Brighton sign Wigan midfielder Jensen Weir for £500,000
Brighton & Hove Albion have confirmed the signing of midfielder Jensen Weir from Wigan Athletic.
Weir joins on a three-year deal for a fee in the region of £500,000. The money was gratefully received by the cash-strapped Latics, who used it to pay their players’ wages for the final two weeks of the season after the club were controversially placed into administration just 20 days after new owners the Next Leader Fund bought the club for £40 million.
Plenty of rumours have swirled about how a club could collapse financially less than three weeks after a takeover.
The EFL’s fit and proper persons test also came under renewed scrutiny; new proprietors have to prove they have the funds to keep a club afloat for at least two seasons, so how on Earth did Wigan’s owners pass that test, only to run out of money within a month?
Wigan being placed in administration meant that the vultures could start circling around their bright young talents who reached the quarter finals of the FA Youth Cup back in February, eliminating Tottenham Hotspur along the way.
Weir was the star of the Latics’ 2-0 fourth round win over Spurs, opening the scoring with a free-kick. So impressed were Tottenham by Jensen Weir that they too were in the running to sign him – they were even rumoured to have offered more money than Brighton.
The presence of Jensen’s father, ex-Everton defender David Weir, at the Amex made the Albion the midfielder’s preferred destination. David is responsible for looking after the countless young players that Brighton send out on loan every season.
Weir made his Wigan debut aged 15 years and 280 days old against Accrington Stanley in a Paint Pot tie back in November 2017, becoming the Latics’ youngest ever player in the process.
He has since made two substitute appearances in the League Cup and been involved in one Championship game from the bench, a 1-1 draw away at Birmingham City towards the end of the 2018-19 season.
Weir has been capped by England at both Under 17 and Under 18 level. At Brighton, he will be part of Simon Rusk’s Under 23s for next season with spells out on loan certain to follow over the coming seasons.
Brighton have developed a good relationship with Wigan in recent years. Dan Burn arrived from the DW Stadium for £3.5 million in August 2018 while Christian Walton, Leon Balogun and Jan Mlakar have all spent time on-loan at the Latics.
This isn’t the first time that Brighton have been involved in an up-front cash deal which helps a football club survive, either.
Back in April 1993, it was the Albion who were kept afloat when The Leeds United manager Howard Wilkinson paid £350,000 for Brighton goalkeeper Mark Beeney.
That money was whisked straight to the taxman to pay a VAT bill that would have otherwise liquidated the club. It remains the most important save ever made by a Brighton goalkeeper.
If Jensen Weir can go on to be half as good as Beeney was for Brighton, then this deal will prove to be a shrewd bit of transfer business on behalf of the Albion.
