Danny Welbeck offered Brighton contract extension

Danny Welbeck has been given the opportunity to extend his stay with Brighton into a fifth season.

The Athletic have reported that Dat Guy is in talks over a new 12 or 24 month contract, with his current deal set to expire in the summer.

Welbeck has scored six goals in 33 appearance across the 2023-24 campaign so far. His overall Brighton total reads 25 from 121 games in Albion colours.

While hardly prolific, Welbeck brings much more to the party than just goals. When Brighton were at their flowing best last season under Roberto De Zerbi, Welbeck and Evan Ferguson were central to their success.

De Zerbi’s 4-2-3-1 requires a target man-style forward to lead the line, link the play and make the most of the chances created by the flying wingers.

Welbeck’s skillset is perfectly suited to such a role, which explains why he enjoyed the best season of his time at the Amex in 2022-23, as the Seagulls soared into sixth spot and Europa League football.

Brighton had been 6/1 at the start of the campaign to finish in the top six. Those odds lengthened when Graham Potter walked out of the Amex to take over at Chelsea, followed by Roberto De Zerbi going winless through his first five games in charge.

Those backing Albion to qualify for Europe at that point would have ended up being able to make a significant withdrawal from their online sports betting account come the end of the season.

Dat Guy has become even more important in 2023-24, due to injuries and Ferguson struggling for form.

The Irish teenage sensation went 21 matches without scoring before he was ruled out for the remainder of the campaign with an ankle injury.

With João Pedro delivering his best performances playing as a 10, Welbeck has found himself the only fit and firing Brighton striker since Christmas.

That underlines the paucity of options available to De Zerbi, providing another argument for keeping Welbeck.

De Zerbi has claimed Deniz Undav will return to the Amex next season, following a goal-laden year on loan with Stuttgart – but it is not quite as straightforward as that.

Stuttgart have an option-to-buy clause, although if they secure Champions League qualification, the fee moves towards £18 million. That would potentially price them out of a permanent deal.

Undav’s form should not leave him short of other Bundesliga suitors, however. And with part of the reason behind Undav joining Stuttgart in the first place being homesickness, the player may well be desperate to remain in Germany.

Even if De Zerbi can convince Undav to give life in England another crack, Welbeck is still worth hanging on to.

If the current injury-hit campaign has taught us anything, it is that Albion need two or three quality options per position. Welbeck offers that.

Experience provides one final reason as to why Brighton offering Welbeck a new contract extension represents a sensible move.

Albion have one of the youngest squads in the Premier League. The entire recruitment model is based around finding teenagers with potential, polishing them into diamonds and selling them on at a huge profit.

For it to work, Brighton need a few older, experienced heads to work with the young players. Welbeck, Adam Lallana and James Milner fit the bill.

With expectations that both Lallana and Milner could retire this summer, the role Welbeck plays as an elder statesman suddenly becomes even more important.

Those against a new Brighton contract for Welbeck might point to his injury record. He did endure a two-month layoff between October and December, but otherwise, the reputation Dat Guy has for being somewhat sickly is actually rather harsh.

Albion theorised in the autumn of 2021 that most of Welbeck’s injury problems from his time at Arsenal and Watford could be traced to a troublesome hamstring.

So, they put him under the knife. Following his return from surgery, Welbeck missed only eight Premier League matches out of 80 over the next two years. Dat Guy is a lot more robust than most realise.

Welbeck is not the only Brighton player out of contract this summer. Lallana and Milner will reach the end of their deals, hence the rumours they will call time on their careers – with the possibility of taking up coaching roles at the Amex.

Steven Alzate has spent the campaign on loan with Belgian side Standard Liège. Having barely featured in the Albion first team for two seasons now, his time at the Amex is surely coming to a close when his deal expires.

And then there is Ansu Fati. After a decent enough start to his Brighton career, Fati has shown nothing to justify the huge weekly wage of around £160,000 that Albion are paying to have him on loan from Barcelona.

It would be a major surprise to see Fati back at the Amex next season, either for another temporary spell or after a permanent move.

Welbeck, on the other hand, deserves his new contract offer. Hopefully, he’ll sign it and Welbz will remain Dat Guy for at least another season.