Tag: Vitesse Arnhem

Technically gifted Davy Pröpper a top talent in Albion’s midfield

DUTCH INTERNATIONAL Davy Pröpper was a mainstay of Albion’s midfield in the club’s first three seasons in the Premier League.

He joined for a reported £11.7million (a record at the time) from PSV Eindhoven and instantly became a regular in the side as a holding midfielder alongside Dale Stephens.

Describing the 25-year-old as “a strong competitor”, Albion boss Chris Hughton said: “There is no doubting his pedigree, Davy has played a number of matches in the Champions League for PSV, as well as international football for the Netherlands.”

The player said he had spoken to Danny Holla (a much less successful Dutch midfielder who played for Brighton between 2014 and 2016) who told him good things about the club and the city.

Pröpper told Nick Ames, of The Observer, he knew it was time to move on from PSV after they’d been eliminated from the Europa League play-offs at the hands of the Croatian side Osijek in early August 2017.

“There were other clubs interested, but not from England, and the Premier League was very important for me. I’d been really close to joining Zenit St Petersburg in the winter break; they wanted to pay a lot of money but PSV didn’t want to sell me at the time and I wasn’t especially disappointed. I preferred to move on in the summer.”

Pröpper succeeded Beram Kayal as Stephens’ regular midfield sidekick and, in a matchday programme interview, declared: “We are working really well as a partnership – Dale’s a great player. My partnership with him is probably the best of my career, although this is the first time I’ve played in a formation where we have two holding midfielders.

Pröpper hailed his midfield partnership with Dale Stephens

“We are the shield in the team and maybe we don’t get noticed as much as other players. But we’re happy with that. I think we are underrated as a pair but I also think that not being in the spotlight is a good thing for us. We can just get on with what we do.”

He may have felt underrated, but his former PSV coach, Phillip Cocu, who managed Derby County in the Championship in 2019-20, was full of admiration, telling The Athletic: “He was an absolute quality player in the sense of his technical ability.

“He controls the ball but his vision in the game and his awareness is so high. His endurance is unbelievable. He can go 120 minutes up and down if he needs to.

“He developed excellent vision. He is a very complete player. He has a good size, a good tactical interpretation of the game and his technical part of the game is excellent.”

Hughton’s successor Graham Potter was also impressed. He told The Athletic in March 2020: “He’s a very, very good player. He plays in the Dutch national team in front of Van Dijk and alongside (Frenkie) de Jong. You have to be good to do that. I like him as a person. He’s quiet but, when he speaks, he speaks with intelligence. I think he is enjoying his football and he’s a joy to work with.”

Pröpper up against Virgil Van Dijk

When Van Dijk was asked about his compatriot after Liverpool edged a 2-1 win over the Albion in late 2019, he said: “Davy is a fantastic player. He is very important for our country and a great guy.”

Pröpper almost always looked comfortable playing in England’s elite league and, for example, a hip swerve and pinpoint cross with the outside of his boot for a Pascal Gross goal at Old Trafford in January 2019 was described by Albion writer Scott McCarthy as “an outrageous piece of skill from an outrageously talented player.”

Pröpper admitted: “To line up in midfield against all these great players is something that helps bring the best out of my game and was a reason why I wanted to come to the Premier League in the first place.”

Fans weren’t always convinced, though, some viewing him as a bit languid at times. However,

Pröpper scores one of his only two Albion goals away at Leicester

wearebrighton.com declared: “Surging runs forward from midfield became a trademark move. Pröpper was one of our most talented players and would frequently do things that other players couldn’t.”

The one thing missing from his game at Brighton was goals. He had found the net seven times in each of his last two seasons with Vitesse Arnhem, then scored 22 goals in all competitions across two seasons at PSV.

He only scored twice in 121 games for Brighton yet he scored three in 19 appearances for his country. Fourteen of those caps were won while he was at the Albion.

In action for his country against England’s Dele Alli

Propper explained: “All the clubs before, we played three in midfield and one holding, I wasn’t holding, so it was more like a ten or eight. That’s changed a little bit but if I have a chance, I need to score.”

Goals aside, during his second season with the club, Pröpper was sure his game had improved. “I can think and act a bit quicker when I get the ball now,” he said. “I realise that I need to know where my teammates are, otherwise opponents here take the ball off you so quickly.

