Mathew Ryan has found a new Hove
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BHAFC agreed to sign Mathew Ryan, the Valencia goalkeeper, after he spent the last 6 months on loan at KRC Genk.
It was announced that newly promoted Brighton and Hove Albion have signed Australian international Mathew Ryan for an undisclosed fee, although it is reported it is a club record signing. When I saw Robbie Stockdale had left to join Birmingham I really thought two things. Firstly, what are Brighton thinking? And secondly, what is Stockdale thinking? I guess they both knew something we didn’t.
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The 25 year old Aussie has had a bit of a stuttering career after he first left Belgium. Performing fantastically for Club Brugge in his first stint in Flanders, a big European move would definitely be on the cards, and that happened when Valencia snapped him up. However, going into this season for Los Che, nothing went at all to plan. Starting the first two matches which both ended in defeat, he picked up two separate injuries leading up to the winter break, spraining his ankle and injuring his hip, with a spell on the bench in between.
His salvation? Returning back to Belgium, but this time under Albert Stuivenberg at KRC Genk. He got his career back on track, keeping 11 clean sheets out of 24 matches, which included a courageous run in the Europa League and domestically he was superb, albeit with not a lot to do in the play offs, where Genk swept aside all those in front of them. But nearly a 50% clean sheet rate can’t be down to just a solid defence.
After the side narrowly missed out on European football, he returned back to Valencia, surely hoping to get his career back on track, but at a different coast rather than the Spanish coast, but more the English Riviera in sunny Brighton, where Chris Hughton, for me, has signed an absolute quality goalkeeper, where with his age, may stay for a long time.
The only worry for Seagulls fans is that if he shows his real quality, he may not stick around for much longer than a season. The club finally made it to the promise land and will want to stay there for as long as possible, but if the Australian number one performs heroics, with more likely more shots fired at him than in Belgium, his worth and price may soon go up over the course of the season. I’ll end by saying well done Brighton for bringing him to the Premier League. Quick and shrewd business indeed!
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