Premier League club not in bottom five tipped for relegation as manager’s future questioned

Feb 10, 2026 - 00:00

Relegation from the Premier League appears a more likely outcome for Brighton than qualifying for Europe this season.

That’s the view of talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham, who struggles to see the Seagulls being successful with Fabian Hurzeler at the helm.

Lewis Dunk reacts to Brighton losing against Crystal Palace. — Brighton’s dismal run of form continued with their defeat to Palace

Brighton have only one win in their last 12 league fixtures, with a 1-0 home defeat to rivals Crystal Palace on Sunday their latest blow.

They are 14th and eight points off the bottom three, so face the risk of being dragged into a surprise relegation battle.

Recent form marks a significant decline from Hurzeler’s first season, when they narrowly missed out on European qualification in eighth.

When evaluating the candidates to go down, the Kick Off panel had Wolves and Burnley as two teams that look set for the drop.

West Ham currently occupy the final spot and Nottingham Forest sit three points clear, but it’s Brighton who could also face going down.

“Brighton, I think are in free fall, and I think it’s all going wrong,” Durham said, to which Danny Murphy claimed Hurzeler is ‘getting away with it’.

“Isn’t he getting away with it?” former Liverpool midfielder Murphy continued. “We never talk about it!”

Durham then issued a worrying explanation as to why their future in the Premier League beyond this season is by no means a certainty.

“It’s one win since the end of November, which I think might surprise a lot of people,” he said. “Fans were booing, I was there the previous week against Everton, the fans were not happy then either.

“There were accusations at Hurzeler, for something he didn’t do this week, which was bringing on [James] Milner with a couple minutes left [amid Premier League appearance record]. Why is he doing that?

Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler. — talkSPORT’s Durham has questioned if Hurzeler is the right man for the job

“Both times it had happened, they conceded late goals, questions were being asked by the fans.

“Now the CEO, Paul Barber, said in the programme yesterday about how, ‘There are 19 other clubs in the Premier League, and it’s not easy’. Okay, we all know that, mate.

“He also mentioned heightened expectations. What he failed to mention was the expectations were set by Tony Bloom, the owner of Brighton, at the start of the season.

“The owner did an interview, and he said their expectation was to qualify for Europe via a league place.

“Now, I thought this was odd because, he didn’t dismiss the cups, he didn’t say, ‘We don’t want to win the cups’, or anything ridiculous like that, but he did point out the latter stages of cup competitions are hard because you usually face some of the best teams in the world, the best teams in Europe, absolutely true.

“But this was a couple of months after Palace won the cup [FA Cup], so I was a little bit surprised he went down that road. But his clear target, and he stated it very clearly, qualify for Europe via a league place.

Diego Gomez reacts to Brighton losing against Crystal Palace. — Brighton have had a season to forget so far

“Now, mathematically, they could still do it. There’s no signs that Brighton are going to do it, there are probably more signs they’re going to be going down rather than staying up and getting into Europe.

“For me, they need a reset. I don’t see anything in this manager that tells me that he’s going to be a success at Brighton, he’s going to please the fans at Brighton.

“Their season is becoming a James Milner testimonial season, and the fans must be fuming at that because they’re paying money to see a competitive team and they’re not getting it. Are they in a relegation battle?

“Well, one win in 12. That was at home to Burnley, so it doesn’t count. They’re only on 31 points, they’ve still got to go to Spurs and Leeds. Their next home game is March 1 against Forest, absolutely gigantic for Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club.”