Sam Baldock signs new three-year Brighton deal
Sam Baldock has signed a new three year contract with Brighton and Hove Albion, tying him until the club until the summer of 2020.
The Ed Miliband look-a-like had his best season yet for the Albion last time out, scoring 12 times in 34 games and forming what proved to be an extremely effective partnership with Glenn Murray in particular.
Baldock arrived in the last throngs of the summer transfer window of 2014 from Bristol City for £2m. Those were of course the days when we’d only sign players hours before the window shut in order to save five pence.
He managed only eight goals in 45 games over his first two seasons at the club – admittedly not helped by some cruel luck with injuries – and it looked for a time that he would end up being another expensive failure to add to David Burke’s long list of horse shit signings.
Chris Hughton coaxed the best out of him in 2016/17 however and he is arguably now one of the Albion’s most underrated players given that you notice a real difference when he is not in the team, as was the case towards the end of the season.
He didn’t play from the middle of March until the final game at Aston Villa and although we romped to promotion in that time, he was sorely missed during the run in which ultimately saw the title head to Newcastle United.
Baldock’s old deal ran out at the end of next season and so his new contract doesn’t really improve things too much in that regard. But it does probably involve a hefty wage rise which in our book is more than deserved given his contribution to last season.
