Brighton and Hove Albion defender Luka Vuskovic has become the talk of social media over the last few days, and to a certain extent, rightly so.

However, sometimes it’s important to remember that these young players are actually young players. While Vuskovic breaks the mould for price spent from Brighton for an individual, it doesn’t mean his treatment should be much different.

Vuskovic is 19 years old, but he plays far beyond his years. The Croatian defender has slotted in rather effortlessly alongside Lewis Dunk, while also playing a large number of top-level games before breaking into his twenties- quite incredibly, really.

His transfer fee of around £50 million increases the attention on his season, especially considering Jan Paul Van Hecke was returned to Tottenham in the same breath. The debates over who got the better end of the deal will continue until both players leave their respective clubs!

His main qualities so far have been being on the ball and his strength and physicality. Capable of popping up with goals, as we saw against Leeds, and winning a large majority of his aerial duels.

With that said, he’s not there yet, and we saw this against both Chelsea and Leeds in the first half. His limitations are perhaps in his turn of pace and acceleration, which can be made apparent in a high line.

Unfortunately for Vuskovic, he isn’t blessed with quick players around him either, and a similar issue happened to Van Hecke during his time at the club.

Morgan Rogers in particular had a lot of joy against Vuskovic, shrugging him off the ball before threading a ball across the goal for Pedro Neto to poke home, with poor box defending from Ferdi Kadioglu.

This isn’t a piece to be negative towards Vuskovic, but perhaps a leveller. Sometimes media attention can be a tad overhyped towards young players just because of their transfer value and media presence. However, this is a reminder to give Vuskovic time.

The last thing we, as fans, would want is for him to be placed on a pedestal to be dragged down at opportunities when he is to be beaten.

A similar treatment was given to Evan Ferguson online. “What happened to Ferguson?” “Remember when Brighton wanted £100m+ for him?”

As fans on social media, it is very easy to get carried away with propaganda and spreading narratives that can be overused. Vuskovic is a good talent; there is absolutely no debating that, but let’s not give him the same media that Virgil Van Dijk will get yet.

Seeing posts saying he is one of the best defenders in the league already feels incredibly premature, and it isn’t fair on our young Croatian at this stage of his career.

Let him develop, and we could have a future captain on our hands. We can see his qualities, and he will only get better. Let’s enjoy the ride.