Leeds United sold arguably their three stand-out performers from last season to three different Premier League clubs last summer.
Homegrown hero Archie Gray left for Tottenham Hotspur. Crysencio Summerville earned himself a move to West Ham after claiming the Championship’s Player of the Year award. Georginio Rutter, the creating kingpin in Daniel Farke’s system, joined Brighton and Hove Albion for a cool £35 million.
It’s fair to say, as far as the former Leeds United trio are concerned, it has been a mixed bag in the top-half.
The award-winning Gray has impressed at Spurs almost despite Ange Postecoglou rather than because of him. A bright spark in a cloudy sky, holding his own despite being left to fend for himself out of position at centre-half.
Summerville, in contrast, has just one goal and one assist in 19 West Ham games. The Dutchman has featured only once in 2025 due to a thigh injury.
Rutter, though, is playing with the sort of consistency Summerville could not muster even when fully fit in claret and blue. Unlike Gray, he is also playing in a settled, coherent system for one of the Premier League’s best-run institutions.
And, in classic Pep Guardiola style, the Manchester City boss could not help but go all wide-eyed and obsessive when asked to comment on the work Fabian Hurzeler has done at the Amex, building impressively upon the foundations laid down by Graham Potter and then Roberto de Zerbi.
Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images
Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images
Pep Guardiola hails former Leeds United ace Georginio Rutter
Rutter was often the glue which held Leeds’ attack together last season. It is a role the former Hoffenheim starlet always seemed well-placed to seize at Brighton, and he’s done just that.
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“They are so good,” Guardiola said while discussing another season of overachievement from the south coast outfit. “When they link inside, with Rutter and Joao Pedro, they are fantastic players. It’s a a fantastic team.
“Really good. They are doing a really good job.”
At £35 million, Rutter is more expensive than the usual cut-price Brighton signing. In fact, he is the most expensive addition in history.
With eight goals and four assists across all competitions, Rutter’s return has been respectable if not spectacular. But he is not the sort of player who can really be judged on goals and assists alone.
Rutter adapts perfectly to the Premier League at Brighton
“I think he showed that he adapted to the Premier League,” Hurzeler said after Rutter guided Brighton past Chelsea in the FA Cup with arguably his finest performances for The Seagulls to date.
Brighton would then thump Enzo Maresca’s side 3-0 in league action shortly after, Rutter ragdolling £115 million man Moises Caicedo to set up Yankuba Minteh.
“He can play very intense. He can be resilient in personal duels,” Hurzeler adds, Rutter as effective out of possession as he is with it.
“There were a lot of personal duels [against Chelsea] and he proved that he can win the majority of them, and that’s why I’m happy with him.”
Brighton gave as good as they got away to Manchester City on Saturday. Had Carlos Baleba brought his shooting boots, they would have taken all three points away from the Etihad. Rutter did get caught in possession in the build up to Omar Marmoush’s first-half stunner.
But, winning the free-kick from which Pervis Estupinan equalised, this was another day in which Rutter proved himself capable of running the show against some of the top talents in English football.
Now, the test facing Archie Gray and Crysencio Summerville is to prove they can do the same on a regular basis.