New Academy Consultant, Clotet

Swansea have appointed Josep Clotet as their new academy consultant. The 36-year old spaniard has an excellent CV, having worked with Espanyol, Malmo, Halmstads, Malaga and Viking FK.

Clotet got his UEFA pro-licence in 2003, at the tender age of 26, and talks a great game. This move genuinely fills me with a level of optimism concerning the Swansea youth setup – which in my opinion is absolutely one of the top priorities for a small club like our own to thrive, plus net positive results should emerge for Swansea and Wales. Hopefully Clotet has the necessary ingredients to chisel maximum quality out of the likes of Scott Tancock, Henry Jones and Kyle Copp.

I look forward to seeing the results in a few years. What I don’t like, however, is how often he seems to hop jobs. Hopefully he’ll settle at Swansea for a decade long spell because that is what the kids of Swansea really need – commitment, stability and quality training.

Diogo Viana Next?

Swansea have reportedly been linked with Gil Vicente winger Diogo Viana, the Portuguese Under-21 international is also thought to be attracking interest from Roberto Martinez’s Everton.

We certainly need another winger and the fact that Everton, likely led by the expert eye of ex-Swansea scout Kevin Reeves, are tracking him has my spider-senses tingling. Viana has been playing really well in the Portuguese top flight this year and rummour has it a £4.2million bid would be enough to secure his services.

Here are some nice highlights of Viana’s ability:-

He’s got a great touch – vital for us – good tenacity and reasonable pace, but as of yet is far from the finished product….we shall watch this space closely for developments.

Manchester United Linked to Ben Davies

Manchester United are rummoured to be interested in signing Ben Davies, as a replacement for ageing Patrick Evra. David Moyes is reportedly keen to off-load Evra and bring in a long-term replacement, and the excellent from of Davies (for both Wales and Swansea) has drawn their attention.

Looking increasingly strong both defensively and roaming forward, Swansea City starlet Ben Davies is attracting the attention of the bigger clubs. He combines that rare combination of good pace, a great touch, strong tackling ability and atypical aerial ability. Of course I would rather Ben Davies remained a Swan, but any interest is obvious a reflection of how much we are improving.

Tom Ince Reportedly Signing in January

It is being heavily reported that the Blackpool and English U21-star Tom Ince is signing with us in January, with various transfer fees being cited around the seven million pounds mark. Now Tom Ince would make a wonderful signing for us, a fast winger with an eye for goal and plenty of as-of-yet unfulfilled potential, however when your remember that he is out-of-contract at the end of the year isn’t seven million a bit high.

Tom Ince is one of the most gifted wingers in the UK at the moment, and he will almost certainly improve going forward, particularly at a club like ours. At present he is a little off the bigger clubs’ radars, due to an influx of exceptionally talented English wide-men. In Ravel Morrison, Wilfried Zaha, Raheem Sterling, Jess Lingard, Nathan Redmond and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Tom Ince finds his path to his eventual dream of representing England regularly somewhat blocked, particularly if he remains in the Championship. If you include the likes of the more experienced heads like Theo Walcott, Ashley Young, James Milner, Aaron Lennon, Stewart Downing, Adam Johnson and current wonder-kid Andros Townsend, his need to move onto a bigger club looks even more pressing.

At Swansea he would get the opportunity to play at the highest level – European competition must look particularly appealing to him I imagine – plus he’d get regular game time and the patient coaching that a kid of his age really requires. Whatever he does I hope, for his sake he doesn’t join too big a club, and Wilfried Zaha is a great example of why not, as that kid is regressing at Manchester United. Indeed, I wouldn’t at all mind us making a move for Zaha in the loan window, as surely David Moyes would improve his investment with 6 months down at the Liberty. Either way, we need to improve our wide play, with goals from out wide a particular need. Until then I’d like to see Roland Lamah get an extended run in the side, as he impressed in our last European game.

Sunderland Keen to Make Ki Transfer Permanant

Sunderland have made it clear that they want to make midfielder Ki Sung-Yeung’s loan move permenent. While I think it is a good thing that another team rates our players highly enough to want them, I do NOT want to sell Ki to Sunderland (or indeed anyone).

