Brighton dropping Maty Ryan is one thing but to sell him would be mad

He has only been dropped for five minutes and already rumours are swirling that Brighton & Hove Albion are looking to sell Maty Ryan once the January transfer window opens.

According to Football Insider, Ryan has been told that he does not figure in Graham Potter’s plans and that he is free to find a new club. Brighton would be willing to sell for somewhere between £7 million and £10 million.

You might think it is bluster from a website making stuff up, but Football Insider is the same outlet which broke the news that Ryan had been jettisoned from the squad for the 0-0 draw at Fulham in which Robert Sanchez took over in the Brighton goal.

Sanchez did everything asked of him at Craven Cottage, making a couple of smart saves to earn the Albion their third clean sheet of the campaign. In his 180 minutes as a Premier League footballer, Sanchez has shown enough to suggest that he has a bright future in the game.

Even so, Graham Potter must have taken a bang on the head if he is seriously looking to flog Ryan next month. Dropping Ryan from the starting XI is one thing and you will not have found many Brighton supporters arguing against that decision as the Australian has looked out of form for several weeks now.

But to willingly sell a goalkeeper with over 100 Premier League appearances and 59 international caps because a 23-year-old – who had never played above League One level before the start of November – has had two decent games with the Albion currently in the middle of a relegation battle would be a ridiculous gamble to take.

Cast your minds back to January 2005. Brighton signed a young goalkeeper called David Yelldell, who famously had a blinder whilst wearing a pink goalkeeper shirt in front of an Elland Road crowd that was rife with homophobia at the time.

If Yelldell could perform like Gordon Banks to single handedly earn Brighton a point at The Leeds United whilst being subjected to a torrent of abuse from the locals, then the sky seemed the limit. Yet after two games in which he looked the bees knees, his form completely deserted him.

Two matches later and Mark McGhee had seen enough, replacing him with Rami Shaaban, who had been without a club for eight months and not played a competitive game for two years.

Nobody is saying that Sanchez is going to become a complete wreck like Yelldell. But are two matches enough to seriously say this guy is that good that we can afford to get rid of a goalkeeper of Ryan’s calibre and experience and put all our eggs in a Sanchez shaped basket?

What if Sanchez’s performances do drop off in February or March time, as young players form is prone to doing after an initial honeymoon period in the team? Having Ryan still at the club would give Potter an insurance policy of a proven Premier League goalkeeper waiting in the wings, just in case.

There is still Christian Walton, of course. He may well have taken over from Ryan several months ago were it not for that untimely injury in pre season which denied him the chance to challenge for the number one shirt.

Walton though is unproven at the highest level too. Him and Sanchez have 180 minutes of Premier League football between them – all recorded by Sanchez this season, at Fulham and in the 2-1 defeat away at Tottenham Hotspur.

Would any other club in a relegation battle sell their most experienced goalkeeper in favour of relying on two young(ish) players to keep them up? No is the answer to that because they would deem it more risky than allowing Prince Andrew to meet their teenage daughters.

Sanchez and Walton could turn out to be the best goalkeepers who ever lived, in which case happy days. There is no harm though in holding onto Ryan until the summer whilst we find out if one of the Albion’s prospects is capable of putting in consistent top class performances 15-20 games into their career.

There are three scenarios in which you could possibly justify Brighton attempting to sell Maty Ryan. The first is that something has gone on behind the scenes and he has started upsetting the applecart when dropped for Sanchez.

That seems incredibly unlikely. Since the day that Ryan signed from Valencia for a shade of £5 million in the summer of 2017, he has come across as a proper professional and a thoroughly likeable chap.

It is this superb attitude which makes it such a shame that so many Brighton fans have begun showing a level of hatred towards Ryan that is normally only reserved in this country for serial killers.

He has been loyal, dedicated and a great servant to the Albion and deserves more respect from supporters for that than to be told to “gEt oUT oF mY cLuB”. Some of the stuff being posted online about Ryan is embarrassing.

The second reason is that Ryan is homesick. This particular rumour has gathered pace over the past 24 hours. Covid-19 has impacted on different people in different ways and we know that Ryan returned to Australia at the start of the outbreak to be with his family. His time in quarantine in a hotel upon his arrival down under was well documented.

Perhaps the pandemic made him realise just how far away from home he is. Aaron Mooy secured a big-money move to Chinese Super League club Shanghai in the summer to be closer to Australia.

China has a ban on clubs signing foreign goalkeepers which would be appear to rule Ryan out of joining his friend in the Super League, but that is not to say that he is not looking to return to Australia. Nobody could begrudge him a move if that is the case.

Finally, Brighton could sell Maty Ryan in order to make room for a new goalkeeper, which would make the whole deal a lot more palatable. The Albion were beaten to the signature of Emiliano Martínez by Aston Villa in the summer and were also linked with Trabzonspor’s Ugurcan Cakir.

More recently, a loan deal for Dean Henderson of Manchester United has been mooted. Henderson needs to be playing first team football ahead of Euro 2020 (in 2021) and will probably have to leave Old Trafford on a temporary basis in the second half of the season to do so.

Henderson’s wages would be a sticking point. He signed a new £120,000 a week contract in the summer and the percentage that United wanted Sheffield United to contribute towards that tidy pay packet is why the Blades were priced out of taking him back to Bramall Lane on loan this season.

If Brighton were looking to move Ryan on because they have a replacement lined up, then suddenly the whole thing makes much sense.

If Potter has decided to tell Ryan to find a new club because he has decided that Sanchez is the second coming of Christ after two Premier League matches, then it would be the Brighton manager’s most ludicrous decision yet and a completely unnecessary gamble which heaps pressure on two young goalkeepers.

Maty Ryan had to be dropped by Brighton but to sell him at this moment in time would be bordering on madness.