Are the Albion hoping it will be third time lucky when it comes to buying a striker from the Netherlands? Brighton have been linked with a move for Feyenoord centre forward Ayase Ueda, who is the top scorer in the Eredivisie this season.
The Japan international has 20 goals in 24 Dutch top flight appearances. That red hot form has seen him linked with 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United as well as a move to Liverpool to replace Alexander Isak after the most expensive player in British football history broke his leg.
Current Redmen boss Arne Slot was in charge of Feyenoord when they acquired Ueda from Cercle Brugge for £7.5 million in the summer of 2023.
Ueda scored five times in 26 games in his first season at De Kuip under Slot. He then hit seven in 2024-25 after Slot departed to take the Liverpool job.
The current campaign is on course to be the most prolific of Ueda’s career, eclipsing the 23 goals he plundered for Cercle Brugge in 2022-23 which earned him his move to Feyenoord.
At international level, Ueda has a respectful 16 goals in 36 caps for Japan. The idea of bringing him to the Amex will have pound signs flashing in the eyes of Paul Barber OBE, based on potentially adding to the already-large number of tourist fans who flock to Brighton to see Kaoru Mitoma every season.
Should Brighton secure the signing of Ayase Ueda, Mitoma would not be the only Albion teammate he is familiar with. Ueda also played with Yankuba Minteh, Mats Wieffer and Ibrahmin Osman at Feyenoord.
Ayase Ueda can ease the Brighton burden on Danny Welbeck
Aged 27 and therefore presumably at the peak of his powers, Ayase Ueda is a different profile to the striker business we have seen Brighton do over the past 18 months.
The Albion have focussed on young forwards with potential like Stefanos Tzimas and Charalampos Kostoulas. Not that either came particularly cheap, costing a combined £51 million.
In terms of playing style, Ueda is similar to Danny Welbeck. He is good in the air, makes intelligent runs into clever positions and can hold the ball up well to bring in others. All traits needed to lead the line in the favoured 4-2-3-1 formation of Fabian Hurzeler.
Ueda also has the same clinical finishing ability as Dat Guy. An area regular Feyenoord watchers say he has clearly worked on coming into this season. Hence the trebling of his best ever goals tally for the Dutch giants with over two months of the season still to play.
Welbeck has just signed a new one-year Brighton contract and although he has now scored double figures in consecutive campaigns for the first time in his career, Dat Guy is not getting any younger.
At the other end of the scale, Tzimas and Kostoulas are both raw and inexperienced. Neither has been trusted to play many Premier League minutes, although Tzimas looked like he might be starting to break through until an unfortunate season-ending ACL injury.
To come into the 2025-26 campaign with only Welbeck as a senior centre forward option backed up by two Greek teenagers always looked a risky move.
And so it has proven with Georginio Rutter continually filling in as a false nine. A position everyone knows he cannot play.
Brighton signing Ayase Ueda would fill a glaring gap in the squad as a striker to ease the burden on Welbeck born before Leona Lewis won The X Factor.
The ghosts of Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh
Reports suggest Feyenoord would want between £25 million and £30 million for Ueda. With a contract running through to 2028 at De Kuip, they are under no pressure to sell.
Some Brighton fans may consider £30 million for a striker proven in the Eredivisie a good fee based on Kostoulas costing the same after one season in Greek football.
Others though will recall the ghosts of attacking players with impressive scoring records previously signed from the Netherlands. We refer of course to DJ Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh.
Locadia cost a then-club record £14 million in January 2018. He arrived at the Amex with nine goals in 15 Eredivisie outings for PSV Eindhoven.
Over the next four years he was an Albion player, Locadia released a music album and became an Instagram influencer for posting thoughtful pictures with inspirational captions. Your authors personal favourites included Locadia staring pensively into a fridge and having his hair cut.
All good stuff if you like your strikers to be a full-time DJ, part time footballer. Not so great if you want them scoring goals. Locadia managed six in 46 matches before being released on a free.
Jahanbakhsh meanwhile was extremely likeable. The problem being he just wasn’t cut out for the Premier League.
Despite costing another then-club record fee of £17 million off the back of finishing as Eredivisie top scorer in 2017-18 with 21 goals in 33 matches for AZ Alkmaar.
Jahanbakhsh managed four goals and two assists from 64 appearances in an Albion shirt. He departed to Feyenoord for a token £1 million in the summer of 2021.
17 goals in 106 games followed at De Kuip with Jahanbakhsh an important part of the side who were crowned Dutch champions in 2002-23 – the season before Ueda became a Feyenoord player.
All things considered then, the Seagulls do not have a great record bringing in prolific forwards from the Eredivisie. Which suggests the jump from scoring goals in the Netherlands to doing it in the Premier League is massive.
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