Swansea City's chances of signing Brighton star take blow after Ipswich Town development | OneFootball

Swansea City have taken a hit in their pursuit of Brighton's Carl Rushworth, with recent news emerging that recently promoted Ipswich Town are chasing the goalkeeper.

Rushworth enjoyed a good season at Swansea as he continued his development away from the Amex in a bid to prove himself.

The past three seasons have seen him climb the divisions after featuring for Walsall in League Two and then Lincoln City in League One.

This summer the chase is on for the 22-year-old and Swansea will likely have to do something special to reunite themselves with their loan star.

Carl Rushworth transfer latest

As per Darren Witcoop on X, Ipswich are currently monitoring the managerial situation at Brighton and Hove Albion to decipher whether they can make an approach for Rushworth.

This comes after former Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi opted to leave the South-coast club after 18 months at the helm.

Whilst a clever approach from Ipswich, for Swansea this will be of real concern with the Welsh club desperate to bring in the keeper again on loan.

For Swansea manager Luke Williams, this comes as a disappointment after claiming in February he thinks Rushworth will stay.

"I think he is going to be with us next season of course, but after that he is going to go on and be a top Premier League keeper I am sure because of the quality he has but also the personality he has to go with it."

The opportunity to become that top-level keeper may come sooner than expected, with Ipswich's promotion possibly allowing for an opportunity in the Premier League.

In Swansea's case, they can only hope that Brighton see a future number one in Rushworth and that they will be willing to allow him to return to South Wales.

Swansea must endeavour to bring Rushworth back

Whilst Swansea are not a club blessed with financial power, they should really go all out to bring Rushworth back after his stellar loan-spells.

His performances at Lincoln City were superb and earned him a deserved opportunity at a tier-two club. His time at Swansea only built on this, and he displayed an ability way beyond his years.

Statistically, he developed his game as he featured in all 46 of their Championship matches. Across these games, he boosted his goals prevented to 4.02 and his saves to 143 instead of 117, but he did suffer in the save percentage category, falling to 68.8% instead of 76.0.

Whilst that statistic will frustrate Rushworth, he has been behind a leaky defence that conceded an expected goals of 68.8, the fourth worst in the division.

Williams, though, has been quick to note how impressive the keeper had been for the Swans and how he had developed alongside Martyn Margetson (England and Swansea goalkeeper coach).

"I think he will be the first to say that he has worked with the top goalkeeper coach in the country and it's been a really good experience for him as well. He has played for a top club and had a lot of minutes in a really good league.

Whilst Rushworth's future has not fully emerged yet, this revelation regarding Ipswich will come as a dampener and the Swans will have to work extremely hard to keep the Englishman.