Burnley’sStephen Ward is one of Brighton’s summer targets

Brighton & Hove Albion managed to stay alive in the English League Championship as the team of Chris Hughtonfinished the season at the 20th position and barely avoided the bottom relegation spots.

The manager of Brighton, Chris Hughton wants to strengthen his team and one of his priorities is to improve the defensive department which has shown a lot of weaknesses and vulnerabilities. In the past season, Brighton conceded 54 goals in 46 matches but Chris Hughton is hoping that his team will show improvements and one of the ways that the manager is attempting to boost the defensive section of his team is by signing players.

One of the players who have entered the radar of Brighton’s Chris Hughton is Stephen Ward.

Stephen Ward has already performed for Brighton as the Irish defender spent a loan with Brighton back in August of 2013 and he made a total of 47 appearances helping Brighton in reaching the play-offs but was eventually defeated in the semifinals after playing against Derby.

Brighton was on the verge of signing a permanent deal with Stephen Ward in 2013 but just when a transfer was about to be completed, everything was stopped as Ward did indeed make a transfer but his transfer was made to Burnley instead of Brighton.

Stephen Ward has sustained an injury which has kept him out of the pitch for around 3 months and has only been able to make a limited amount of performances for Burnley. Ward has even lost his place in the starting lineup of Burnley and Chris Hughton is hoping to take full advantage of this situation by signing Ward on a permanent deal.

If Ward has indeed lost his starting spot in Burnley, the chances of him being sold during the summer transfer window increase significantly and it’s the chance for Chris Hughton to secure the services of the player that he almost signed back in 2013.