
Owner Tony Bloom says there is “no pressure” on Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Fabian Hurzeler to make more use of £30million summer signing Charalampos Kostoulas.
The Greek forward was an unused substitute for Brighton’s 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the last fixture before the October international break. It was the first time the 18-year-old buy from Olympiacos featured in the matchday squad in the opening seven Premier League games of the season.
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Hurzeler is also taking his time with 19-year-old winger Tommy Watson. The £10m summer signing from Sunderland has been on the bench for three of the last four league games without making his league debut for the club.
“Every young player develops at a different rate and Fabian will know when to bring those players in,” Bloom said during an interview with selected media including The Athletic. “It depends on the players’ development. Even though we spend sometimes significant sums for us on young players, there’s no pressure for them to be playing immediately. Absolutely not.
“We’ve got a very good squad, the depth is superb, and so that takes the pressure off us. Perhaps some clubs buy a young player for a lot of money. The expectation and pressure is for them to get in the starting line-up quickly. As far as I’m concerned, at this football club, they’ll get into the first team when they are ready, when Fabian deems them to be ready.”
Kostoulas scored as a substitute in a 2-1 friendly win for Greece Under-21s away against Slovakia during the international break. He came off the bench again in the second half away to Latvia alongside Brighton team-mate Stefanos Tzimas, who scored the only goal in Tuesday’s European Championship qualifier.
Watson was an unused sub for England Under-21s in a 4-0 victory away to Moldova in a European Championships qualifier. He went on in added time in Monday’s 1-0 home win over Andorra in the same competition.
Brighton will check on the availability of Kaoru Mitoma (ankle), Brajan Gruda (knee) and Joel Veltman (calf) for Newcastle’s visit to the Amex Stadium on Saturday.
(George Wood/Getty Images)
Oct 16, 2025
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