The transfer of Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton to Spurs is as good as complete for a cool £52 million and a 20 percent sell on clause – but it includes no Luka Vuskovic.
Meaning if the Albion are to land a player hailed one of the best young centre backs in Europe, they will have to pay Tottenham in cold, hard cash. Which may prove something of a problem.
Brighton have seen two bids worth £30 million and £35 million rejected for Vuskovic. Spurs want closer to £60 million for the 19-year-old.
Such a fee would not just break the Albion’s transfer record. It would smash it into pieces. Georginio Rutter remains the most expensive signing in Brighton history at £40 million from 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United in the summer of 2024.
£60 million would also put Vuskovic in the top 10 most expensive defenders in football history. The transfer market may well have gone crazy in recent years.
But not crazy enough for anyone to pay that amount for a teenager whose top level experience amounts to one season in the Bundesliga. Right?
How much would Brighton be willing to pay for Vuskovic?
The Albion have shown in the past they are not averse to spending big on potential. £29 million on Charalampos Kostoulas last summer being the prime example.
Carlos Baleba also represented something of a gamble when Brighton paid £25 million for his services based on a career consisting of under 1,000 minutes for Lille in Ligue 1.
How much then might they be willing to pay Vuskovic? The talk coming into the summer was that although the Albion need greater squad depth to cope with the added workload of Conference League football, there was no intention of breaking the transfer record or repeating the spending spree of over £200 million Tony Bloom sanctioned in the 2024-25 season.
Based on that stance, we can assume Brighton will not be willing to go north of £40 million. Yet that still leaves them £20 million short of Tottenham’s valuation. A big bridge to gap when two offers have already been fired in.
Is Luka Vuskovic worth £60 million?
Vuskovic enjoyed a sensational 2025-26 campaign on loan at Hamburg. He played 30 games in all competitions, scoring six goals to help Hamburg survive their first season back in the Bundesliga since 2017-18.
Whilst you should always take player valuations on Transfermarkt with a pinch of salt, the skyrocketing of Vuskovic’s is indicative of the superb year he enjoyed.
Vuskovic began the season with a market value of £10.4 million. He is now worth an estimated £52 million. Only nine players had a bigger increase across 2025-26 and Vuskovic stands as the second-most valuable defender aged under 21 in the world, behind only Barcelona star Pau Cubarsi.
The £60 million price tag Spurs have slapped on Vuskovic also reflects his potential to improve. If he continues to develop at the same rate he did in Germany during the 2025-26, he could become a world class centre back over the next five seasons.
Vuskovic struggles for Croatia against England
If though is the key word in that preceding sentence. Watching Vuskovic struggle on his World Cup debut as Croatia lost 4-2 against England before being hauled on 66 minutes was a reminder he is still a very young, raw player.
Impressing in the Bundesliga where both the quality and physicality is less than the Premier League is one thing. Shining in England is another thing entirely. Thomas Tuchel had his Three Lions play like a Premier League side in Dallas and Vuskovic could not live with it.
Although maybe this is another Bloom masterclass? Tell Vuskovic to look like a donkey playing against England. Reduce his transfer value. Brighton then sweep in with a third bid of £35 million and Tottenham bite their hand off for it.
There is a reason why Bloom and the Albion and the Kings of the Transfer Market…
Vuskovic wants Brighton move
What might help Brighton land Vuskovic for a price the Albion consider more acceptable is that the player is keen on making the move.
He is a young man in a hurry to launch his career. Spurs wanted to keep Vuskovic as backup centre back last season but he knocked on the door of then-Tottenham boss Thomas Frank and demanded a loan move for regular football.
Vuskovic will not be happy sitting on the bench at Spurs in 2026-27. Something which looks likely with Tottenham having signed both Jan Paul van Hecke and Marcos Senesi.
Without taking future departures into account, Spurs have 11 centre backs vying for two spots in the 4-2-3-1 of Roberto De Zerbi. Vuskovic is probably behind at least Senesi, Van Hecke, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero of the current squad.
This explains why Vuskovic wants to join Brighton. According to David Ornstein, Vuskovic views the Albion as one of the best clubs in Europe for developing young talent.
He knows a move to the Amex would be the best thing for his career. If Vuskovic wanting out of Tottenham to sign for Brighton can help drive down what Spurs are willing to accept from £60 million, the Albion could still yet land him.
Brighton benefitting from their reputation for developing players
Vuskovic is not the only young player with a desire to join Brighton because of the club’s reputation for developing young players.
Already this summer, Zadok Yohanna chose the Albion over bigger money offers from Newcastle United and Chelsea & Hove Albion.
Sky Sports pundit Alan Smith told BestBettingSites.co.uk that more game time and greater playing opportunities is now giving Brighton an edge when it comes to landing the likes of Yohanna and potentially Vuskovic, allowing the Albion to compete in the transfer market against clubs with more financial rescources.
“Brighton have got a good track record of bringing in lads and developing them,” said Smith. “Yohanna is only 18. He has only just broken into first-team football over in Sweden. So he is very much on the bottom rungs of his development, really.”
“But as a player, you might feel that Brighton is a good stepping stone into the top flight where the young lads will get a chance.”
“Brighton appears to be a club where younger players coming in will get a chance and they will develop. They are using that to their advantage in the transfer market.”
Will Brighton and Spurs find a compromise over Vuskovic?
If Vuskovic is to join Brighton from Spurs, clearly some compromise will need to be found between the clubs. The Albion breaking their transfer record or Tottenham lowering their demands are the most straightforward way to a deal. But also the most unlikely.
Depending on how much Brighton want to sign Vuskovic, the Albion could include a first-option in the deal which allows Spurs to buy him back at a future date – either for a pre-determined fee or if they match any bid from another club.
Such a clause would lessen the chances of a bidding war for Vuskovic and therefore restrict Brighton from extracting maximum value from a future sale. Hardly the Bloom way, but perhaps a necessary sacrifice if Brighton are that keen to land Vuskovic.
Another option would be for the Albion to take Vuskovic on a season long loan, as happened with Levi Colwill from Chelsea in 2022-23.
However, that seems unlikely. Yes, it would give Brighton an extra body and more squad depth. But why spend a year developing Vuskovic for the long-term benefit of Spurs when that game time could go towards improving a young centre back the Albion actually own, like Diego Coppola?
From this point, signing Vuskovic does not look easy. Or as another former Tottenham player who went onto join Brighton (albeit as manager rather than centre back) used to say… eeees complicated.
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About The Author
Scott attended his first Brighton game aged two-years-old at the Goldstone Ground. He has since watched over 1,100 matches across four home stadiums, four divisions and feels his parents should be charged with child cruelty for inflicting a lifetime of supporting the Albion on him.
He was part of the team who launched WAB in 2009 and has written about Brighton for the BBC, 90mins, Four Four Two, The Guardian, Sussex World – and even contributed to GQ magazine after becoming mildly-obsessed with Graham Potter’s 2021 glow up.