Glenn Murray signs new Brighton contract until 2021
Glenn Murray has signed a new contract with Brighton and Hove Albion which will keep the veteran striker at the club until the summer of 2021.
Murray would have been out of contract at the end of the season and was heavily linked with a move away from Brighton during the January transfer window, having started only three Premier League games since Graham Potter replaced Chris Hughton as Albion boss.
The timing however seems a little strange given his lack of game time and the way that he practically said goodbye to the fans after the 3-1 defeat at Bournemouth in which he was an unused sub.
Media reports throughout the January window continually stated that Brighton were looking for a younger, more mobile version of Murray and yet here we are two weeks later and he has a new contract.
One theory doing the rounds is that his appearance at West Ham United on Saturday triggered an automatic extension in his contract. It was Murray’s 16th Premier League game of the campaign.
Another is that the Albion have come to a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with Murray whereby he signs a new deal but should his first team opportunities become limited again, they won’t stand in the way of a departure in the summer should a club offering regular football come in.
Brighton can then at least get some sort of transfer fee from a player who remains an attractive proposition for clubs in the Championship and even those in the bottom half of the Premier League who would play to his strengths.
Not that we’re complaining. Long has Murray began regarded as the Albion’s best ever striker here at WAB Towers.
Murray very clearly still has something to offer Brighton as a natural goal scorer – and if this new contract means that Potter has realised that and is going to start utilising his talents more, then that can only be good news for the Albion.
Should he see out his new deal, it will take him to nine-and-a-half seasons of service with Brighton. More importantly, it gives him a realistic chance of overhauling Tommy Cook’s record of 123 goals for the Albion.
Murray is currently on 111, requiring 13 more to eclipse Cook’s total which has stood for nearly a century.
Murray has already rewritten the history books in his two spells with Brighton. He is the only player since World War II to score over 100 goals for Brighton.
Both Murray and Kit Napier share the record for scoring 10 goals in consecutive seasons having achieved the feat six years in succession (although there was a five-year gap for Murray between the 2010-11 and 2016-17 campaigns).
Cook’s record isn’t the only one he has in his sights either. 10 more Premier League goals takes him past Michael Robinson as the club’s leading scorer in the top flight, one more season finished as top scorer would see him draw level with Napier’s record of six and if Murray can keep scoring past the age of 38 years and 208 days, he’d overtake the wonderfully named Bullet Jones as Brighton’s oldest goal scorer.
Saturday’s crazy game at the London Stadium gave everyone a reminder of the talents which Murray possesses. It was his first start since September and he marked it with his first Premier League goal of the campaign, rescuing a 3-3 draw and a precious point.
Hopefully, we’ll be seeing plenty more of that over the next 18 months – and records will go tumbling with it. After all, there’s only one Glenn Murray.
