What can Peterborough United fans expect from new signing Ryan De Havilland?

Ronnie Edwards, Jack Taylor, Ephron Mason-Clark and now Ryan De Havilland.

The link-up between Posh and Barnet is now well-established and has served both clubs very well. Both Posh and the National League side are set to see their coffers swell significantly this summer with Jack Taylor already making the move to Championship side Ipswich and Premier League clubs rumoured to be fighting to secure the signature of Ronnie Edwards.

Will De Havilland join that list in a few years time? Posh and Barnet will certainly hope so, but what can the London Road faithful expect from their new man?

It would be unfair to expect him to slot right in and replace Taylor straight away given how the 25-year-old grew into perhaps the best midfielder in League One, one now on the cusp of an international debut with Ireland, during his three and a bit seasons at Posh, but they have certainly signed a player in the same mould.

Taylor joined Posh aged 21 in January 2020 from Barnet and De Havilland has done the same just 11 days after his 22nd birthday.

Also like Taylor, De Havilland - although shorter at 5”9 - is best described as a box-to-box midfielder.

He is also accomplished with both feet and not only has a track record of taking set-pieces, but taking corners with one foot and free-kicks with another.

Perhaps that is why Barnet boss Dean Brennan described him as ‘technically brilliant’ when he signed him in October 2021.

Brennan added: “Ryan has a very good football brain.

“He can play comfortably with both feet and has a very good work ethic.

"He’s young and hungry, which is exactly the type of player we want at the club.”

He appeared in 42 league matches for Barnet last season - scoring seven times and providing seven assists to help the Bees qualify for the play-offs in fifth.

Their season ended straight after though with a 2-1 home defeat to Boreham Wood in the first round which De Havilland did not score in, but his highlight of the season did come against Wood when he scored a stunning first-time effort from the edge of the D to win the same match in the regular season 2-1 with the final kick on Boxing Day.

He briefly played in front of Emmanuel Fernandez as the big Posh centre-back ended the campaign on loan at The Hive.

Having made his Barnet debut in February 2022, De Havilland also appeared in 16 matches alongside Ephron Mason-Clark before he joined Posh last summer. Mason-Clark has shown his former teammate exactly how the step-up can lead to success.

In total, De Havilland appeared 65 times for the Bees, scoring nine times.

Barnet is De Havilland’s only other professional club so far in his career, but he did also appear three times for Fulham Under 21s in the 2020/21 EFL Trophy.

All three matches were in the group stage, but this did include a 4-2 defeat at London Road in October 2020.

The match is better remembered as the only game George Boyd scored in during his second spell at the club. Mo Eisa, Sammie Szmodics and Flynn Clarke were the other scorers as De Havilland played 72 minutes.

De Havilland can also boast that he has scored a winning goal for England.

In March this year, he scored the winner for England C (the best English players picked from non-league) in their annual friendly against Wales C.