Ryan Williams: Brentford sign former Morecambe midfielder

Williams made 16 appearances for Morecambe last season

Brentford have signed midfielder Ryan Williams following his departure from League Two side Morecambe.

The 24-year-old has agreed a 12-month contract with the Championship club, with the option for a further year.

Williams joined Morecambe in 2012 and scored six goals in 61 appearances for the Shrimps.

"Ryan is a player who we feel has a lot of unreleased potential and we can really help develop him," Bees co-director of football Phil Giles said.

Williams came through Chester's youth system and had spells with Colwyn Bay, Llandudno and Rhyl before moving to Morecambe.

He is Brentford's second signing of the summer, following the arrival of Akaki Gogia from German third division side Hallescher FC.

The Griffin Park club, who appointed Dutchman Marinus Dijkhuizen as their new head coach this month, have decided to apply statistical modelling to player recruitment.

They will now use a mathematical-based approach to recruitment, introduced by owner Matthew Benham, which has been referred to as a 'Moneyball' approach.

Moneyball is a system which emerged in baseball, in which the use of undervalued statistics allowed financially disadvantaged teams to compete with better-resourced rivals.