Latest news with #JackHinshelwood
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Buonanotte's Leicester hurdle & transfer questions: Key Brighton pre-season takeaways
Brighton's Facundo Buonanotte was on loan at Leicester City last season Albion's popular 'Brighton Unlocked' series is back as Fabian Hurzeler's men step up their preparations ahead of next season. The Sussex side have just put out episode 37 of this behind-the-scenes show, with this latest release showcasing kitman Buzz's Charity Walk, the swanky megastore opening, new players arriving, first-team regulars returning, and more. Advertisement While much was, quite rightly, made of Jack Hinshelwood's return to the club following his stellar efforts in England's Under-21 Euros win, some bits may have gone under the radar for some fans. So, here are a few interesting takeaways from the latest episode of Brighton Unlocked. 1) Familiar faces in an unfamiliar environment Moving to a new team, in a different country, with a different culture, can be daunting for a player - especially a younger one. Albion signed 18-year-old Charalampos Kostoulas from Olympiacos last month, bolstering their Greek contingent following the capture of 19-year-old Stefanos Tzimas from FC Nuremberg. Advertisement And when the pair got a chance to reunite, they embraced one another like brothers. The teenagers appeared to relax a great deal as they conversed in their native tongue, which may help them settle in at The Amex. However, their English seems top-notch already, which is a big bonus. 2) Facundo Buonanotte's loan difficulty The Argentine spent last season on loan at Leicester City, and although he impressed, especially early on, the 20-year-old could not stop their relegation to the Championship. Reports surfaced of the attacking midfielder not being entirely happy under the then-manager Ruud van Nistelrooy earlier this year, as the youngster struggled for game time in the second half of the campaign. Advertisement Now, the versatile attacker has provided some insight into why life may have been tough at Leicester. In a short clip, Danny Welbeck asks Buonanotte at Albion's training ground: "There's no Spanish speakers there [Leicester]? Not one?!" To which he replies: "No. Just Ricardo Pereira (who is Portuguese)." That may not have helped his bid to settle at the Foxes. Incidentally, his future at Albion remains uncertain. 3) Diego Coppola to take centre stage During the Italian international's first visit to Albion's training ground, one of the club's cameramen challenged the centre-back to a game of darts. Advertisement He said: "If you get double 20, I won't film you for the rest of the year." A smiling Coppola agreed but unfortunately, the 21-year-old failed to register a score. The cameraman stated: "Ooo, I'm following you around now..." A laughing Coppola replied: "I'm better with football." 4) Transfer questions remain over fringe players At the tail end of the YouTube video, some players who have been linked with an Albion exit were seen at the club's training ground. Striker Evan Ferguson, who is seemingly nearing a Roma loan move, and midfielder Matt O'Riley, who is attracting Serie A interest, were spotted at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre this week. Advertisement Pervis Estupinan, who has said he could leave Albion this summer, was seen getting his teeth checked (as you do), and Malick Yalcouye - who could head out on loan again - was pictured as well. Finally, Simon Adingra, who just completed a move to Sunderland, was seen on site one last time. It remains to be seen what happens with Ferguson, O'Riley, Estupinan, and Yalcouye ahead of next season.
BBC News
09-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
🎧 Transfers, U21 glory and squad strength
A new episode of BBC Radio Sussex's Albion Unlimited podcast is now available on BBC Cantor and Warren Aspinall break down all the latest transfer news, with a deep dive into Brighton's incomings and outgoings this special guest Adam Hinshelwood joins to chat about his son Jack and James Beadle's incredible success in winning the Under-21 European Championship with England - and gives his take on the growing strength of the Seagulls' to the full episode on BBC Sounds
BBC News
07-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Hinshelwood 'champing at the bit to get going again'
Brighton midfielder Jack Hinshelwood says he is "champing at the bit to get going again" after winning the Under-21 European Championship with the Young Lions title capped off an exciting few weeks for the Albion man, who became a father just three days before the tournament began. "It was a crazy sort of start," he told the Brighton website. "It was an amazing month."To be part of the under-21 team winning the Euros was very special. I loved every moment of it and I wish I could do it all again."But there will be no rest for the 20-year-old as he has chosen to return for pre-season training on Tuesday with the rest of the first-team squad."The club offered me time off but I said I was going to be at home anyway so I might as well come in."I'm so excited already to go back and join the lads again and get going, because the way we finished last season I'm just champing at the bit to get going again."
