Bryan Ruiz has given an interview to Dutch football magazine Voetbal International in which he admits that Fulham were not his first choice for a summer transfer.
The Costa Rican winger freely admits that he didn’t know an awful lot about Fulham prior to their interest in signing him from FC Twente and that an attractive financial package and several conversations with manager Martin Jol persuaded persuaded him to sign for the Cottagers. Ruiz was interested in joining Tottenham – describing them as ‘a club you don’t say no to’ – but was disappointed that Harry Redknapp, who had him watched by his scouts, decided against following up his initial interest.
Ruiz also felt that, perhaps because of the amount of money Fulham paid for him, he suffered from exceedingly high expectations when he first joined Fulham. He acknowledges that he was a key part of the Twente side that won their first title but believes he will need some time – perhaps as long as a year – to adjust to the pace of the game in England, become physically stronger and be able to make quicker decisions. There have, however, been signs of improvement of late – particularly at Arsenal and against Liverpool on Monday night, when he played a quite brilliant through ball early on for Moussa Dembele.
Ruiz has also been a little frustrated at his lack of game time so far at Fulham. He feels that he needs regular football in order to improve on his fitness and get into a rhythm. It should be noted, however, that the Costa Rican winger has started both of Fulham’s last two league games and Martin Jol has recently acknowledged that he feels ready to include Ruiz in his starting line-up.
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