Ki Sung-Yueng – the defense

I’ve seen a lot of rumblings on the Swansea forums recently concerning Ki Sung-Yeung and his likley success in a Swansea shirt, but I seriously think these are misguided. After a couple of rocky games early on he showed excellent potential, before disappearing due to a combination of injury and bad form. But this lad deserves our support, believe me, he has great talent.

Not only does Ki Sung-Yueng look excellent on the ball, but he seems to have a good positional awareness. I put his run of slightly sub-par form down to it being his first season in the Premiership. LEts remember he wasn’t playing every game for Celtic, and that was in the Scottish top flight.

He looks reasonably strong, and can certainly toughen up with experience, and once he gets his confidence up I strongly believe he will offer an additional goal scoring threat too – in Scotland for example he scored 7 times in 41 appearances.

Ki Sung-Yueng is just the sort of talented midfielder that we require to keep our passing style in motion but sometime players require a little additional patience. Lets give Ki Sung-Yueng some more of the precious commodity – time – he will repay us all.

Should he Stay or Should He Go?

Talk of Ashley Williams potentially being sold should be put to the back of your mind – I know its doing the rounds recently – but he was one of the Premiership’s standout performers last season and if we are going to keep progressing the last thing we want to do is lose our captain and hugely talented centre half. Also I see no reason why he would want to leave. His career has been progressing fantastically with us every season, and this year we are in Europe and have made some fantastic aquisitions.

The only possible way I see Williams leaving is if Michael Laudrup really believes new signing Jordi Amat is ready to step up, something I don’t truely believe he will foresee at least for another season.

Wilfried Bony Granted Work Permit

Huge collective relief – our star 12 million pound striker has been granted a work permit. This was always going to happen, but all the same huge relief as now our top signing can get some playing time under the belt, and ideally form a nice partnershiop with a few of the players (noteably Michu).

Bony will reportedly join the squad for training on Thursday, ahead of Saturday’s freindly at Reading.

Wilfried Bony can now play against our Europa League opposition, at the Liberty, on the first day of August.

….the future’s Bony 😉

Ben Davies – one of the best young leftbacks in the Premiership, potential Welsh international centre back, or both?

With the talented Neil Taylor back to challenge Ben Davies for the coveted left back shirt at Swansea City the question is not simply one of who will win the position? This year, with it being a European season, it is increasingly possible that they could share the position. Would/could this keep them both happy? Or indeed would it be a waste of two very talented players? In my mind the next question becomes can Ben Davies play centre half? The great man himself – Michael Laudrup – alluded to this himself (at the end of last season I seem to remember), and it really could be an option.

Ben Davies is big for a left back, and not just in terms of height. He has a muscular build, not unlike Ashley Williams, which is of course useful at set pieces, etc, but might be a harbringer of his truely best position, that of centre half. His ball playing abilities allowing him to evolve into the Swansea style of centre half too.

Unfortunately, no fortunatley, we already have a few good centre halves, so maybe this position switch is something to keep in mind for the future.

Let Davies share the left back responsibilities with Taylor this year. Remember Taylor looked good at right back for the Olympic team last summer, so he can cover both flanks. We could be facing 60-odd games this season, so rotating Taylor at left and right back (along with Jazz Richards) could be the most prudent move. Then in a few years, if we are forced (heaven forbid) to ever sell Chico or Williams, we have a few ready made replacements in Davies and Amat. The future’s relatively bright, whichever way you look at it.

The Future is Looking Bright

So here we are, in the middle of June, and we’ve just signed a striker for nearly thirteen million pounds….13 million !!!! wow, How times have changes. I’m an eternal optimist, and sometimes stupidly so, but I can’t help feeling upbeat about the coming season. Top 6 not out of the question.

In Wilfred Bony we now have a genuine threat up front. A talented, strong, fast, two-footed striker, with an eye for goal, excellent heading ability and a great ability to bring others into play – not something that should be underated when the rest of the Swansea team is taken into account. I envisage Bony, for example, making Michu’s job a lot easier this term. Towards the end of last season Michu was either playing up front on his own or drawing man marking, but this year Bony will be occupying the opposition centre halves, allowing Michu to drift in unannounced and keeping his goal record above ten once again (I forecast Michu scoring at least 15 this year, Bony 20).

Bony’s acquisition will also improve the stats for Hernandez and Routledge (or whoever we play out wide), as not only will they have at least 2 decent targets for their final passes now, but also they will have more relative freedom to have a crack themselves.

Then moving onto the centre of the midfield this year. In Jonjo, Pozuelo and JDG we have some real creative flair, which when coupled with the defensive soundness and passing excellence of Brits, Canas and Ki (I appologise if I forget anyone, have I?) we can really look to control the game. This looks like a simply outstanding front 6.

