Leon Balogun has officially missed a ‘full English Premier League season’ after being dropped by Brighton & Hove Albion manager, Graham Potter, against Tottenham Hotspur at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Boxing Day, Completesports.com reports.
Following his failure to feature in the 2-1 loss to the Lilywhites, the Super Eagles defender who was not included in the 18-man match-day squad has missed 38 EPL games in a row which is equivalent to a full league season.
Balogun has not featured in a Premier League game for the Seagulls during the 2019/20 season which is already half-way gone, owing to his inconsistent form and struggles with injuries.
The Nigeria international has only made one appearance for Brighton this term and that was in a Caarabao Cup encounter against Bristol Rovers back in the month of August.
Balogun last saw action in England’d top-flight twelve months ago and that was on last year’s Boxing Day, an EPL tie which saw Brighton play out a 1-1 draw with Arsenal.
The 31-year-old has made only eight Premier League appearances for Brighton, scoring once since joining from German Bundesliga side, Mainz 05 in the summer transfer window of 2018.
Balogun seemingly has a serious battle on his hands to beat the likes of Northern Ireland international, Shane Duffy, Englishman, Lewis Dunk, Dan Burn, Bernardo and Adam Webster to a starting XI shirt.
By Oluyemi Ogunseyin
4 Comments
Your ability can never be in doubt. Late legend,Stephen Keshi’s incarnate. This cycle ends with Brighton unless you remain there. New environment, a ressurected n supreme talent you shall prove to be.
Balogun, Success and co should hand in a transfer request asap. Take charge of your fortune. How does a coach (or successive) coach fail to feature him in 38 matches? Was he that bad? Worse the ones consistently featured? A World Cup player!? No matter how rusty Balogun has got, this total neglect certainly can’t be for footballing reasons alone. Act now, bro!
He is a good player, sad now, I see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Balogun is beginning to annoy me.
Wa Deremi sho shi ere ni…? Or how worse can it get that you making the bench at Bri-who….. Brighton and Hove Albion becomes news..? Are you waiting till dey use koboko to chase you away from the training ground b4 you know you aren’t wanted…??? Aha…?
I don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes but this guy ought to have left this last summer immediately after AFCON. At least he got over 300minutes of game time at AFCON…that should have been enough to sell him to clubs in Turkey, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia or Ukraine, even if he can’t make the top division in the top 5 leagues anymore. This guy is still good enough to play in the Europa League for heaven’s sake.
But to just Sidon look and remain at B&H till this time is insane.
Really Leon is beginning to annoy me.