As Brighton head off on their Premier League jaunt, it was expected that Richie Towell would be left behind.
Towell has struggled to make a first-team impact at Albion since joining from Dundalk at the end of 2015, and has made just one Championship appearance in a stint hampered by injury. Chris Hughton has always spoken highly of Towell, but the Irishman has failed to break into what is admittedly a high-calibre Championship squad. Reinforcements for the Premier League next year will push him further down the pecking order, and Chris Hughton admitted earlier this week that he was likely to be elsewhere next season:
Players like Rohan [Ince] and Richie will go out on loan.
We have been really delighted with Richie but we are very keen for him to get out on loan to the Championship next season.
Towell being sent out on loan with a year left on his original, two-and-a-half year deal seemed to hint that he didn't really have much of a future at Brighton, but that pessimism has today been tempered by the news that the club have offered him a contract extension until 2019. The club announced the news on their website, along with the news that have renewed the contracts of Steve Sidwell, David Stockdale, Niki Maenpaa along with the well-named Gaetan Bong.
The deal makes sense from a Brighton point of view: farming out on loan offers the likelihood of their not having to pay his wages, while if he impresses next season, they will have the options of recalling him, or cashing in.