“Obviously the Premier League is very different to the Eredivisie, so it took a period to adapt to the pace of the game here, but I feel comfortable playing in the Premier League and I’m enjoying my football.”

Enjoyment was obviously a decisive factor for Pröpper and having made 110 league and cup appearances, his last season with the Seagulls was a major disappointment. A combination of increased competition in midfield, a niggling Achilles injury picked up in pre-season, illness and the Covid pandemic limited his involvement and led to him falling out of love with the game.

In a passionate farewell to Brighton, Pröpper said: “Football is difficult, people go in separate ways, but I have made a few friends for life here. My time with Brighton I will never forget.”

He reflected: “It was tough coming from Holland to England because it is such a big change; the physicality is at a much higher level. The way the game is played here is completely different in terms of intensity and there was a period of adaptation. But we did well from the off and have always proved that we deserve to be at the top level.”

Although he returned to his former club PSV Eindhoven (left) in the summer of 2021, six months later he quit football at the age of just 30 and his old Albion boss, Potter, said: “We spoke at length with Davy when he was here and supported him through a tough time in his life.

“It is not easy to start the process of thinking ‘maybe football is not the right thing for me.’ It is a big decision to make and I think Davy has made a brave one.

“He was a Dutch guy living in the UK in lockdown, so he didn’t get to see much of his family and friends and that was an added pressure.

“For me, he was a great guy to have around, was always professional and was always trying. But that is life sometimes, these things happen and people want to do different things and I fully respect that.

“He had all our support while he was here and we wish him the best now. I have nothing but good things to say about Davy both as a professional and as a person.”

The player himself said: “During the period that I was abroad, I noticed that I slowly lost the pleasure of football. I found it extremely difficult to muster the discipline necessary to perform optimally and to let my life completely be determined by the busy football schedule.

“The Corona period and the lack of visits from family and friends did me no good then either.”

Explaining that making the decision to quit felt like a relief, he added: “This is how I know it’s the right choice.”

Born in Arnhem, the eastern Netherlands city close to the German border, on 2 September 1991, Pröpper was the eldest of three footballing brothers, all of who were coached by their father, Peter, at the local amateur club VDZ in their formative years. Centre-back Robin has mainly played in his homeland but spent the 2024-25 season with Rangers in Scotland. Mike, also a defender, has included Den Bosch among Dutch clubs he’s played for.

Early days at Vitesse Arnhem

After two years at VDZ, Davy spent the next four years with the academy at Vitesse Arnhem, the club he’d supported as a boy, before turning pro aged 16 in 2008 and making his first team debut two years later.

Pröpper played as a striker in his formative years and only switched to midfield at Vitesse when he was 20. Before that, in common with other Dutch youngsters, he was encouraged to play in different positions, although he said: “In some ways it’s good, but in other ways not so good because you need to keep improving in your best position.

“But I did learn a lot of different things playing in different positions and I think as a midfielder that has helped me.”

It would seem Pröpper had something of a crisis of confidence when his Vitesse career didn’t progress quite as quickly as he’d hoped and he told Ames, of The Observer, in September 2017: “I went to see someone, I guess you’d call him a motivational coach, and it helped me a lot at the time.

“He told me that events were there to be shaped by me, and not about the choices a trainer or somebody else makes. It led to a change in my career; when I didn’t play, I was able to throw the problem away a little bit. I didn’t keep disappointments in my head.”

After 162 appearances for Vitesse and scoring 21 goals, in 2015 he moved up a level and joined PSV Eindhoven, explaining to Hames: “Taking that internal step was the best route for me. I needed some time just to see how it goes and feel comfortable.”

A highlight during his time with PSV was scoring the winning goal at home to CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Champions League that sent the club into the last 16 of the competition for the first time in nine years. He also only missed one league match as PSV won the Eredivisie title for a second season in a row.

Having spent a year out of the game following his decision to quit, Pröpper had a change of heart and tried to revive his career back where it all started, at Vitesse Arnhem.

He trained for eight weeks before deciding to give it another go, telling the club website: “It’s only when you distance yourself or say goodbye to something, you find out what it really means to you. You get an eye for the positive aspects again. That is, of course, football itself, but also the cooperation, performance and being part of a team and a club.”

He reflected: “I have many happy and warm memories of my thirteen years at this club. Vitesse has shaped me and feels like my home in terms of football.”

