Carl Rushworth has been close in several ways with Brighton & Hove Albion team-mate Eiran Cashin.
The 24-year-olds born four months apart recently shared the same pitch playing on loan in the Championship with neighbours Coventry City and Birmingham City. The gap in the career trajectories between goalkeeper Rushworth and central defender Cashin is, however, far greater than the distance of 20 miles which separates those two clubs in the West Midlands.
Rushworth is on course to play in the Premier League next season — possibly for Coventry, almost certainly not for Brighton. Cashin, meanwhile, has kicked off 2026 with a sideways move to Blackburn Rovers (although he has arguably gone backwards since joining Brighton from Derby County in the second tier a year ago).
Their contrasting fortunes show that picking the right club for a player to join on loan is a risky business, with forensic due diligence no guarantee that it will turn out to be a good fit. Other factors, such as form or changes in personnel, can scupper even the best-laid plans.
Coventry suffered a 3-2 defeat at Birmingham at the beginning of January, as Cashin made what turned out to be his last appearance for the Blues as a second-half substitute. The result was a rare blip in Coventry’s smooth progress to promotion under Frank Lampard. Rushworth’s consistent excellence is one of the reasons why they are six points clear at the top of the table.
He has kept nine clean sheets in 26 appearances, conceding 29 goals. The shut-outs include, in September and October, a club record sequence of five consecutive clean sheets. He was unbeaten for 613 minutes in total over seven matches during that period and Lampard described Rushworth as a “standout” in an interview with BBC local radio in December. Asked whether the club would be keen to sign him permanently in the summer, Lampard said: “That’s too far away to talk about that because he’s not our player, as such. But him coming in has been a massive plus for us. I’m delighted with him and have been delighted with him all this season. And clearly, he’s been a great acquisition for us.”
Rushworth will be an obvious target if Coventry go on to clinch promotion, but the finances of the deal would have to work, and Lampard’s side are likely to face competition for his signature. Brighton have used the loan system well to develop Rushworth, escalating him from Walsall in League Two and Lincoln City in League One to Swansea and Hull City in the Championship over the past four seasons.
Rushworth in action for Coventry at Charlton Athletic (Sally Rawlins/Getty Images)
Rushworth has a year left on his contract, with a further year’s option for the club, but this summer is set to be the point of no return. They either play him or sell him. He has made more than 150 loan appearances but none for Brighton. The latter situation is unlikely to change, with Bart Verbruggen firmly established as Fabian Hurzeler’s No 1 at the age of 23 and 35-year-old second choice Jason Steele demonstrating once again his dependability with a fine display in Sunday’s 2-1 win at Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup.
Even if Verbruggen attracts transfer attention (a possibility that would increase if he performs well for the Netherlands in the World Cup), Rushworth cannot afford to wait on an unknown before deciding his future.
Regardless of what happens, Rushworth is in a far healthier situation than Cashin. The Republic of Ireland defender has switched second-tier loan clubs during the January transfer window with his move from Birmingham to Blackburn.
Cashin made a good impression for 75 minutes on his debut for Rovers in Sunday’s 0-0 draw at Hull in the third round of the FA Cup — Hull won in the end, 4-3 on penalties. The loan to Birmingham was designed to give Cashin game time, given that competition for places in the centre of Brighton’s defence was increased last summer by the signings of Olivier Boscagli and Diego Coppola. But 11 league appearances in the first half of the campaign included only three starts.
“Eiran has not had the opportunities we would have liked at Birmingham, and we feel this switch will give him the chance to play more regularly,” sporting director Jason Ayto said of the change of plans in a club statement announcing Cashin’s diversion to Rovers. So, why did the move to Birmingham last August backfire when it appeared to make sense? They needed a left-side replacement for Ben Davies, a regular last season as Birmingham were promoted from League One (Davies is on loan this season to Championship strugglers Oxford United).
Unfortunately for Cashin, long-time Birmingham target Phil Neumann also arrived at the club during last summer’s transfer window on a permanent deal from Hannover to partner captain Christoph Klarer. Cashin was effectively the third choice. And, when his chance came at the end of September, he made goal-costing errors in a 3-0 defeat at Coventry and a 2-2 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday.
To further complicate matters, Birmingham had also added Jack Robinson from Sheffield United to their defensive options on the final day of trading in the summer window. Having failed to grasp his opportunity when it arrived, there was little prospect of Cashin’s match minutes improving at Birmingham in the second half of the season.
The hope now is that a change of scenery — accompanied by a change in the agency representing Cashin — will prompt a revival. Cashin had been a regular at Derby County when Brighton bought him for £9million in January 2025 and awarded him a five-and-a-half year deal.
An initially encouraging debut as a second-half substitute at home to Aston Villa in April was derailed by an error of judgement that led to one of the visitors’ goals in a 3-0 defeat. Cashin’s only other appearance came as an 89th-minute replacement later that month in a 4-2 defeat at Brentford.
A successful season on loan to Blackburn in the 2021-22 season worked for Jan Paul van Hecke. The Dutchman has gone on to become skipper Lewis Dunk’s regular partner at the heart of the defence. Cashin needs a similar uplift from his move to Blackburn to prevent his signing by Brighton having the stench of a rare recruitment misstep.