Christian Walton signs new four year Brighton deal

Brighton and Hove Albion may not be signing anyone new, but they are tying plenty of the current squad down to new deals.

Goalkeeper Christian Walton is the latest to put pen to paper, signing a new four year contract over the course of which he could feasibly play for another eight different clubs on loan.

Walton has played four times for the Albion since an extremely promising debut away at Spurs in the League Cup in 2014 while also racking up 50 appearances over the last two seasons on loan at Bury, Plymouth Argyle, Luton Town and Southend United.

He did particularly well with Luton under former Albion assistant Nathan Jones, playing a big part in their push for promotion from League Two in the first half of last season.

Our Luton supporting contact took time out of his summer training of pitch invading and launching pound coins into the away end to tell us that Walton was probably their best player before being recalled by the Albion in late January.

That form saw him capped by England under 21s and he is equally well regarded by Chris Hughton who is on record as saying that he has a very bright future in the game.

Hughton has also said that Walton will go out on loan again this season as he needs to be playing regular football to help his development.

That will almost certainly be dependent on the Albion sorting the goalkeeping situation however as Walton is currently number two to Mat Ryan by default.

Last seasons backup goalkeeper Niki Maenpaa is still yet to sign a new deal – although he is on the training camp in Austria – and Casper Ankergren has been retained in a non-player role which involves smoking 20 Marlboro Light a day whilst having a cappuccino in every coffee shop in Hove.