Interviews

Veltman: We're becoming Premier League mainstays

Defender thinks club's aim of a stable top ten place is now in their sights.

By Charlie Hanson • 03 February 2023

By Paul Hazlewood
Joel Veltman has been impressed by Albion's character this season.

Joel Veltman believes that one of the main aims of the club when he first arrived is close to being achieved.

The defender signed in 2020 when one of the club’s key goals was to be a regular presence the Premier League’s top ten.

Having finished ninth last season and currently sixth after 19 games, the 31-year-old believes that another top ten-finish would help us to become an established top half team.

“You have goals as a club, that’s really important,” Veltman said. “The target is there on the training ground wall: ‘we want to be an established top ten Premier League club.’ We finished ninth last season and if we can finish in the top half again then you can start talking about that stability. Then if we finish in the top ten next year we’re getting closer to the goal.

By Paul Hazlewood
Joel gets ready to embrace Solly March after the winger's goal against Liverpool.

“We’ve still got 50% of the season to play, so it’s too early to say where we will finish this year though.

“I knew how good the club was when I arrived [in 2020]. There are good players and staff and I knew we could reach this level. What we are doing right now is seeing every game as a cup final and it’s working.”

We are four points better off after 19 games than in any of our previous five Premier League seasons.

Joel points to the team’s character as the biggest change and their never say die attitude.

02:15

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PL Highlights: Leicester 2 Albion 2

“Every game we’re going into we want the three points, even at Manchester City, that’s our goal. At my last club Ajax the goal was ‘we have to win’, but at Brighton its ‘we want to win’, that’s a nice feeling to have both before every game now.

“Our character has impressed me the most this season. Everyone is happy when you win 4-1 but against Leicester it was an even game and we had to dig in to find an equaliser.

“We always have the feeling we can score whenever we want. This aspect hasn’t surprised me, it’s what I love about this team. We knew we had the qualities to do this.”