New York Times
04-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Brighton's Harry Howell, 17, signs first professional contract
Harry Howell has signed his first professional contract with Brighton & Hove Albion. The England junior international attacker has penned a three-year deal after making his Premier League debut in May against Liverpool. Howell became Brighton's youngest Premier League player at 17 years and 29 days old when he came on in the 84th minute in a double substitution with cousin and matchwinner Jack Hinshelwood in the 3-2 victory over the league champions at the Amex Stadium. Advertisement 'He adapted in an impressive way to the first team environment,' head coach Fabian Hurzeler told reporters afterwards. 'He showed impressive performances in training sessions and I am not afraid of putting young players in. 'It's not a question of age for me, it's a question of quality, and if you deserve to play, if you show a really good attitude in training, show what you are capable of, then you deserve to play. He had a great start to his Premier League career. He came into the game and just played like he was here for ten years.' Howell was named in the matchday squad by Hurzeler five times in total from April onwards. His first team involvement with his club restricted him to one goal scoring appearance for England Under-17s in the European Championships in Albania in May in a 4-2 win against the Czech Republic in their closing group fixture, as they missed out narrowly on qualifying for the knockout stages. Howell and Hinshelwood both started out with Brighton at the age of seven. Utility player Hinshelwood has rejected extra time off granted by Hurzeler to his international players after helping England Under-21's win the Euros in Slovakia at the end of June. The squad begin pre-season training on Sunday. Hurzeler is confident that Turkish international full-back Ferdi Kadioglu, ruled out from November last season after toe surgery, will be ready to join in a couple of weeks into the pre-season programme which includes a ten-day training camp in Spain in mid-July. The only first team friendlies open to the public are away to Championship side Southampton on August 2 and against Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg at the Amex on August 9. Hurzeler's second season in charge begins at home to Fulham on August 16. ()
New York Times
30-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Jack Hinshelwood's England glory is just the start – Brighton's academy is thriving
Jack Hinshelwood's success with England at the European Under-21 Championship highlights a production line of local talent coming through Brighton & Hove Albion's academy. Hinshelwood and club colleague James Beadle were part of the team that defeated Germany 3-2 after extra time in the final of the tournament in Slovakia on Saturday evening. Advertisement While 20-year-old goalkeeper Beadle, a Londoner, was signed at age 17 from Charlton Athletic in the January 2022 transfer window, Hinshelwood was born in Worthing — four miles from where his journey began as an under-seven at Brighton's training headquarters in Lancing. Hinshelwood, primarily a central midfielder, was used at left-back and right-back during the Euros by England Under-21s head coach Lee Carsley. The 20-year-old has made spectacular progress over the last two seasons, first under Roberto De Zerbi and then his successor as head coach, Fabian Hurzeler. Brighton's reputation for signing and developing young players from far-flung corners of the world has camouflaged the talent they have nurtured on their doorstep. Alongside the global recruitment operation, matchday squads in the Premier League last season featured five youngsters with bright futures who have come through the club's academy HQ, the American Express Elite Performance Centre (AEEPC). In the 84th minute of Brighton's final home game of the season against Liverpool, Hinshelwood was part of a double substitution with his cousin Harry Howell, who became the club's youngest Premier League player (at 17 years and 29 days old). Hinshelwood credited Howell — a versatile attacker who has represented England under-16s and under-17s — with a near-post run that helped created space for him to convert the winner a minute after the pair were introduced. Six days later, Howell was part of Brighton's bench in a league game for the fifth time of the season. Hinshelwood, back in the starting line-up in a more attacking role, scored twice in the second half of the closing 4-1 win away at Tottenham Hotspur. Howell also started out at the age of seven at the AEEPC. Three other local lads have benefited from the high-tech training facility funded by owner-chairman Tony Bloom and opened in 2014, three years after Brighton opened their 32,000-seater Amex Stadium. Charlie Tasker, a 19-year-old right-back with a strong work ethic who gets up and down the pitch, was an unused substitute in five of Brighton's Premier League games in April before injuries affected his chances of further involvement. The three-year contract, which has the option of a further year, Tasker signed this month reflects his progress. Hurzeler told reporters before the home game against West Ham in April that Tasker, who joined the club as a six-year-old, 'has all the values of this club' and 'the physical basics and mindset to play in the Premier League'. Advertisement Joe Knight, also 19, was an unused substitute in three league games across January and March. A tenacious and gifted central midfielder with distinctive blonde hair, he can play in a deep-lying, box-to-box or attacking midfield role. Completing the set of homegrown academy youngsters is 17-year-old Freddie Simmonds, who made the bench for the 2-2 home draw against Leicester in April. The central defender is accomplished on the ball, and has captained England's under-16s and under-17s. 'That's great numbers,' says Mark Hendon, Brighton's academy co-ordinator from 2005 to 2017, when reflecting on the number of local youngsters making an impact on Brighton's first-team squad. 