23 659

It has been a tremendous season for Brighton and Hove Albion. Having lost their manager early in the campaign, with Graham Potter joining Chelsea, many onlookers predicted Brighton were in for a tough season.

Ten days after Potter left, Brighton appointed Roberto De Zerbi as the club's new head coach and his first match in charge ended in a thrilling 3-3 draw at Liverpool.

De Zerbi came in and elevated Brighton to another level, with a brand of possession based, attacking football that has been great to watch.

The Italian has overseen some remarkable performances and results, including a 4-1 home win over Chelsea, 3-0 home victory against Liverpool, a 6-0 thumping against Wolves, and a stunning 3-0 win at title chasing Arsenal.

The 2-0 home win over Southampton in their penultimate home Premier League fixture of the season confirmed the Seagulls will be playing European football for the first time in their history next season.

The victory against Southampton means Brighton have booked a place in the Europa Conference League at the very least but a point from their remaining 2 games will see them play in the 2023/24 Europa League.

To highlight the attacking nature of their play, Brighton have scored 70 goals in the Premier League with 2 fixtures to play. That is 18 more goals than Manchester United, who are close to sealing a place in the top four and Champions League football.

Brighton have scored just 1 goal fewer than Liverpool having played one match less and have scored 3 goals more than third place Newcastle United.

Brighton fans will be hoping they can showcase their attacking talents in the Europa League next season against some of the big names in European football.

However, whenever a club makes the breakthrough into the top six, there are always rumours regarding their best players and Brighton are no different.

World Cup winning midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister has been heavily linked with a move to Liverpool. Moises Caicedo, who joined in February 2021 from Ecuador was strongly linked with a move to Arsenal in the January transfer window and he could be another key central midfielder to leave Brighton for big money in the summer.

Japanese winger, Kaoru Mitoma, has been tormenting full-backs for months in the Premier League and he is another player who is attracting interest from across Europe. Young striker, Evan Ferguson, who has only broken into the first team this season, is also on the radar of the big Premier League teams, including Manchester United.

The quality of recruitment has been superb at Brighton in recent years and if they were to lose three of four key players in the summer, they will need to act swiftly in the transfer market to replace them.

Playing in Europe is fantastic but Thursday and Sunday games each week can test even the strongest of squads and it will be interesting to follow Brighton in the transfer market this summer. Having made the breakthrough into Europe the next step is to try and stay there.