It helped that there was a familiar face in his old PSV coach Phillip Cocu, but, alas, he mustered only five appearances and he opened up on the club website, saying: “My return at Vitesse unfortunately did not have the effect I had hoped in advance.

“I regret that enormously. Due to various injuries, I have barely been able to make minutes at my club. Since there is no prospect of better either, I have decided to definitely stop playing football from next season. It’s better that way.”

In March 2026, the Albion welcomed Pröpper back to the training ground at Lancing for an under 15s match between the Albion and Vitesse Arnhem.

Pröpper, who was pictured (right) with fellow Dutchman Joel Veltman, became assistant to Vitesse’s under 15s coach Richard van der Lee in June 2025.

Illness and injury brought Izzy Brown’s dream to an early end

IZZY BROWN was just 20 when he joined Albion on a season-long loan from Chelsea hoping to prove his worth as a Premier League striker.

Sadly, a serious anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury meant that ambition was thwarted after only four starts and eight appearances off the bench.

Then, at the age of 26, a twice-ruptured Achilles tendon forced him to quit the game altogether.

Brown’s ascent to the elite level of English football was rapid. He was only 16 when he made his debut for West Bromwich Albion, becoming the second-youngest player in Premier League history when he went on for the Baggies towards the end of a 3-2 defeat against Wigan in May 2013.

Two months later, Chelsea offered him five times more than West Brom were paying him and he switched to Stamford Bridge to join their scholarship scheme.

The financial cushion they gave him at such a tender age meant retiring from the game early came as less of a blow than it might have done.

“I’m thankful to Chelsea for everything they’ve ever done for me because if it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what my life would be like now,” Brown told Nancy Froston in an exclusive April 2023 interview with The Athletic.

“They put me in a position where, while it’s not that I don’t ever want to work again, it has set me up to provide for my family for quite a few years.”

Brown spent eight years as a Chelsea player although Brighton were the fourth of seven clubs he joined on loan over that period.

Although he scored twice on his Chelsea debut in a 5-0 pre-season friendly win over Wycombe Wanderers, he made only one competitive first team appearance and that was as a sub against his old club, West Brom, in May 2015. Chelsea lost 3-0 and Brown saw only 11 minutes of action when Jose Mourinho sent him on to replace Loic Remy.

Brown had previously been an unused sub on several occasions in the second half of the 2014-15 season, but that summer he was sent on loan to Vitesse Arnhem where he registered just the one goal in 24 appearances.

In the 2016-17 season, Brown had two loans in Yorkshire: scoring three in 20 matches for Rotherham United and then five in 21 for their fellow Championship side Huddersfield Town.

He was involved in the Terriers’ Championship play-off final win over Reading and there were reports they wanted to make his move permanent, with a fee of £8m mentioned.

But Brown thought it wasn’t the right move for him, still harbouring hopes of making it at Chelsea. “I’m still learning and I feel Brighton is the place for me to develop further,” he said.

“There were plenty of clubs calling my agent but Brighton was always my number one choice,” he told the matchday programme. He explained he wanted to learn from manager Chris Hughton, adding: “The facilities here and the ambition of the club was also important for me.”

Hughton said of the youngster: “He’s a very flexible forward player. We brought him in very much as a (number) ten, where he had played for Huddersfield last season.

“In his first loan at Rotherham he played very much off the front, went abroad played off the left, and in his first game for us and in pre-season was on the left. He has that versatility in his game.”

That first league game was the opening day defeat at home to Manchester City and he went off injured (replaced by Jamie Murphy) as Albion went down 2-0. He didn’t re-appear until 1 October away to Arsenal when he struggled as an orthodox striker in another 2-0 defeat.

Thereafter, he only made two more league starts – the 5-1 home battering by Liverpool and a 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield.

Although Crystal Palace in the third round of the FA Cup on 8 January gave him a chance to show what he could do from the start, the game was only six minutes old when he was forced off with the knee injury that brought his time with Albion to a close.

Hughton saw it as a big blow because he had been planning to make much more use of the young striker in the second half of the season.

“You would have seen him much more involved,” he said. “He’d had a slight hamstring injury when he first came which kept him out for a few weeks.

“But certainly I would have seen him play in more games than perhaps in that first half,” said Hughton.

