Done Deal: Liverpool sign-up 'fantastic' and 'talented' No.10 who's 'like Coutinho'
12/19/2015 09:24:00 pm | Jaimie K
The January transfer window may be just around the corner, but Liverpool have started handing out contracts early, and with Jordan Rossiter still on the waiting list for a new deal, the Reds have handed Academy starlet Yan Dhanda a new long-term contract with the club.
According to the BBC:
"Liverpool youngster Yan Dhanda has...signed a professional contract with the Anfield club. Dhanda has signed a two-and-a-half-year deal..
Some info about Dhanda:
* Description on the official Liverpool FC website: "A talented player who loves to play in the No.10 role, just off the main striker. He can also play wide left and is very creative with an eye for a goal".
* Joined Liverpool's academy in July 2013 from West Brom.
* Represented England at under-16 and under-17 level.
* Won the up-and-coming player category at the Asian Football Awards in 2013, after which Ian Ayre raved: "Yan has a fantastic opportunity at Liverpool. He is a very talented young man and we hope he will achieve the best he can do."
* 2013: Admitted that his football style is 'like Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling'.
The media is making a giant hoo-haa out of the fact that Dhanda is the 'first player of Indian heritage' to sign a professional contract with Liverpool. That's great for him, but:
* Liverpool FC was founded in 1892; it's now 2015, so it's taken 124 years for Liverpool to sign a player Indian heritage? In my view, that's a shameful fact.
* What makes it worse is that Dhanda is one only TWO players of Asian descent in the Premier League.
* Overall, there are only NINE players of Asian descent in the four divisions of professional English football (The figure is even lower in Scottish football).
Clearly, there's still a very, very long way to go.