A red-hot start to the season has propelled Brighton & Hove Albion to third in the Premier League, with five wins, one of which came notably against champions Arsenal at the Amex Stadium. Now, whispers are growing into louder voices suggesting that Brighton could actually be title contenders, should their current run of form last the distance.
Should the Seagulls manage to ‘do a Leicester’, the appointment of head coach Fabian Hürzeler will have been a key factor, as it has been so far. The American-born German manager began his journey into football management at FC Pipinsried in the Bayernliga Süd, the fifth tier of Germany’s football pyramid.
Hürzeler also worked for an art dealer while coaching at Pipinsried, selling paintings around the region of Bavaria. The Brighton boss revealed that he lost that particular job because he spent too much time involved in football. The time invested in the game paid off for Hürzeler, as he led FC Pipinsried to promotion to the next level, the Regionalliga Bayern.
Despite suffering relegation the following season, Hürzeler joined FC St. Pauli, based in Hamburg, after another year in charge of Pipinsried. Taking over at St. Pauli at just 29 years old, Hürzeler turned 30 before securing promotion to the Bundesliga. It was at this point that the Seagulls began to circle.
Having lost Roberto De Zerbi to Marseille, Brighton tasked Hürzeler with building on the foundations left by the Italian former manager at the beginning of the 2024/25 season. Despite being the youngest manager in Premier League history, Hürzeler secured an eighth-place finish and narrowly missed out on European football.
Having matched that eighth-place finish last season while securing qualification for the UEFA Europa Conference League, Hürzeler’s magic is beginning to take effect. The Seagulls are flying high and don’t look like stopping anytime soon. A tough defeat to rivals Crystal Palace in February briefly turned the fans against Hürzeler and his team, but that all seems like a distant memory now, with the fans’ momentary nightmare quickly turning into an incredible dream.