Brighton & Hove Albion manager Fabian H\u00fcrzeler confirmed that centre back Jan Paul van Hecke will hold talks over his future at the club. H\u00fcrzeler made clear his appreciation for the defender and signalled a willingness to find a solution that suits both player and club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Jan Paul,\u201d H\u00fcrzeler said in a press conference. \u201cI love his attitude, how he works for the team, I love his mentality of winning. He has a big impact on his teammates; therefore I would love to continue working with him, because we have a really good relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
The timing of any decision may be affected by van Hecke\u2019s likely involvement with the Netherlands this summer in North America for the 2026 World Cup. H\u00fcrzeler said he wants to include the player\u2019s perspective when planning ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also like some perspective from the players regarding their future,\u201d H\u00fcrzeler added. \u201cWe will sit together, try to make a decision that is best for the club, that is best for the player. Jan Paul knows what he has with Brighton. He\u2019s always had the opportunity to play, to grow, to make the next step.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope to make the next step together, to be successful with him. This will be our main challenge and then we see how it\u2019s going.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the eyes of Chelsea, van Hecke\u2019s greatest strength will be his clean bill of health. Chelsea\u2019s defence has been hampered this season by injuries to key players, with Reece James sidelined by a hamstring problem, Trevoh Chalobah recovering from an ankle issue and Levi Colwill out with a knee injury. Chelsea\u2019s reinforcements, namely Wesley Fofana and Mamadou Sarr, have not proven themselves, contributing to defensive disorganization.<\/p>\n
Van Hecke has been a consistent presence for Brighton, starting 29 matches for the Seagulls this season and contributing three goals and two assists. H\u00fcrzeler stressed the player\u2019s leadership and consistency in training and matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is good at keeping a structure in defensive shape and on top of that he is a great leader,\u201d H\u00fcrzeler said. \u201cHe is leading by performance. He is a role model for that, every training session 100 percent, every game 100 percent. Therefore, he has all the characteristics to be a future leader for this club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke to discuss his future as Chelsea monitor his availability more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[773,190,1163],"tags":[1393],"class_list":["post-11508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-chelsea","category-transfers","tag-centre-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}