Brighton No 1 Bart Verbruggen makes Jason Steele claim after Thomas Tuchel's England promotion

Brighton No 1 Bart Verbruggen said he was happy but not surprised when Jason Steele was selected for the latest England squad.

Steele, 35, was included in Thomas Tuchel's squad for the Nations League fixtures as England take on Spain at Wembley, Czech Republic and Croatia away before Czech Republic back at Wembley.

Steele travelled with the England squad last summer and was the training goalkeeper for Tuchel at the World Cup.

Jason Steele is unbelievable

Verbruggen, speaking after Brighton's brilliant 3-0 Premier League win against Arsenal at the Amex Stadium last Saturday, said: "Yeah, everybody, of course, was congratulating him.

"But I also don’t want to take anything away from what he did, because it’s unbelievable, but it’s not a surprise to us."

Steele plays understudy to Verbruggen in the Premier League and is mainly used by head coach Fabian Hurzeler in the cup competitions.

Amazing World Cup for Steele and England

He excelled last Wednesday as Brighton beat Manchester United 3-2 in the Carabao Cup at Old Trafford last week.

Verbruggen added: "We know how good he is. We know his ability. Obviously, all the stories we hear — he did amazing in the World Cup. It was amazing over there.

"So, to us, it’s not a surprise. If he gets a chance to show himself in the summer at the World Cup and gets called up again, he’ll just bring the level he brings every day in training and show everybody how good he is.

"So obviously we were very happy, but not too surprised."

New boss for Verbruggen

Dutch No 1 Verbruggen will also be international duty during the break and he will have a new manager to impress after Xavi Hernández was appointed last month.

Verbruggen established himself as the Netherlands No 1 under previous boss Ronald Koeman but is looking forward to the future and working with Xavi .

“Yeah, of course. I’m so grateful for everything he did for me and for the team. He gave me my chance, and he stuck with me, you know? He trusted me, through good performances or maybe a little bit less good performances, and I always felt his trust. So I’m very grateful.

“But now, of course, the new coach is a big name with a lot of experience. He was born and raised in Barcelona, so the style of play is pretty obvious from what he tried to do in his last teams and jobs.

“So I’m excited. I’m excited to get to know him, get to know the staff and start working, and see if we can do some nice things.”