“He is a very popular player here. Before he’d come here, he’d had a couple of other loans and I think that adapted him well going into a new environment.”

Brown himself had said the only player he knew before his arrival was Connor Goldson through his friendship with Jonny Taylor, who Brown had played with at Rotherham.

Deprived of Brown’s services, Hughton brought in Jurgen Locadia from PSV Eindhoven and a familiar face in Leonardo Ulloa, returning to the Amex on loan from Leicester City.

Although both were on the scoresheet when Albion dispensed with Coventry City in the fifth round of the FA Cup, it would probably be fair to say neither were a rip-roaring success. The combination of Glenn Murray and Pascal Gross were the main goal contributors.

Born in Peterborough on 7 January 1997, Isaiah Brown, to give him his proper name, said in an emotional open letter on his retirement: “As soon as I could walk, I always had a football at my feet. That was me, that was my happy place.”

He was talented enough to represent England at under 16, under 17, under 19 and under 20 levels, winning a total of 34 caps.

At Chelsea, he was in the side that won the Under-21 Premier League title in 2013-14 and the UEFA Youth League the following season.

After the disappointment of his time at Brighton being curtailed, he was still recovering in August 2018 when he went back to Yorkshire on loan to Championship Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa.

But once recovered, he was mainly involved in United’s under 21 side. He only made two substitute appearances for the first team, one in a 1-0 league defeat at QPR and one in the end-of-season play-off final that Leeds lost 4-3 on aggregate to Derby.

The following season once again saw him head out on loan for a season, this time to Luton Town. He scored once in 19 starts, plus nine games as a sub, as the Hatters narrowly avoided relegation from the Championship.

The 2020-21 season once again saw Brown heading to Yorkshire, this time with Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship.

It was a season that saw the club have three full-time managers and a caretaker, finishing bottom of the league and relegated to League One. Brown made only five starts plus 16 appearances off the bench.

With his contract at Chelsea finally coming to an end, his next move was a permanent switch away from the Bridge, and he signed a one-year deal with Preston North End.

Head coach Frankie McAvoy said: “He’s got good pedigree. He’s got great experience in terms of playing in the Championship and an ex-Chelsea player from a young age.

“He’s had quite a few loans over his time, some he’s done well, others maybe latterly not done as well as he hoped, so he just needs to find that self-belief again and confidence. But we’re certainly getting a player with undoubted talent, very offensive and we’re looking forward to working with him.

“He can play across the front, but probably his preferred position is a ten behind a striker or two, depending on how we play.

“He can also play in pockets off right and left, so he adds that bit of versatility to our front players and I think if we can get him up and running, believing in himself, being confident in his own ability then I’m sure he’ll endear himself to the Preston faithful.”

Brown, by then 24, said: “Now I’m getting to that age where I want to develop myself as a player and hopefully be a legend at a club, and I really feel like Preston’s a place where I could do that.”

But less than a month after signing for North End, he ruptured an Achilles during pre-season training – and he never actually played a competitive game for Preston.

“We had a pre-season game against Celtic when I was at Preston and I felt some pain in my Achilles, but it wasn’t too bad,” Brown told Froston. “Then we had a couple of days off, I came back for training and then I just passed the football, like I’d done a million times before, and I heard a pop. I thought someone had kicked me but no one was around me.

“It had snapped. So I had the surgery and it went well, but we noticed there was like a little gap in my Achilles.

“We thought maybe it’s not healed properly, but this was only after two months so we gave it time. Then I went out for some dinner and stepped down a small step and it snapped again.

“So I had two Achilles surgeries in the space of three and a half months. To come back from one is hard. To come back from two is basically impossible.”

On top of those football injuries, he got sick with hand, foot and mouth disease, then had an issue with his nervous system that led to muscle loss and affected the nerves in his feet.

He was subsequently told he had a rare and serious condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome and it was apparent he would have to retire from playing football.

In a revealing interview with Froston, he concluded: “Football was my dream. It still is my dream. But dreams have to end one day.”

In the open letter he wrote on his retirement, he said: “Football doesn’t define me as a person. I’m a father, a son, a brother and a friend, and I will be that after football.

“I’ve lived my dream and memories that will stay with me forever. To every club that I have played for, I really appreciate you all for believing in me and giving me a chance to play the game I love.”