29.7.14

One To Watch - Patrick Van Aanholt



Van Aanholt is the new Sunderland man, replacing Jack Colback as he left for Newcastle and he could certainly surprise many people this season.

He plays at left-back and left Chelsea for Sunderland for a fee believed to be around £1.5M, with a 4-year-deal at the Black Cats. Patrick had been at Chelsea since 2007 (as a youth player) and made 2 senior appearances many seeing him as a budding long-term replacement for Ashley Cole.  Despite few senior appearances he did get experience though, going out on loan at 5 different clubs before signing for Sunderland.


He made his professional debut at Coventry and played 20 games for the Sky Blues in the championship before being recalled to Chelsea during the African Cup Of Nations.

Patrick also had loan spells at Newcastle, Leicester and Wigan playing 22 games across the 3 clubs and scoring 1 goal, for Leicester.

He mainly featured on loan at one of Chelsea’s feeder clubs, Vitesse. In his home country playing alongside fellow Chelsea man such as Kalas amongst others, Patrick thrived with some top performances. After a successful 2012/13 season he was loaned out to Vitesse again, starting many games for the Dutch club. In total, he played 67 games for Vitesse scoring 5 goals.

Patrick often travels forward, racing past defenders with his superb speed and can show some great skills. He might struggle against players such as Coleman or Debuchy, but could easily glide past players that lack pace such as Barry or Flamini. He’s very confident on the ball, has fantastic passing abilities and is also a solid defender.

All in all a fantastic piece of business made by Gus Poyet, the Colback transfer may even go unnoticed!

1 comment:

  1. Who the poop is this fella? I'll have to keep my eyes peeled and watch closely, good article nevertheless

    ReplyDelete