{"id":586,"date":"2026-06-11T08:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T08:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportprocess.co.uk\/?p=586"},"modified":"2026-06-11T08:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T08:15:15","slug":"a-diamond-to-polish-aspinall-on-yohanna-deal-and-van-hecke-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportprocess.co.uk\/?p=586","title":{"rendered":"A &#8216;diamond to polish?&#8217; &#8211; Aspinall on Yohanna deal and Van Hecke links"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e194fd6b4de42b4223d4d3c7945e8263\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<div class=\"hb-ad-inpage\">\r\n    <div class=\"hb-ad-inner\"> \r\n    <div class=\"hbagency_cls hbagency_space_107374\"><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Former Brighton midfielder Warren Aspinall hopes the club have found a &#8220;diamond&#8221; in Zadok Yohanna after the club agreed a \u00a321.5m deal to sign the teenage winger.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Seagulls secured the signing of the Nigerian forward from Swedish side AIK Stockholm, where he scored five goals and provided four assists in 18 appearances since making his debut in August 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking on the Albion Unlimited podcast, Aspinall said: &#8220;I think it&#8217;s a little bit of a scalp because two other big clubs in England were chasing him in Chelsea and Newcastle, so they got ahead of them which is very good. It might be the right price and the going rate for an 18-year-old up-and-coming, good player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Have we got another diamond to polish up? That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re looking for, these rough diamonds to polish up and sell on for big money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Brighton will be hoping to continue their reputation of improving young talents and selling them on for hefty profit with Yohanna.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Some of the biggest Brighton sales include:<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Aspinall also touched on another player Brighton could command a big fee for as\u00a0<a class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/tottenham-hotspur\">Tottenham<\/a>\u00a0have taken a keen interest in Jan Paul van Hecke and the former Brighton midfielder said it&#8217;s a &#8220;win-win&#8221; scenario for the Seagulls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Spurs have considerable interest in the Dutch defender and have already seen one bid rejected by Brighton, who are reportedly holding out for close to \u00a370m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a big club, Spurs,&#8221; Aspinall said. &#8220;It&#8217;s one of the best stadiums in Europe, probably the best stadium in Europe, and they&#8217;ve underachieved in the last few seasons, but they can win things. It&#8217;s who you want to play for and if he wants to go then it&#8217;s a win-win for Brighton.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a good deal and Brighton will go again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Brighton midfielder Warren Aspinall hopes the club have found<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A &#039;diamond to polish?&#039; 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