Moving onto the back line I bet your expecting the “but…”, it isn’t coming, however, as even at the back – long a weakness of ours (particularly under Martinez) – I’m confident we can hold our own. Ashley Williams has looked better each year he’s been here, and looks completely at home in the Premiership. Then their Chico flores, having taken a few months to settle into the pace of the Premiership I was a little concerned, but now he looks our best (indeed one of the league’s ) top defenders. He has everything a central defender requires, absolutely top class. Then at left back we have two excellent players – Ben Davies and the fit again Neil Taylor – neither player would look out of place in the Chelsea team let alone ours. Moving over the the right back position it’s ever dependable Angel Rangel, the Gary Neville of this team – safe and sensible. His normal deputy Dwight Tiendalli has let his agent tempt him away to better things (….do you want Darren Pratley’s phone number, even Leon Britton could share a few choice words about the neck injuries he endured at Sheffield United), but not to worry Jazz Richards has served his apprentiship and I’m more than happy to see Jazz get more playing time.

At the back we have one of the best in the world, in Vorm, backed up very solidly by Tremmel

……….very impressive little team that, lets all sit back and enjoy the joy of supporting the Swans 🙂

…. on a vaguely related topic

Lewin Nyatanga the 24-year old, 34-times capped, Welsh central defender has joined Barnsley. I’m not saying Nyatanga could get in our squad, but I am saying the lad has the talent to surely be doing better than Barnsley – no disrespect intended.

When Nyatanga made his international debut as a 17 year old, against Paraguay, I sat up and thought “wow this lad is good”, but a bit like Richard Duffy it is amazing how quickly the promising youngster can get lost.

Nyatanga has pace, can tackle, and too me anyway looked decent in the air, so why he isn’t plying his trade in the Premiership I do not know. Where has his talent gone? Is it just a confidence thing, or did I imagine his talent in the first place? It’s not that long since I last saw him play for Wales, I think it was as a substitute versus Sweden a few years ago and he has always looked decent enough to me.
Hopefully the Barnsley move will be the making of Nyatanga, allowing him to create pressure on the Welsh squad, as I know we could always do with a few more talent players in the team. Small part of my heart though wishes it was with us, in a Swansea shirt.

“I need a hero”

Their can’t be a resident of the beautiful city of Swansea that hasn’t caught the odd glimpse of the stilettoed, denim-clad wonder that is Bonnie Tyler – pre Darling Buds of May, Swansea’s most famous daughter – and it looks like her famous battle cry may yet come true with the staggering signing of another Bony, Wilfred Bony. Swansea City are apparently about to roughly double their previous transfer record with the £13m signing of Vitesse Arnhem’s Wilfred Bony.

Like most (pre-July 2013) readers of this blog I haven’t seen any real-time footage of Wilfred Bony, but his youtube footage weeps with quality. Not only is this lad quick and strong, but he appears to caress the ball. Their seems to be very little panic in his play – a sign of real quality – and (here from reading reports on the boy) he is a natural goal scorer. Believe me Wilfred Bony is the real deal and Swansea City are about to make a massive statement of intent with this signing.

Alejandro Pozuelo is officially a Swan

So that’s it. It is official. Alejandro Pozuelo is now a Swansea City player and we are paying just half a million pounds for this talented attacking midfielder.

Real Betis did NOT want to lose this lad, but he made it clear he wanted to go and as he was coming towards the end of his contract they made the best move they could in securing finances from us.

What will Alejandro Pozuelo add to the Swans that is not already their? A twist of genius. A creative flair that has otherwise be conspicous in its absence. I know they are very different players but their is something that reminds me of the Ferrie Bodde in him. Welcome Alejandro we know you’ll love it here.

Good news for the future, as two talented youngsters sign

Swansea City continue to make some astonishingly prudent moves, with the aquisition of two very talented youngsters Gregor Zabret and Alex Gogic.

Gregor Zabret is a 17 year old Slovenian goalkeeper, from NK Domzale. Whilst Alex Gogic is a 19 year old Cypriot midfielder, from Olympiakos. Of course the informatiojn flow on both of these lads is quiet, but they spent time with us last season so the excellent coaching staff we have got now has seen what they can do.

I put these moves down as exceptional additions to the foundations.

Another day another player rummour

As we eneter July we have still only signed two players – the excellent aquisitions of Canas and Amat – but the rummour mill continues to turn. The latest player to be linked to us (and not for the first time) is Liverpool’s Jonjo Shelvey.

Attacking midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has not really had the chances at Liverpool that a young lad requires, but he undoubtedly has talent. He’s strong, has decent control and has an excellent shot on him. If we can get him reasonably cheaply we should certainly go for him. Hopefully though this is an outright purchase, as getting him on loan could be a mistake – tunring his career around for no long-term benefit.

So yes sign Jonjo Shelvey, he could be a real player for us. I would say, however, we are starting to look a little top heavy in midfield.

Back on the paucity of talent up-front, however, the latest name that has entered my consciousness in Jo. The former Manchester City striker, at just 26, 6-2, with great strength and pace would be an excellent “cheap” possibility. Yes Jo’s career did not take off at Manchester City, but the club was a revolving door at the time, and Brazilian international strikers cannot be discounted. He’s currently back in Brazil, at Atletico Mineiro, and he has found his scoring boots again, netting 10 goals in 29 appearances. Wouldn’t cost much either.