Who is Sylvester Jasper? Bristol Rovers newest signing lowdown after making move from Fulham

Bristol Rovers have made their first Deadline Day signing, a season-long loan Sylvester Jasper, a winger from Fulham.

Jasper was the first name to be linked and his name was branded around yesterday with the deal taking place quickly to a point where he is now a Gas player.

The 20-year-old has two senior Whites appearances to his name and was at Colchester United for the first part of last season, before joining Scottish Premiership outfit Hibernian.

Patrick McPartlin, the Hibs journalist for the Edinburgh Evening News, watched the Bulgaria Under-21 international in action and gave us an insight as to what we can expect from the winger.

What kind of player are Bristol Rovers getting in Sylvester Jasper and what are his strengths and weaknesses?

A tricky, pacy winger who isn’t afraid to take a man on and have a shot at goal but who needs to work on his decision-making - quite often wants to do it all himself. Naturally inconsistent as a winger.

That being said, he’s young and Hibs had so many issues last season in terms of several injuries, first-time manager, relying on rookie strikers, and it would be interesting to see how he performs in a more stable team.

Feel he would be a good option in a 4-2-3-1 as the LW / RW but we didn’t get a chance to see that at Hibs.

Strengths - beating defenders, pace, delivery. Weaknesses - decision-making, tendency to be a peripheral figure in some matches.

It wasn’t the most successful spell for him in Scotland with no goal contributions, what went against him at Easter Road?

I think he probably suffered partly as a result of playing in a system that perhaps didn’t get the best out of him.

He was a very late signing on deadline day after Hibs had missed out on another target and I’m not sure he was the best fit.

Team selection wasn’t particularly consistent either which can’t have helped much.

He did get two assists in a cup game but it was against ten men and clearly seems to have been the exception.

Assist one: https://youtu.be/cwWZlJCNpN4?t=128 and assist two: https://youtu.be/cwWZlJCNpN4?t=162

What system did Jasper find himself in at Hibs, was there a particular side on the wing that he played at?

He was probably held back Shaun Maloney’s insistence on sticking nearly constantly with a 3-4-2-1 formation, so he played most often as the left-sided ten rather than a natural wide man.

Kind of had licence to roam but only played as an out-and-out winger on one or two occasions, including a 3-1 defeat by Aberdeen where he struggled to make an impact as the left attacker in a 4-3-3.

Both his assists came from the right side but as mentioned, that was one game against ten men. He didn’t stand out as being especially stronger on one side than the other; the formation didn’t help but he wasn’t obviously weaker on the right, for instance.

How come Hibernian opted not to sign Jasper on a permanent basis/return for him?

I don’t think the change in manager helped - Shaun Maloney seemed keen to sign him in March but he was sacked in mid-April and LJ didn’t seem to fancy him.

He’d been at a couple of Hibs games towards the end of last season under interim management and I think would have seen him first-hand as well.

I’m not sure what the fee was for a permanent move but it also might have been that the Hibs hierarchy felt the money might be better spent elsewhere.

He only started seven games, the other nine appearances were off the bench and two of them were for less than ten minutes. He completed the full 90 on four occasions, including the cup game where he got his two assists, so difficult to really judge him on that.