I dislike moaning about potential signings so I will try to keep each and every criticism of the player as rooted in solid facts as possible.
Why I dislike this signing and why I'm skeptical that the club would be seriously considering Ryan Dominic Betrand:
1. He wasn't good enough for Aston Villa.
He made 10 league appearances after joining Villa at the beginning of January, whilst having no injuries to speak of. Just over half of all potential games does not bode well.
2. Statistically poor.
Whilst sites such as whoscored and the like are not the most accurate of measures, they are useful for providing a rough estimate of a players ability (for example the five highest rated players on whoscored last season were Suarez, Gerrard, Ramsey, Aguero and Hazard in that order - we can all agree they are worthy). Whoscored has him as the 16th worst player in the premier league last season. Nestling nicely between Matthew Jarvis and Jozy Altidore, and outperformed by the likes of Ryan Giggs, Joe Cole and Sammy Ameobi.
Based on his statistical output the characteristics of his play are described as such:
Strengths:
Ryan Bertrand has no significant strengths
Weaknesses:
Passing
Crossing
Defensive contribution
So he's a sh*t defender, and can't contribute offensively (as passing and crossing are the key methods of fullback attacking)
3. He's much older than you think
He'll be 25 by the time the transfer window shuts. This isn't a green player making errors. This is a guy who should be approaching his peak who has never shown anything remotely premier league standard.
4. He isn't better than what we have
Both Flanagan (when played out of position!) and Enrique have shown far more than Bertrand.
5. He's not that cheap
8mil is not chump change.
To conclude on a positive note, I do not believe we will buy him. Everything about him is the opposite of money ball.
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