Up for the corner, and Mats Wieffer delivers — 7.95
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mats Wieffer scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brighton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Kaoru Mitoma and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
23 goals in 24 games at Birmingham — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Brighton updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Brighton can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brighton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ferdi Kadıoğlu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 35. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Brighton are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Brighton until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Brighton hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sebastian Jensen has agreed terms with Huddersfield Town for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Kaoru Mitoma and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
19 appearances at Birmingham and the goals keep coming. Brighton are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Brighton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewis Dunk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Pascal Groß
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Brighton scored in the 120th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Brighton can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brighton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Brighton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewis Dunk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 9.27 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crystal Palace have kept their man, and Brighton go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ryan Kent has just signed for Brighton, and for once the answer mattered.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Brighton hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The name of Babis Kostoulas has come up in conversations Brighton were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.