'It has always been documented that there is not much talent in Sussex and not many players come through and make it. 'Added to Solly March and Lewis Dunk, all of a sudden you have seven players born and bred in Sussex around the first team.' Images on the walls at the AEEPC, proudly displaying the homegrown players who have made it all the way through the system, are taking up more space than ever before. As recently as the 2020-21 season, only four out of 500 players in Premier League squads (0.8 per cent) were born in Sussex — Dunk, March, Brighton team-mate Adam Webster and Fulham midfielder Harrison Reid. Although Webster is from Chichester, he played for Portsmouth, Aldershot Town (on loan), Ipswich Town and Bristol City before signing for Brighton for £20million ($27m) in August 2019. Examples of players such as Reid and Webster slipping through the net or being lured by other clubs are increasingly rare. First-team stalwarts Dunk, 33, and 30-year-old March pre-date the AEEPC and the Amex Stadium. When they came through, the task of identifying and developing young talent was run on a shoestring by Martin Hinshelwood, Jack's great uncle. The senior squad prepared for matches in the lower divisions at Withdean Stadium — a converted athletics track — with training sessions at the University of Sussex, a stone's throw from the Amex Stadium site. The under-18s trained and played matches at the university on pitches inferior to the 11 natural grass and artificial pitches at the pristine AAEPC. Advertisement Centres of excellence were run out of leisure centres in Worthing and Eastbourne on sand-based artificial pitches, with Martin Hinshelwood overseeing a skeleton staff and unpaid scouts. 'There was no money, no resources, everyone was voluntary,' says Hendon, who initially worked for the club on a part-time basis. 'They gave us a club coat and off we went scouting.' Despite the limitations, midfielder Tommy Fraser and full-back Sam Rents several came through the system to make debuts in League One during the reign of former club midfielder Dean Wilkins between 2006 and 2008. Other locally bred talents familiar to Wilkins in his previous role as youth-team coach were blooded in the Championship by manager Mark McGhee from 2004 to 2006. They included central defenders Tommy Elphick and Joel Lynch, winger Dean Cox and striker Joe Gatting. The hit rate was impressive in the circumstances, but the AEEPC was kickstarted a slicker, more forensic operation. David Burke, appointed head of football operations at the beginning of 2012, had experience of establishing academies in previous jobs at Fulham, Southampton and Manchester City. The club secured Category One academy status — the highest of four levels in England — in July 2014, four months before the AEEPC opened. 'Everything changed overnight in terms of facilities and resources but also in structure,' says Hendon. 'We could put a proper team together, pay them (full-time). We could cover everything locally and nationally.' Contact time increased from training once a week and a game on a Sunday to three or four sessions per week. 'All of a sudden, these kids were getting loads more hours, touches on the ball, and it ended up with these players coming right through,' Hendon says. 'It changed the perception. Everyone local then wanted to be at the local club. We set up five or six centres around Sussex, purely for pre-academy ages. We wanted to scout the raw talent early, then we invited them to three sessions at those centres. David (Burke) called it 'systematic coverage'. 'We aimed to watch every player we could in Sussex — Saturday clubs, Sunday clubs, the schools, the districts, the counties. We didn't miss anything. The seven- and eight-year-olds would be at their centres once a week, then train at the main centre, the best 10 or 12. 'We also held lots of mini tournaments at the training ground. David always used to say it was Tony's ambition to bring a player through from the early days of the academy to the first team. That is the 10-year recruitment cycle we are talking about now.' Tasker was in the under-nines when the AEEPC opened. 'We were blown away,' says Tasker's dad, Alan. 'It was absolutely 'wow'. Suddenly, they were in the training ground with amazing facilities. When kids are that age, they are almost too young to know what is going on. All they know is that they are enjoying playing football. Advertisement 'At that point, it probably meant more for the parents. It was our dream for him to be scouted by Brighton, it was a dream for him to be signed. We've been to most of the training grounds in the countries over the years. It's right up there. Other than Manchester City's, I don't think I have seen a better training ground.' Investing in the academy structure for monitoring and developing players has continued to expand over the years. Cameras installed on pitches allow analysts to sit inside and film matches, using a joystick to zoom in on passages of play and individual moments. Staffing has included interns working full-time on placements from the University of Chichester and youngsters on work experience at weekends to help with coverage of games. Bloom's ambition to see a product of the AEEPC go all the way through to the first team was fulfilled by Hinshelwood, who made his Premier League debut in May 2023, a month after his 18th birthday. It gathered pace last season with Howell, Tasker, Knight and Simmonds. The more Brighton establish themselves as a top-half Premier League club, the tougher it will get to rise all the way through the ranks, but there is a special connection between the player and fans when it happens. Hendon, now an agent for Sporting Talent, says: 'No one has got a crystal ball, so we don't know if it is going to be replicated, but everything is in place to carry on. There is every chance that we could have the same conversation in 10 years and today's under-sevens and under-eights will be making it. (Top photos: Getty Images)
