Brighton and Hove Albion close to £10m deal for Derby County's Eiran Cashin | OneFootball

The centre-back has been targeted by the Seagulls for the last 18 months, and the Premier League side are now closing in.

Brighton & Hove Albion are closing in on a £10m deal for Derby County's Eiran Cashin, with a move looking more and more likely ahead of next week's deadline.

That's according to The Telegraph, with the centre-back now unsettled following the Seagulls' approach and looking for a move to the south coast.

The Rams are in desperate need of reinforcements, and the sale of Cashin will allow for new players to make their way through the door at Pride Park, but the East Midlands outfit are holding out to get as much as they can from any potential transfer.

Derby currently occupy the final relegation spot in the Championship and are on a run of six successive defeats in the league.

Brighton close in on Cashin

As per The Telegraph, Brighton have been aggressive in their attempts to take Cashin away from Paul Warne, and despite the Rams wanting to keep hold of the 23-year-old this month, the player has been swayed.

The Seagulls will not allow Derby to bring him back in on loan for the rest of the season, and therefore, they want as much from the package as possible, and are still holding out for £15m in total.

Cashin has been on the radar of Brighton for a while now, and they submitted multiple bids in the 2023/24 campaign for the defender, and although a £4m deal was agreed on deadline day in August 2023, it never got over the line.

The Mansfield-born operator signed a new long-term contract last February, securing his future at the club until 2026/27, handing the Rams the advantage during this saga. However, Cashin wants to move away from the struggling Championship side.

Cashin's sale will hand Derby the money they need for survival

While Derby will not want to lose their only fit centre-back, they are in desperate need of money to improve the core of the squad with relegation looking likely.

Warne still wants to bring in more attacking players, with goalscoring a huge issue for the Rams at this moment in time, while more cover in the defensive areas will also be needed following Curtis Nelson's season-ending injury.

David Clowes, the club's owner, has backed the 51-year-old to make the changes needed to give Derby a chance of survival in the Championship. The team are still without a point in 2025, and the visit of high-flying Sheffield United on Saturday comes at the worst possible time.