Brighton to beat Newcastle and Arsenal to an 'unusual' £30m January transfer

Brighton and Hove Albion will continue talks to land Leicester City midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall this week.

The Seagulls are not known for spending big in the January transfer window but are pushing hard to land their No 1 target before Thursday’s transfer deadline.

Leicester value their star midfielder at around £30m but so far Brighton are said to be offering £20m for the 25-year-old.

Dewsbury-Hall has been once of Leicester’s best players for the last few seasons and this term, in the Championship, he has a very impressive nine goals and nine assists from central midfield.

Arsenal and Newcastle have both registered interest but it appears the Seagulls have nipped ahead and will hope to finalise the deal this week.

His arrival would be a huge boost for Roberto De Zerbi’s squad as they prepare for the second half the season. Despite many injuries, the Italian has steered Brighton to seventh in the Premier League, into the knockout stages of the Europa League and they also advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup last Saturday with a thumping 5-2 win at Sheffield United.

Dewsbury-Hall would be a fine addition to a Brighton midfield still trying to manage the loss of Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister, who moved last summer to Chelsea and Liverpool respectively.

The Experienced Pascal Gross continues to to be excellent but at 32 the German cannot be expected to continue with such a workload. Billy Gilmour has also developed nicely this term and the return of Jakub Moder is also a welcome boost. Summer arrival Carlos Baleba, 20, is a raw talent who needs time, while Mo Dahoud, who joined on a free transfer last summer, has struggled in the Premier League and has come in for recent criticism from De Zerbi.