Andrey Santos was one of the harder players to figure out a pathway for this season.

He was right in that difficult corridor – almost good enough to get regular minutes for our first team, but also at great risk of spending the season sitting on the bench if all our other options stay fit.

Once the decision was made to loan him out, it was still a very tricky call. Last season he suffered in the first 6 months, sitting on Nottingham Forest’s bench. It was essential to have him playing every week, but alongside that there’s a great desire to make sure he’s at the best team possible, playing at the highest level and with strong coaching and teammates.

In the end he returned to Strasbourg where he spent the latter half of last season, and so far it’s proved the right call. He probably could have taken a step up to a bigger team, but this way he can really pick up where he left off. And it’s working – he went straight into the team, and has scored twice and looked great already.

WhoScored even have him as the highest rated central midfielder in the top 5 leagues so far this season, with his average score of 8.14/10 putting him clear of the competition.

It won’t have been easy to settle for a team which looks set to battle relegation in Ligue 1 as his destination, but there’s more to loans than just aiming for bigger and better teams. Being an important figure and a regular player for the Alsatians will help Santos develop his football and his character far more than just knocking around as a rotation option somewhere in the Premier League.

This strong start to the season is a great indicator he’s made the right call.