Evan Ferguson is not the only highly-rated Irish star on the books at Brighton, with youngster Andrew Moran also held in high regard at the club.
19-year-old Dubliner Moran has been with Brighton since 2020 - moving to England's south coast six months before Ferguson - and made his Premier League debut in January's battering of Everton at Goodison Park. Moran himself said at the time that his Premier League bow was unexpected.
Moran is highly rated both in Brighton circles and Irish ones, with former youth coach at the club Mark Beard telling Balls.ie back in January that the midfielder could go just as high as Evan Ferguson within the game.
If he is to rise to the top, Moran will hope to get more regular game time than what may be on offer at Brighton this season, and he had been linked with Swansea and Stoke earlier in the summer.
Fresh reports on Thursday suggest that Brighton have now chosen Blackburn Rovers as the destination for Andrew Moran's impending loan move, with the Championship side seen as the perfect place to develop Moran's game in midfield.
Ireland U21 international Andrew Moran set for Blackburn loan move
26 March 2023; Andrew Moran of Republic of Ireland in action against Olafur Guomundsson of Iceland during the Under-21 international friendly match between Republic of Ireland and Iceland at Turners Cross in Cork. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
The news was broken by transfer guru Fabrizio Romano on Thursday morning.
Writing on Twitter, Romano said that Moran had had offers from Germany and the Netherlands, but that Brighton were keen to send him to a team which plays possession based football, to aid the midfielder's development - Jon Dahl Tomasson's Blackburn have been judged to fit the bill.
Tomasson has been in charge of Blackburn since 2022, and led them to an agonising 7th place finish last season, just outside the play-off places. They have endured a mixed start to the current season, with a win, draw, and loss from their first three games seeing them smack bang in the middle of the league table.
Andrew Moran will hope to help Blackburn to finally return to the Premier League, after 12 years away from the top flight - and he will hope that his performances this season will help him to work his way into Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi's thinking.
The fact that Brighton have reportedly been so careful in choosing his loan move may be a positive sign that Moran is being considered in the club's long-term plans.
Featured image: Sportsfile
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