Shane Duffy joins Celtic from Brighton on season long loan

It is getting hard to keep up with players leaving the Amex Stadium at the moment. Shane Duffy is the latest to depart Brighton, securing a dream move to Celtic on a season long loan.

The Scottish champions have paid £2 million to borrow Duffy for the year in a move which works well for all parties.

Celtic get a player who will easily be the best defender in the SPL, Duffy has the chance to help the club he supported as a boy to win their annual treble and Brighton do not strengthen a Premier League relegation rival, as would have been the case if Duffy had been sold to West Bromwich Albion or West Ham United.

Sending Duffy on loan means that the Albion still retain ownership of the player, a shrewd decision. If the worst were to happen and Brighton end up being relegated come the end of the campaign, then the Seagulls can welcome Duffy back into their squad for the 2021-22 Championship season.

He would be a proven performer in terms of winning promotion out of the second tier and help to strengthen a defence which will probably have been decimated by the sales of Lewis Dunk and Ben White to Premier League sides.

There also remains every chance that Duffy could still have a part to play for Brighton in the top flight. The only reason that he is now fourth choice centre back at the Amex is because Graham Potter does not rate his ability on the ball.

Should Potter be poached by another club or sacked, then his successor may value Duffy’s defensive attributes over the fact that he cannot play in triangles on the edge of the box. If that were to be the case, then Duffy might find himself back in blue and white at some point in the future.

A move to Celtic from Brighton was necessary for Duffy at this point in his career. At the age of 28, he needs to be playing regular first team football – especially with the Republic of Ireland still in the running for a place in Euro 2020 next summer – which Potter cannot offer him.

Duffy departs for Glasgow having become a popular figure on the south coast since his arrival from Blackburn Rovers in August 2016. Brighton paid a then club record £4 million for his services and he was an ever present from the moment he arrived, forming one of the best centre back partnerships that the club have ever had alongside Lewis Dunk.

It was the duos defensive performances that paved the way for promotion from the Championship in 2016-17. Dunk and Duffy were then pivotal in Chris Hughton’s defensive style which secured Premier League survival in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Duffy even managed to pip his much more vaunted partner to Player of the Season in that second top flight campaign as well as being named the Republic of Ireland’s best player in the same season.

His off-the-pitch antics have become almost as infamous as what he has achieved on the pitch. There was the one night stand which made it into The Sun after he told the woman he was with “I’m Shane Duffy, Google me”, the brief fling he enjoyed with Katie Price and the time he tweeted his support for the IRA.

It says much about Duffy that not even that little incident dented his popularity, given that the IRA blew up a hotel in our city not too long ago.

Duffy has also poured significant amounts of money into the Brighton economy, most notably to the Grosvenor Casino and Molly Malone’s.

Quite how Molly’s will survive we do not know; not only was it a regular Saturday night haunt of Duffy, but it was also his venue of choice for watching Celtic on the big screen whenever they had a Sunday match.

He will no longer find himself sat in a pub cheering on the team in green and white hoops as from now on, he will be wearing those famous colours.

Having proven himself against some of the best strikers in the world in the Premier League, Duffy will be far too good for a level of football where Jonathan Obika starts up front every week.

But it is his dream to play and win things for Celtic and after everything he has given Brighton, nobody could begrudge him that.

We may see Duffy in Brighton shirt again, we may not. No matter what happens though, his contribution to the Albion will never be forgotten.