Leeds have loaned out of favour cult hero Billy Paynter to Brighton and Hove Albion until January 2, and he’s eligible to start his Seagulls career when they play Birmingham City tomorrow.

Simon Grayson has been looking to send Billy out on loan for the past few weeks and initially said he wasn’t going to loan the player to another club in the Championship, but now seems to have had a change of heart by making a deal with the Seagulls. He wants Paynter to get a few more games to build up his fitness, but it seems unlikely that Billy will be coming back to Leeds now that we’re trying to sign Andy Keogh on a permanent basis.

But although Paynter is now well out of favour at Elland Road, Brighton boss Gus Poyet is a long-time admirer of Billy, and is delighted to have finally got his man after trying to sign the 27 year-old for most of the last 18 months. Poyet told their official website "We wanted him when he was leaving Swindon, but we lost out to Leeds, which was understandable as they were in the Championship and we were in League One. We wanted him in the summer, but we couldn't get him for whatever reason, but now finally we have got him. I expect him to come in and help us by giving us an option we don't have”.

Paynter has only scored once for Leeds in 24 appearances, but he insists that statistic is misleading, because it included numerous games when he only came off the bench for the last few minutes. He told the Sussex Argus: “In my first pre-season with Leeds I had a stress fracture of the shin, which was a massive setback. I was out for a few months and then I had a few chances here and there. The manager was trying to get me back involved with two minutes here and five or ten minutes there. That all goes down on your stats and it doesn’t give a true reflection.”

And Billy thinks better times lie ahead for him on the south coast. ”I know I can score goals and I’m looking forward to doing it for Brighton. I’m a team player and I’ll hold the ball and try to link my team-mates in.” Brighton will decide in January if they want to convert his loan into a permanent transfer, so time will tell if he can impress them enough to earn a permanent deal, or whether he has endured a torrid time at Leeds because he isn’t quite good enough to succeed at this level.

Photo: Action Images

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