Yes Ki hasn’t yet set the world alight at Swansea, but the key word here is “yet”. Ki has the talent – a great touch, strength, good defensive and attacking instincts, plus the size that we sometimes look to miss, particularly at set-pieces. He just hasn’t tet got fully up to speed. A potential midfield of Leon, Ki and Michu, with Jonjo and Hernadez out wide looks genuinely scarey – for the opposition, not us. Based on recent form I’d prefer Ki over Canas, but we have to see I suppose.

The fact that Sunderland want to sign Ki permanently implies he must be really imprssing on loan there, playing well in the training sessions we hear nothing about.

An interesting quote from new Sunderland boss, Gus Poyet, stated that Ki “has the ability to pass the ball with just one touch and change from one side to the other” – Leon’s taught him well – while adding “or run with the ball and have a shot with either foot” – so he was paying attention to Michu in training also!!

The Northern Echo, from watching his recent performances, stated that “Ki has been the pivot at the base of the midfield, picking the ball up from the defenders and moving it on to his fellow midfielders. He perfomed the role superbly against Manchest City”. More of their thoughts are included here:- http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/football/sunderland/news_articles/10814912.Poyet_keen_to_sign_Ki_on_a_permanent_deal/?ref=rss

This nice little youtube montage can remind you all of Ki’s talents, one has to think that even if we don’t want to keep Ki here after a strong World Cup in Brazil we could easily see his potential resale value above the ten million mark:-

Coleman Signs New 2-Year Deal

So there we have it, former Swansea legend Chris Coleman has signed a new 2-year deal, thus giving him a crack at European Qualification for 2016.

I know I’ve expressed my thoughts on this before – so I wont go into it in any detail now – but essentially we didn’t have all that many options, if like me you think the Weslh manager should be Welsh. It’s international football, so surely having any other nation in charge is essentially cheating and should be banned by FIFA or UEFA or whatever jokers run such things. Anyway, I am pleased Chris Coleman has got an extended deal, although he hasn’t done all that well over the past couple of years, he did take over at a very tricky time (post the Gary Speed death and all), and if you look at the portfolio of other Welsh options none of any quality were available for the wages that we can offer.

I say back Coleman, as with the very talented young squad he has it isn’t all that much of a stretch of the imagination to see us making the very small improvement to gain qualification for the Euros. No I haven’t gone mad, I’m taking into account the much extended competition size, plus the fact that we have two of the world’s best players in our side – Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale – if Coleman can bring in a few more then we could be a very good team.

My ideal Welsh team being:-

Hennessey
Matthews Collins Williams Davies
Allen Collison
Bale Ramsey N.Taylor
Vokes
(not bad little team, but I wouldn’t mind a new striker emerging, or maybe we should play Bale up front. Personally I thought with the large number of talented Swansea left backs we now have we should move Neil Taylor into midfield. Hopefully ex-Swan Huws looks good against Finland too)

Swans Let Lead Slip in Last Minute to 10-man Kuban

I have to say that, despite my huge disappointment that we let the win slip against 10-man Kuban Krasnodar, there were still many glimpses of light in the otherwise hugely depressing result.

Positives:-

* We seemed to have more urgency about our passing game, something that Michael Laudrup has previously stated is an aim but with very little success.

* We only need 2 points from our remaining two games – at home to Valencia on 28th November (sure to be a more exciting game now) and then aawy to St Gallen. Lets be honest we’d have all taken this if offered it at the beginning of the season.

* Alejandro Pozuelo continues to look useful (if a little unfit towadrs the middle of the second half, I guess game time here can only help) and I’m looking forward to seeing the team with his additioanl creative spark in the Michu-role.

* Roland Lamah looked like a much more effective player to me, than previous outings have shown, and I’d be keen to see him get an extended chance in the team. His more direct approach could add the goal-scoring threat that we are likely to miss with Michu out. I’d be tempted to try Lamah on the one flank and Jonjo on the other (for now Jonjo is best used out wide where his inconsistency defensively isn’t too highly exposed).

* Centre halves looked reasonably secure.

Negatives:-

* Both full-backs, particularly Tiendalli

* Central midfield – all I’m going to say here is we NEED LEON BRITTON in there. Personally as ‘ve stated before I’d play Britton with Canas in the centre, we really need to toughen up the core of our team, I’d also buttress the heading ability at set pieces by playing two better headers out wide (both of whom has a nice ability to score goals too) of Jonjo and Lamah.

Three points a must versus Stoke.