Stats show Chesterfield have signed best midfielder in League Two from Leicester City

The 21-year-old had been impressing on loan at struggling Newport County in the first-half of the season before being recalled by his parent club Leicester City and sent to the Spireites to continue his development. Despite Town beating Newport 4-1 in September, the blonde-haired midfielder caught the eye of many in the home stands that day and his name cropped up on the forums afterwards.

In a statement announcing his departure, Newport said they ‘made every effort to retain’ him. The reaction from the Welsh club’s fans, who were anticipating him going to League One, said a lot. Some of the comments scoffed at him joining ‘bloody Chesterfield’ but in fact the Blues’ higher league position, style of play, manager and location will all have played a part in the Foxes’ decision and it will have been a no-brainer.

The stats rank Braybrooke has the top central midfielder in the division so far this season. His profile is full of green, meaning he excels in most departments. Successful passes, dribbles, crosses, duels won, touches, tackles and interceptions are all high. He looks a complete, all-round midfielder. A partnership of him and Ryan Stirk or Tom Naylor is very exciting.

Against MK Dons there were a couple of loose passes in the first-half, understandable having not trained properly with his team-mates yet, but he soon go into his groove and controlled play after the break, leading him to be voted the fans’ man of the match.

The stats for fellow new loanees Sam Curtis and Sil Swinkels are not as thorough because they haven’t played as much this season. But from a small sample size, Swinkels ranks highly for aerial duels and duels overall, which matches up with what we saw at Stadium MK on his debut. He looked comfortable in possession, made good decisions, defended strongly one v one and looked nice and calm.

One regular viewer of under-21s football got in touch with the DT and Curtis was steady and solid and that was the first impression he gave on Sunday. The way he attacked the ball for his goal was encouraging.

Chesterfield have had all three of them watched, they have done their homework, and they have managed to get them early ahead of a month where they will play four teams who are in and around them in the table.

Back to Braybrooke. If you haven’t seen his wonder goal from inside his own half against Colchester United over Christmas then that is most definitely worth a watch (see below). Who have Chesterfield got next? Ahh, yes. Colchester.