Brighton - 26/27 FPL Draft Pre-Season Thoughts

Written 22nd July 2026 · Everything here very much subject to change, subscribe to the podcast/YouTube channel for all the latest.

This blog is part of Draft FC's Team-by-Team 2026/27 early pre-season series — see all 20 previews in one place here

A team continuing to improve

8th on 53 points and back into Europe via the Conference League play-off round. Hürzeler has really grown into this job, the style continues - high possession, vertical, aggressive press, youth everywhere - and unfortunately for us draft managers, the rotation continues in certain areas too. Brighton were one of my favourite teams to predict last season, I felt like I was starting to really get what they were about and enjoyed watching them. They were unlucky not to qualify for the Euopa league proper, but as Crystal Palace showed, for a team like Brighton it may be fun to be in a competition they'll likely be favourites to win outright.

Also for a club like Brighton, seen as a player-development factory, the ability to throw out their young prospects every Thursday against mediocre opposition is exactly what their business model needs.

Fair amount of transfer churn as usual

Most of the movement has been in defence so far this summer.

Out: Van Hecke to Spurs for £52m, plus an entire generation of veterans - Webster, Veltman and March (he'll be playing for someone in the PL next season) released and Milner finally retired.

In: Pascal Struijk for £20m from Leeds, Luka Vušković from Spurs for upwards of £50m, Yohanna for £24m from AIK (the next right-wing prospect) and Costinha from Olympiacos for some right-back depth.

The local lad

It doesn't matter how good your transfer business is, nothing beats a local lad coming through to the first team. Hinshelwood is my favourite Brighton pick at the moment and a product of their youth set-up, not their data analysts. He became an absolute must-have late last season - his NPxGI per 90 down the stretch was up with the very best in the league - and this time he should be nailed on from the opening day. 91 points in only 1,750 minutes tells you what a full season might look like, and our model agrees, projecting him at 162, the top Brighton outfielder. 0.49 xGI per 90 towards the end and 4.7 FPL pts per 90. This is the sleeper that won't stay secret but wherever you take him on draft day, it may still feel a bit high.

Best of the rest

How is Danny Welbeck still delivering the goods!? 13 goals, penalties, seemingly ageless. The catch is the minutes - he physically can't play more than he did last year, if anything the load gets managed further down, especially now there are European Thursdays too. A solid 2nd/3rd forward, not a weekly banker. Mitoma is a player plenty of people rate as a proper attacking asset; I've had him in the stock midfielder camp for a while, and 62 points last season did nothing to change my mind, though I'm genuinely happy to be proven wrong. Minteh showed flashes with 8 assists but was in and out of the side. Verbruggen is a decent keeper regardless of the team performances. Then Pascal Groß, back since January, was a lovely bit of nostalgia without quite being draft-day material anymore. And finally my old mate Wieffer, who has just been given a position change from midfield to defence. This is a huge boost for him! Lower defcon threshold (not that he needs it) and the ability to score full clean sheet points. There are some downsides too, but overall this should be putting him a bit higher up on our draft boards.

The opening run

Villa at home, Chelsea away, Leeds at home, Coventry away, Arsenal at home, Sunderland away. There are points in that run - GW3 and GW4 especially, with Leeds at home followed by Coventry away making a proper little window for the attackers. It's not soft enough, or predictable enough, to lift any of the fringe players up the board.

Early verdict

As a football club, Brighton continue to impress - the recruitment, the coaching pathway, the performances, everything. As a draft proposition, I think they continue to add good, underrated value too. The only difficulty is the usual churn in players, but with Hurzeler there for another year, it should be one of their more easy summers to transition through.

Stay shook,

Draft FC Mitch

Where our full rankings live

As I said, these previews are just some of my notes and early thoughts, my complete top 240 rankings live within our members area. The Top 20 reveal stays free so keep your eyes peeled for that episode in early August. The rest though, plus all our other member benefits, sit inside a Draft FC membership and if you want to find out more about that, head here.

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