Younger than some players! ‘Ageless’ Fabian Hurzeler ‘only going to get better’ as 33-year-old Brighton boss follows in the footsteps of Graham Potter & Roberto De Zerbi

Brighton, quite rightly, believe that they now boast one of those. Having come through some testing times around the turn of the 21st century, the era of Tony Bloom’s ownership on the south coast has seen dreams come true.

A meteoric rise took the Seagulls out of the basement and into the top tier, with the last nine years being spent rubbing shoulders with the elite of English football. Steady progress has been made there, with European football returning to the Amex Stadium in 2026-27.

Hurzeler, who was appointed as successor to De Zerbi in 2024, has seen his stock soar after previously working in the German national team youth ranks and with ‘hipster’ fan favourites St Pauli.

He is closing in on 100 games at the helm, with an eighth-place finish being secured last season. Conference League football will be enjoyed this term, with Brighton being urged to embrace those occasions - as they seek to emulate the achievements of arch-rivals Crystal Palace when it comes to landing a major continental trophy.

With Hurzeler at the helm, anything is possible. Former Seagulls boss McGhee - speaking in association with the ‘Brighton & Hove Albion: Stand or Fall’ gallery that celebrates the club’s 125-year history - told GOAL when asked about the Texas-born German calling shots at the Amex: “I've got to know him a little bit and I just see a guy that's ageless in the sense that he's got all the focus, he's confident about what he's doing and what he wants to do without being, in any sense, overconfident or arrogant.

“He knows what he's doing. They've got a brilliant manager in Fabian and he's only going to get better.

“This is him getting into Europe. I spoke to him about it recently and I was saying, ‘I've played 10 consecutive years in Europe as a player, with Aberdeen, Hamburg and Celtic, and it was the best games’. Those were the best games, those Tuesday, Wednesday night games - we didn't play on a Thursday.

“Tuesday and Wednesday night games in Europe were the best games of my career and I'm sure the players will come to learn how exciting the prospect is of going to these exotic places and playing against foreign teams in foreign lands, and the supporters are the same, they will absolutely love it.

“He's got that experience coming and I think part of that in terms of the Conference League is preparing his players and preparing him for the day that they get to the Champions League. It's all a work in progress, I can absolutely assure you.”

Potter and De Zerbi formed part of that process before moving on to Chelsea and Marseille respectively, with the latter now back in English football with Tottenham while the former has also spent time at West Ham. Hurzeler is hoping to eclipse what they achieved before considering any move of his own.

There promises to be more fireworks along the way, with life rarely dull at Brighton. McGhee - who oversaw promotion into the Championship back in 2004 - admits as much, with the Scot adding on 125 years of action-packed drama: “It’s been a rollercoaster in a sense. Tony's era has steadied the ship and now they have new challenges, not least of which is keeping these good players and finding replacements, but they seem to be doing that really, really well still and at the moment. Long may it continue.

“But I think that they're now in a different era. The Amex, I was there on Sunday [against Aston Villa], there's a brilliant atmosphere, there's an optimism about it, and that's great to behold.”

A new permanent gallery telling the story of the Seagulls’ 125-year history opened at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery on August 15. The interactive exhibition brings together iconic objects, treasured memorabilia, archive material, film and personal stories to tell the story of one of English football's most resilient clubs. Visitors will explore the triumphs, setbacks and defining moments that have shaped BHAFC and its place at the heart of the city for more than a century.

Supporters have had plenty to cheer at the start of the 2026-27 campaign, with a crushing 4-0 victory over out-of-sorts Villa being enjoyed on the opening weekend. Hurzeler’s side will be back in action on Thursday when facing Tromso in the second leg of their Conference League play-off, before then heading to Chelsea on Sunday.

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