According to information at our disposal, Brighton has reached an internal conclusion on whether to meet Tottenham’s asking price to sign Vuskovic, but the club remains unwilling to swallow the £60 million fee outright, and the summer transfer window standoff is far from over.
Over the past few weeks, the two Premier League sides have been locked in reciprocal talks over Vuskovic and Van Hecke. With Van Hecke in the final year of his contract and having previously worked under De Zerbi, there were reports he wanted to reunite with his former manager; Brighton, meanwhile, insisted on extracting maximum value before allowing the player to leave. Frontline reports on Tuesday evening indicated Tottenham had reached an agreement with Brighton on Van Hecke’s transfer — a fixed fee of £52 million with no add-ons — with the Dutch international set to head north to London as a 26-year-old centre-back. That deal is separate from Vuskovic’s future: Brighton’s second bid of £35 million for the player was rejected by Tottenham.
The 19-year-old Vuskovic has yet to make a first-team appearance for Tottenham, but made his name on loan at Hamburg, scoring six goals in 28 Bundesliga games and emerging as a young centre-back on the radar of several European clubs. Reports suggest he has reached a verbal agreement with Brighton over a move, though the Seagulls’ two previous offers were turned down and their latest probe of around £30 million also fell flat. Tottenham would ideally prefer to keep him, but Brighton can offer a more reliable route to regular starts — a point repeatedly raised as leverage in negotiations.
Price remains the biggest obstacle. Tottenham value Vuskovic at around £60 million, and while Brighton has internally completed its assessment of whether to meet that asking price, its stance is to seek a compromise rather than pay in full. There are also reports that Tottenham are prepared to let him go if a bid closer to their preferred figure emerges, but the two sides remain one final round of bargaining away from a handshake.
From a squad perspective, Brighton clearly face pressure to strengthen their defence after ending the 2025-26 season with a 3-0 home defeat on the final day; Tottenham, meanwhile, closed out the same round with a 1-0 win, and if Van Hecke joins, they would land a major addition at centre-back. Whether Wusković can become the Seagulls’ second marquee signing this summer depends on whether Brighton can find a balance between the €60 million asking price and assurances over the player’s development that Tottenham would accept.
