Aaron Connolly and Steve Alzate sign new Brighton contracts

The good news keeps rolling this summer for Brighton & Hove Albion. Two full internationals in Adam Lallana and Joel Veltman are already through the door and now Brighton have tied down Aaron Connolly and Steve Alzate to new four-year contracts.

Both Connolly and Alzate enjoyed breakthrough seasons with Brighton in 2019-20, establishing themselves in Graham Potter’s squad and making their senior international debuts for their respective countries.

Expectations surrounding Connolly have been high for some time now. The Irish striker was named as Premier League 2 Player of the Year last season after scoring goals for fun in the development league and it didn’t take long for Potter to thrust him into the first team limelight.

Connolly scored on his debut as Brighton beat Bristol Rovers 2-1 in the Carabao Cup at the Memorial Stadium last August. He followed that up with a barnstorming first Premier League start, netting twice when Champions League runners up Tottenham Hotspur were hammered 3-0 at the Amex.

The sky looked the limit for Connolly at that point although he unsurprisingly couldn’t live up to the hype of being the next Wayne Rooney or the Republic of Ireland’s great young hope.

It took Connolly nine months to find the net again when scoring in the 2-1 win at Burnley on the final day of the season. At times, he has looked like he needed a break but with Potter having loaned out Jurgen Locadia and Florin Andone and not rating Glenn Murray, Connolly has had to plough on regardless alongside Neal Maupay.

Some Brighton fans believe that Connolly could benefit from a spell in the Championship next season but unless the Albion sign at at least two strikers, Potter is far too short of fire power to send him out on loan.

There have been flashes of brilliance and Connolly has talent. Strikers are judged on goals though and from the opportunities that have been created for him, four from 27 appearances isn’t a great return.

Clearly, there is more to come and hopefully we will see that over the next four years with him hitting the net more regularly. Local nightclub Shoosh were also said to be delighted with Connolly’s new contract as he was responsible for 10% of their profits in the 2019-20 financial year.

Alzate has taken a very different route to the Brighton first team compared to Connolly. He was signed from Leyton Orient in 2017 after 12 first team appearances for the O’s and placed initially in the Albion’s development squad.

Before the start of the 2019-20 season, not many Brighton fans knew much about Alzate. He had just returned from a loan spell with League Two Swindon Town in which he hardly tore up any trees in the bottom tier.

Potter though saw something he liked during pre-season and Alzate was swiftly promoted into the senior squad, making his debut in a 0-0 draw away at Newcastle United in September.

It become very apparent very quickly that Alzate possesses two extremely valuable assets for the modern-day football. He is ridiculously comfortable on the ball which makes him a perfect player for Potterball.

He is also extremely versatile. While Alzate has mainly featured in central midfield or at right back, he has also been used as a right wing back, a left wing back, a holding midfielder, a number 10 and a right side forward at times this season. He is the one player that Potter’s positional roulette wheel loves more than any other.

Alzate made 14 starts and seven substitute appearances before his season was brought to a premature end post-lockdown by groin surgery. He played three times for Colombia after making his international bow in October, less than a month after his Brighton debut.

The challenge for both Alzate and Connolly now is to build on their encouraging debut seasons with Brighton. Their new four-year contracts are designed to help them do that and they should be even better in 2020-21 with a year of Premier League experience under their belts.

We are not sure what is going on behind the scenes at the Amex, but so much activity within a week of the old season ending is unheard of.

Normally it takes at least a month for the Albion to do anything transfer-related and here we are with an announcement being made every day at the minute about how the squad is being strengthened and improved.

Now for that new contract for Ben White to upset all those Leeds fans…