Richie Towell moves to Salford City on a free
The curtain has come down on Richie Towell’s two-and-a-half years as a Brighton and Hove Albion player as the Irish midfielder has moved on a free transfer to Salford City.
Towell was out of contract this summer and, unsurprisingly given that many Albion fans had probably forgotten he existed, the club have decided to let him go.
He has subsequently signed a two year deal with the Football League’s newest club who are famously owned by Manchester United’s Class of 92.
When Towell first arrived, we wrote: “Signing someone from the League of Ireland is also an excellent excuse to mention Shane McFaul, who was the last player to make the same move to Sussex and we can only hope Towell has more of an impact than he did – which shouldn’t be hard seeing as McFaul managed one appearance off the substitutes bench. We don’t remember if he touched the ball or not but the suspicion is he didn’t come remotely close to it.”
Remarkably, Towell has nearly been as anonymous as McFaul was. In fact, the only thing he has really contributed is to have been the inspiration for the fantastic Richie Towell song to the tune of ‘Twist and Shout’. Well, shake it up babyyyyyyyy nowwwwww, shake it up babyyyyyyyy, Richie Towell, Richie Towell.
Towell had arrived amid great fanfare from League of Ireland side Dundalk in January 2016. He’d scored a hugely impressive 29 goals in 44 games from the middle of the park as the Lilywhites were crowed Irish champions the previous season, one of two titles he won during his three seasons at Oriel Park and enough to see him named as the Irish PFA Player of the Season.
He made his debut for the Albion away at Hull City in the third round of the FA Cup but that was the last that we saw of him until the first leg of the Championship play off semi final away at Sheffield Wednesday five months later.
With Dale Stephens suspended for the trip to Hillsborough, Towell found himself among the substitutes. When Steve Sidwell became one of the Albion’s four players to get injured over the course of that gruelling 90 minutes in South Yorkshire, Towell was thrown on and ended up playing for over 40 minutes of the second half.
The following season he played just three times, starting in an FA Cup third round win over Milton Keynes Dons and away at Lincoln City when the Albion were knocked out by the non league outfit.
There was also a brief five minute cameo in a 2-0 win away at Rotherham United on a Tuesday night when the aforementioned Twist and Shout song made its debut, a night also notable for one member of the WeAreBrighton.com touring party peaking too early and being horrifically sick outside a pub before 7pm which was a nice start to proceedings.
Towell’s last game in a Brighton shirt came against Barnet in a League Cup second round tie in the 2017-18 season, after which he joined Rotherham on loan for the rest of the campaign, helping them to win promotion from League One via the play offs.
Towell returned to the New York Stadium for the 2018-19 campaign but couldn’t help the Millers avoid an immediate return to the third tier.
His overall record in a Rotherham shirt reads 80 appearances and 10 goals, so they’ve done pretty bloody well out of us paying his wages over the past 30 months.
It also makes it something of a surprise that he’s now dropping down to League Two. Given that his time with Rotherham has clearly shown him to be a capable operator towards the top of League One, Salford must have serious ambition and money to be able to capture a player such as Towell.
That’s something for those of us who like a bet to consider when making our league winners selections ahead of the 2019-20 season – it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Towell and Salford twisting and shouting their way to another promotion.
