Young goalkeeper Christian Walton made the move to Wigan Athletic on a loan spell yesterday evening.
The 21 year old England Under 21 international yesterday penned a new four year deal at Brighton and his contract was announced, manager Chris Hughton had said his immediate future lay away from the club as he looks to develop further.
Later in the day he passed a medical at the DW Stadium and upon completion of the paperwork, he was announced as a Wigan player for the 2017/18 campaign.
Brighton do however hold a recall clause on the loan agreement and that takes the form of an emergency recall option should the need arise.
Speaking to the Official Site Hughton said of the development.
‘This is a good move for all concerned – both clubs and the player. Christian needs to be playing regularly, and Wigan offer him the opportunity to do that in League One. He played 27 times for Luton last season, and benefitted enormously from the first sustained spell of regular first-team football with them – and it was unfortunate we had to recall him when we did, but we needed him for cover.’
Hughton went on to explain.
‘He also did very well in the seven games he played at Southend at the end of the season, and Wigan are getting a very good young goalkeeper who has good experience at League One level. For us, we will monitor Christian during his time there and hope that he can continue the excellent progress he has made to date.’
Moving to Wigan will be Walton’s fifth loan spell in the last three years and hopefully it’ll be an incredibly successful one that sees plenty of game time for him.
