PATIENT CONNOR GETS HIS GOLD-EN REWARD
CONNOR Goldson says he has no regrets about snubbing Swansea last season after signing for Brighton in midweek for £600,000.
The 22-year-old was the subject of interest from the Premier League side in the summer of 2014 but decided to stay with Shrewsbury for another campaign to gain more experience.
And after helping to guide the Shrews to promotion to League One, the centre-back has earned a four-year deal at Brighton.
“My agent was talking about me moving to Swansea but I just ended up signing another contract at Shrewsbury two or three weeks into pre-season,” said Goldson.
“That had a lot to do with the manager (Micky Mellon) who had a good chat with me and said in a year’s time I could be going into a firstteam set-up instead of an U21 team.
“I believe that things happen for a reason. I turned down the chance to join a big club then and now I’m sat here after having my first training session with the firstteam at a Championship club, so I’m definitely happy I made that decision.”
Goldson, who is Brighton’s tenth signing of the transfer window, is confident that he will be able to make the transition to the Championship.
“In pre-season at Shrewsbury we played Cardiff, Wolves and Birmingham in one week and I played well in all three games,” he added. “When I came off the pitch in each of those games, I said I want to be playing at that standard every single week.”
Meanwhile, Shrewsbury boss Mellon doesn’t believe there’s any need to rush out to spend any of the Goldson windfall on a new centreback.
“We’ve got Jermaine Grandison, Nat Knight-Percival, Mark Ellis and young Dom Smith,” he said.“So I see no reason to plough into the transfer market – I don’t want a logjam of centre-backs.
“I’m not expecting to spend the money. I think the money will go towards keeping the club on a good footing.”