Fabian Hurzeler plotting Brighton's pre-season: Training, baseball and the Costa del Sol

New York Times

14-07-2025

Brighton & Hove Albion's preparations for their second season under Fabian Hurzeler have been plotted meticulously.
On Saturday, the squad arrived in Spain's Costa del Sol region for a 10-day training camp. The trip includes games behind closed doors at a private training ground against Championship side Stoke City and Las Palmas, the Spanish club based on the island of Gran Canaria who were relegated from La Liga last season.
Advertisement
It is a stark contrast to the very public pre-season tour of Japan last summer. Full-scale friendly wins against Kashima Antlers and Tokyo Verdy were played in front of 25,000 crowds at the national stadium in the capital city. Arrangements were in place for the club to capitalise commercially on the popularity of winger Kaoru Mitoma in his home country long before Hurzeler was appointed to succeed Roberto De Zerbi. Hurzeler is doing things his way this time around, with a low-key build-up, keeping preparations largely under wraps.
'I try to control, honestly, everything,' the German head coach tells The Athletic. 'The time of the games, how many you play, that we have the right opponents, that we get the right training sessions on the pitch, the right number of training sessions, that we have the right quality of opponents at the right time. So, I had more impact on this pre-season than I had before.'
The only friendlies open to the public take place in the two weeks before the 2025-26 Premier League campaign begins — away against Championship side Southampton on August 2 and at home to German Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg a week later.
The circumstances and emotions are different as well for Hurzeler from a year ago, when he came to the Premier League after steering St Pauli to the second-tier title in Germany. 'It's a different preparation,' he says. 'It's so complex to compare these things. Last summer, I came from a big success. I wouldn't say that this summer I came from less success (after Brighton's eighth-place finish). So, it's always about how you define success. And therefore I try to enjoy the summer and not try to compare too much.'
Hurzeler is a workaholic. Most of the 32-year-old's summer break was devoted to job-related learning, rather than relaxing to recharge the batteries. 'I'm not the guy who is just lying at the beach and can chill for 12 hours in the sun,' he says. 'It's not my personality — and I think my skin also wouldn't handle it in a positive way. It was a different holiday, or a different summer, because now I'm here for one year.'
Advertisement
A trip back to Houston, the Texas city where Hurzeler was born, included visits to the local NFL team (the Texans) and baseball team (the Astros). He also visited the NBA's San Antonio Spurs. 'The United States is a very positive environment, the people are very open-minded, and they have different things in their culture,' Hurzeler says. 'For example, in the warm-up, they (Texans) always have music, also during the training session they always have music, during the training session they always have an external referee, so they really try to replicate the game, and it's something that I really like, it's something similar to my idea.'
Fabian Hürzler, a Houston native and head coach of Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League, is visiting Astros manager Joe Espada this afternoon at Daikin Park pic.twitter.com/IY0ImTZjAz
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) June 12, 2025
Hurzeler also went to Spain to continue improving his grasp of the language, and also kept a close eye on the European Under-21 Championship in Slovakia in June involving four Brighton players: Jack Hinshelwood and James Beadle with tournament winners England, Brajan Gruda with runners-up Germany, and Diego Coppola with semi-finalists Italy — Coppola was signed during the competition from Hellas Verona.
Gruda missed the start of last season through injury following a £25million ($34m) move from Mainz. Injury problems were a theme of Hurzeler's first year in charge. He demands high levels of intensity from his players in and out of possession.
Data from Ben Dinnery of Premier Injuries shows that Brighton lost the most days to injuries of any Premier League club last season (1,944) and the highest number of time-loss injuries (48), the latter figure based on a player missing at least one match. Hurzeler will kick off this time with a cleaner bill of health.
Among last season's long-term absentees, James Milner is back and Ferdi Kadioglu is on course to return to contention in the coming season. It is unclear when Solly March will be available, but Hurzeler also has the benefit of having skipper Lewis Dunk fully available throughout preparations for the campaign. That was not the case last summer. Dunk had extra time off after he was a non-playing member of the England squad that finished runners-up to Spain in the European Championship in Germany.
'I'm sure that we've built on a stronger foundation,' Hurzeler says. 'When I started here, we had 13 injured players. Ferdi is still a little bit injured. James is back on the pitch, so I don't see so many players that we are missing. Solly March is doing rehab, so let's see how this continues. I'm quite positive about the situation.
Advertisement
'We all thought about that a lot (the injuries last season). We have had workshops regarding this, how we can improve the availability. And I will never blame only the medical team for that, I'm in the same boat, I take responsibility for that. But internally, we have to be very honest with each other.
'We have to figure out why we have a lower availability of players, we have to look in our eyes and take ownership for that. And that's what I demand from my staff members. We all try to get the right conclusion, the right consequence out of these talks, and try to make it better together this season.'
Hurzeler has lost Joao Pedro from his forward line — the club's joint-top scorer in the league last season with 10 goals — following the Brazilian's move to Chelsea in a deal worth up to £60million. Hurzeler had a 'big meeting' with owner-chairman Tony Bloom the day before Joao Pedro's departure was officially announced at the start of July. He is on the same page as the club regarding their transfer policy, which allows players to leave to further their careers at the right price and in the right circumstances.
'It's about accepting it,' Hurzeler says. 'We shouldn't complain about the situation and I'm quite confident that we can replace every individual player as a team. Of course, not one-to-one, because the players leaving for a high amount of money have a special quality. But I'm sure as a team, as a togetherness, we can replace him.
'I hope there won't be any more significant outs. I had a big meeting with the owner and I really appreciate this openness we have together. He's very transparent and I really appreciate this relationship because it shows a good togetherness, it shows a good working together and everyone knows each other's plans, each other's thoughts. With this, you can build a strong squad.'