Goodnight, Christian: Walton set to leave Brighton this summer

It is a case of goodnight, Christian as Brighton & Hove Albion goalkeeper Christian Walton will not sign a new contract with the club when his current deal expires at the end of the season.

Walton’s departure brings to an end an eight year association with the Albion following his signing from Plymouth Argyle in 2013. He made six first team appearances for Brighton, four in the 2014-15 campaign and two FA Cup starts this season against Blackpool and Leicester City.

Walton had long been groomed to become the Albion’s number one and the reason he did not was pure misfortune. Having rattled through seven loan spells in five seasons picking up experience in all four divisions, 2020-21 was to be the year he was finally given an opportunity to challenge Maty Ryan.

A freak injury when landing awkwardly after claiming a cross in a pre-season friendly against Chelsea put paid to that, ruling Walton out for three months.

That meant when Ryan’s form deserted him and Graham Potter felt the need to make a change, it was Robert Sanchez who got the opportunity as Walton could only watch on from the stands.

Sanchez has been superb ever since. Having begun the season as fifth choice behind Ryan, Walton, David Button and Jason Steele, he is now firmly established as number one and was recently called into the Spain squad for their March World Cup qualifiers.

What might have been. If Walton never gets injured, then Sanchez instead heads out on loan to the Championship to build on his experiences with Rochdale in League One and Forest Green Rovers in League Two.

Walton succeeds Ryan and it is he instead who is the young goalkeeper taking the Premier League by storm, as the Albion had long hoped would be the case ever since he made his debut under Sami Hyppia in November 2014.

Christian Walton was only 19 when he made his Brighton bow, but many Albion fans considered him an upgrade at the time on David Stockdale who had been far from convincing since signing for £1.5 million from Fulham.

Walton even won our WAB Player of the Month award in November 2014, keeping a clean sheet in a rare win under Hyypia when Wigan Athletic were beaten 1-0 at the Amex.

He went onto make some crucial saves in a 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers four days later before Stockdale returned from injury. Our mate Dave remained as number one for the rest of the 2014-15 season, although Walton did get one run-out in the 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough on the final day of the season.

Nearly seven years on and Walton is now 25-years-old. He is at the age where he should now be a number one in the Championship at the very least.

Sanchez’s emergence means that if Walton signed a new deal at the Amex, he would be sitting on the bench for the foreseeable future, presuming of course the Spaniard does not suffer a dip in performances.

Walton should not be short of suitors; a goalkeeper of his quality with the best years of his career ahead of him available on a free transfer is the sort of signing that very rarely comes along.

The question then is how good will Walton go onto become? He has played for England at Under 21 level and many at the Albion thought that if things went well, he could one day break into the senior squad.

There is still plenty of time for that. Incredibly, we could end up with a situation in four or five years time where the number ones for England and Spain were Brighton’s number one and number two in the 2020-21 season. For those of us old enough to remember the likes of Mark Walton (no relation), that is extraordinary.

As for Brighton, Christian Walton’s departure combined with Ryan looking likely to secure a permanent move to Arsenal means that Potter will have to be in the market for a new goalkeeper this summer.

Anyone who watched Steele playing like a man who was on MDMA in the FA Cup at Newport prior to his penalty heroics will be quaking in fear at the prospect of Sanchez getting injured and Steele having a run of games in the Premier League in 2021-22.

Christian Walton would have been the perfect number two, but he has been the Brighton bridesmaid for too long. His time has come to step into the spotlight, sadly away from the Amex. We will be watching with interest to see where he ends up and how he does.