Brighton & Hove Albion manager Fabian H\u00fcrzeler has pushed back on reports linking midfielder Carlos Baleba with a move to Manchester United this summer, stressing the club\u2019s position and the player\u2019s current situation.<\/p>\n
Reports say Baleba is interested in the move, but Brighton face significant bargaining power. The player remains under contract for three more years, the club hold an option to extend for another 12 months, and he is valued at over \u00a3100 million ($135.4 million). Those facts, combined with Brighton\u2019s stance, create a clear obstacle to any transfer.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Brighton\u2019s Premier League opener against Fulham, H\u00fcrzeler was asked whether he was confident Baleba would stay beyond this summer. \u201cVery, very, very confident,\u201d he stressed. \u201cThat\u2019s just my belief.\u201d The manager framed his response as a matter of conviction rather than negotiation detail.<\/p>\n
Baleba\u2019s participation in Saturday\u2019s match was uncertain because of a knee injury. H\u00fcrzeler confirmed the player\u2019s fitness will determine his availability and that the midfielder remains an option to start if he proves ready. The manager also dismissed any suggestion that external attention has unsettled the squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t see any change, he\u2019s only changed his hair,\u201d H\u00fcrzeler laughed. \u201cI think that\u2019s the only change he\u2019s made in the last two weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut overall he seems to be in a really good place, he\u2019s enjoying it with his teammates, he\u2019s enjoying being a Brighton player. He\u2019s very grateful to have had the process he had last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t see any big changes and he\u2019s an option to start tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
H\u00fcrzeler\u2019s comments underscore Brighton\u2019s posture: a contracted, highly valued midfielder, the possibility of injury affecting selection, and a manager publicly committed to keeping his squad intact for the season opener. The club\u2019s valuation and the contract situation will be central to any future discussions about Baleba\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
H\u00fcrzeler is ‘very, very, very confident’ Baleba will stay amid valuation and fitness doubts. .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[773],"tags":[215,182],"class_list":["post-1702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brighton-hove-albion","tag-carlos-baleba","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702","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=1702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions\/1703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}