Gavin Whyte is seemingly a man in demand. He’s been linked with a move to Cardiff City, as well as having been on the end of interest from Nottingham Forest earlier in the summer.

Oxford slapped a price-tag of £4m on his head this summer in a bid to warn off other clubs. The 23-year-old only moved to the Kassam from Irish side Crusaders last summer, but has suitably impressed since that switch; or has he?

Freshly capped by Northern Ireland and clearly a man in demand, we explore what the stats say about Gavin Whyte in our latest spotlight piece.

When considering which of Whyte’s stats to look at, we thought about what attracts a club to a player, certainly a club from a higher level.

In terms of a striker, they’re surely judged on their goals first and foremost? It’s not necessary for them to have a huge amount behind them, not if they’re showing adequate promise or perhaps playing in a side that doesn’t accentuate their skills correctly.

Whyte played 47 times for Oxford last season, scoring just nine goals. That’s almost a goal every five games, not the sort of record that would attract a bigger club at first glance.

Without the goals, it’s important to look elsewhere for signs that he might be an exciting striker in the making. Maybe he’s getting a lot of shots away per game and just being desperately unlucky? Not so. He averages 1.91 shots per game, a modest return for a striker.

Even more concerning for any side thinking of paying £4m for him, his shot accuracy is 28.6%. That’s certainly not the sort of return any Championship club is going to want for a £4m outlay.

Perhaps he is an assist king then, the sort of player who unselfishly lays on his teammates and allows them to bask in the glory? Lots of strikers who don’t score many are often part of a deadly duo with another man providing the finishing touches.

Again, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Whyte assisted 1.32 shots per game on average. He does tee up his teammates, but not to a level that would suggest he’s worth pursuing for a big fee.

In fact, he only got 2.88 touches of the ball in the box per game. Again, it’s not the sort of stats that suggests he’s ready to make the step up, he's not consistently running the channels or getting behind the last man.

From the numbers, we’ve gleaned he has a modest goalscoring record, his shooting needs work, he’ll tee up players for shots, but not to any great effect and he doesn’t even get touches in the box all that frequently.

Where are his strengths? Are they in the aspects untouched by stats? Does he have flair, or have Cardiff seen something in him currently being under-utilised by Oxford?

We can only conclude they must have when perusing his stats.