Connor Goldson completes Rangers move for £3.5m
One of the most drawn out transfers of the summer so far has been completed, with Connor Goldson leaving Brighton and Hove Albion for Rangers in a deal reckoned to be worth around £3.5m.
The Liverpool-supporting defender becomes Steven Gerrard’s fifth summer signing since taking over at Ibrox as he splashes the cash in an attempt to get to within 20 points of winners Celtic in the Scottish Pub League next season.
The deal could be worth over £5m with the Albion thought to have inserted a number of performance-related clauses as well as a hefty sell-on clause given that Goldson is rated extremely highly by Chris Hughton and his management team.
He’s even more highly rated by the Albion fan base with some supporters putting him on the same level as Franz Beckenbauer, Paolo Maldini and Bobby Moore since Rangers’ interest was revealed a couple of months ago, saying that it would be the worst decision in Brighton history to sell the centre back.
Much of this is due to his popularity and the courage he has shown to battle back from a heart condition and it is easy to understand emotions getting in the way, but in the cold light of day this is a good piece of business for all concerned, as difficult as it might be for some Brighton fans to accept.
The Albion are netting over £3m for a player who we signed from Shrewsbury Town for £600,000 and who has played only 32 games outside of the bottom two divisions of English football, with only half a season in the Championship as a regular. He managed one start and two substitute appearances in the Premier League. Even before his heart problems, he was unable to shift Shane Duffy or Lewis Dunk from the centre back berths in the first half of the 2016-17 season – we have essentially just sold a reserve centre back for the second biggest fee Brighton have ever received for a player after the £8m Leicester City forked out for Leonardo Ulloa in 2013.
It’s also an excellent move for Goldson, who needs regular football for the sake of his career, something he isn’t going to get with the Albion anytime soon. As nice as it would’ve been to keep him to warm our bench, at 25 he should be coming into the prime of his career and he’ll be more desperate than most players to make the most of it given that 18 months ago he nearly didn’t have a career. Standing in his way might have suited us, but it wouldn’t be what was right for Goldson and now he gets the opportunity to play in front of huge crowds every week and experience European football in the Europa League until Rangers get knocked out by the third best team from the Faroe Islands.
As for Rangers, they are getting themselves an excellent footballer who should thrive in Scotland. Gerrard has clearly done his homework and Goldson should be a good fit up at Ibrox for his ball playing capabilities and his defensive organisation. Jamie Murphy have a storming second half of the season over the border and it’s probably fair to say that Goldson is a more gifted footballer than Murphy.
We’ll watch his career with great interest and hope to see him make it in the Premier League one day but right now, that isn’t with Brighton and Hove Albion. Attention will now turn to who will replace Goldson on the Albion bench with the rumour mill linking Hughton with a move for Reading’s Liam Moore, Sunderland’s Paddy McNair or cash-strapped Aston Villa’s James Chester.
