Glenn Murray signs new Brighton deal
Brighton and Hove Albion’s leading post-war goalscorer Glenn Murray has signed a new one year deal with the club, keeping him at the Amex until the summer of 2020.
The contract extension will keep him with the Albion past his 36th birthday and give him another another season in which to try and overhaul Tommy Cook’s club-record of 123 goals.
Having passed his century in the 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers at the end of October, Murray now needs a further 24 to become the greatest every goal scorer in Brighton history. He has six goals already this season, accounting for nearly 40% of the Albion’s total.
Despite the fact he is a pensioner by football standards, Murray shows no sign of slowing down. If anything, he seems to be getting better with age and there were genuine concerns that the Albion might repeat Gus Poyet’s mistake of 2011 by not seeing his worth to the team and allowing him to leave on a free in the summer.
On that occasion, he moved on a free to Crystal Palace and fired the Eagles to promotion. Spells with Reading and Plucky Little Bournemouth followed before Murray returned to the Albion, initially on-loan in the summer of 2016.
Despite many fans having reservations about his return based on nothing more than the fact that he spent a few seasons at Selhurst Park, Murray was instantly in the goals and Chris Hughton turned his temporary move into a permanent transfer for a fee of £3m in January.
Murray hasn’t looked back since then, scoring the goals that earned Brighton promotion to the top flight and then top scoring with 14 as Hughton’s side survived their first season in the Premier League. That form led to calls for Murray to be called up for England’s World Cup squad, something which Gareth Southgate shamefully resisted.
His first spell with the Albion was equally successful, at least in front of goal. It would be rewriting history though to suggest he was universally popular in that initial three-and-a-half-year.
Signed from Rochdale by Dean Wilkins in January 2008, Murray was a regular on the score sheet but he suffered with hernia issues and handed in two transfer requests in his first two summers at Withdean.
Some fans didn’t take to him because of a perceived lack of work ethic – which looks mad now – and others because he had the nerve to not clap the fans away at Brentford once.
All that has been forgotten though thanks to his recent achievements. To say Brighton are a one-man team doesn’t do justice to the importance of the likes of Maty Ryan, Lewis Dunk and Pascal Gross, but without Murray’s goals we would be in a real trouble.
The struggles of Jurgen Locadia and lack of game time so far for new signing Florin Andone make Murray’s importance even more marked, making this a crucial bit of business.
In the long term, the Albion will need to replace Murray for age reasons if nothing else. But for now he remains the main man – making another year of the one of the greatest strikers we’ll ever see in the stripes great news for everyone.
