Earlier this week Brighton announced that left back Gaetan Bong had signed a new contract extension at the club.
The full back arrived at the Amex Stadium back in the summer of 2015 from Wigan Athletic and he now has 52 league appearances to his name – with 15 of those coming in the Premier League itself.
Having impressed during his time with us, manager Chris Hughton told the Official Site of his latest extension that he felt it was thoroughly deserved given how the Cameroonian international has become a key player for us.
‘I am delighted for Gaetan. He is a key member of the squad, and he has worked really hard to earn this new contract with the club. He has proved himself to be a consistent performer for us in the Premier League so far this season, and acquitted himself really well stepping up from the Championship.’
Speaking himself after penning terms on his new deal, Bong insisted that nothing had changed and his only focus was on helping Brighton to consolidate their top flight position for next season.
‘I`m very proud to sign a new contract with the club. I think we`re doing well and I just try to bring my positivity to the team. I`m happy here and I thank the club for the confidence they`ve shown in me. I will do everything I can to help the team stay in this league. Maybe it`s harder to play when you only have a one-year deal or a couple of months left on your contract, but I never think like that because when I`m on the pitch, I just think about playing. When you have a longer deal for yourself and your family, of course it`s a good thing, but if you`re not good on the pitch, even if you have a long deal, football can change so quick. You just have to think about being good on the pitch and then everything else will come.’
With the four one victory over Swansea City last weekend pushing the club into 12th place in the table, Brighton extend their unbeaten run to six games and Bong believes we can still show further improvement.
‘We`re doing well but I`m also confident that we can do better. We have good-quality players and there`s been a lot of games that we`ve drawn when we really could have won. But we`re learning every game and that`s why I`m glad to sign this new contract, because I want to keep working with the boys and the manager as well. We have to be confident. We`ve had some positive victories recently and have started to score goals and win games again. But we know it`s going to be hard. We still have ten games and they`re going to be ten difficult games. It`s not going to be easy because no team wants to give up.’
