Swansea City have signed the 26-year old Swedish international keeper, Kristoffer Nordfeldt, to provide competition for current Swansea City number one Lukasz Fabianski. Capped 5 times by Sweden, no small feet, the 6’3″ stopper is a significant upgrade from recently released backup s Dai Cornell and Tremmel.
Barcelona youngster, Guillermo Lara, is alos being linked with a move to the club.
So there we have it, 25 year old Andrew Ayew has signed for Swansea City, on a four year deal. Of course he’ll be on a fairly big wage, but as there was no transfer fee involved this looks like a great move.
Former African footballer of the year, has 62 caps for Ghana, and scored 52 goals in 181 appearances for Marseille….this for a 25 year old.
Very strong, with a good touch and excellent in the air, I am very excited about seeing how Garry Monk plans to fit him in an already very talent Swansea City attack. This doesn’t have to spell less games for Gomis though, as Ayew really looks his best working off the main striker.
The latest player Swansea City are being linked with is Ghanaian international striker Andre Ayew, and these are heavy rumors not imaginary sightings down Rossi’s chippy. Andre Ayew is a big strong centre forward, great in the air, with a genuine eye-for-goal and at just 25 years old would be an excellent addition to the squad.
Personally I wouldn’t say Ayew is as good as Gomis, so if we are going to play just one striker it’d have to be Gomis, but its a long season and you really do need two quality strikers and Ayew is a genuine quality striker.
Interesting fact – he’s Abedi Pele’s son
Alexandru Maxim is the latest player to be linked with a move to the Swans. Stuttgart’s Romanian midfielder offers a nice bit of creativity and at just 24 would be one to help up solidify our long-term Premiership future.
He’s an entertainer, not unlike a wild mutation of Jonjo Shelvy and Gylfi Sigurdsson, he has a beautiful touch, the ball sticks to his boots and he’s a nice grace about the way he plays….trust me he has Swansea City legend written all over him, a signing we’d definitely all appreciate.
We got some very good news with reports that left-back Neil Taylor has signed a new four-year deal at Swansea, solidifying Garry Monk’s plans for next season. True Neil Taylor has looked a little shaky in recent seasons, but the lad has the talent to play at this level and I must admit I am very happy he has singed.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/swansea-citys-neil-taylor-one-8524509
Taylor is great going forward and has the pace to deal with fast wingers, my main concern last year was that he tended to dive into the challenge a little too much but hopefully he can calm that sentiment and concentrate on becoming a better defender for us and Wales.
http://www.thisisanfield.com/2015/03/liverpool-monitoring-swansea-left-back-neil-taylor-report/
I’d still like us to bring in some competition, but let all take a minute to raise a glass Neil Taylor signing another deal – cheers Neil.
The first wave of Swansea cuts is in, and I must admit my heart is very sad to see Swansea legend Alan Tate was one of them – but like an old dog that no longer enjoys his walks its almost sad keeping him going – others shown the exit sign on the Liberty stadium include Gerhard Tremmel, Rory Donnelly, Curtis Obeng, Giancarlo Gallifuoco, Scott Tannock, Joseph Jones, Kurtis March, Corey Francis, Tom Atyeo, David Cornell and Gareth Owen.
So my earlier piece suggesting we need a new keeper was true – https://passingpashion.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/owain-fon-williams/
With all these exits we now have to start speculating as to who might be arriving, and I heard today that we are being linked with Dutch winger Ola John. This Benfica winger looks like a decent prospect, strong, decent crosser, etc, but lets face it at this point its all speculation ……
Another excellent season has ended for us, and although we narrowly missed out on European football we should all be celebrating a further cementation (word?) of our Premiership past/present/future. The signings of Fabianski, Kyle Naughton, Jack Cork, Monetro and Gomis all really impressed by seasons end, not a sentiment I (and many) thought at the beginning.
Monk and his team have a realy excellent eye for a player and with a few careful acquisitions this offseason I am very confident we can/will do well in 2015/2016.
What we need:
(1) keep what we have, very little trimming needs to be done to the squad Monk inherited one year on. Personally I’d like to see Tremmel and a few of the less impressive youngster leave.
(2) bring in a good young left-back to compete with Taylor
(3) bring in another young winger, ideally a cheap developmental project
(4) bring in a young striker, either one good enough to start now (e.g. Danny Ings) or a developmental project
(5) bring in a younger, more promising, back up goalkeeper, ideally from one of the big clubs squads as they are often talented enough but painfully short of chances to impress
None of this needs to cost a lot of money, instead we can focus on improving the squad and giving Garry his kind of players…..as a long shot I’d also like to see Michu get another chance (come on Garry, give the kid a go he’s a maverick, i’m sure he didn’t mean whatever he said/did, we all deserve second/third/fourth chances don’t we?)
Plan, as to beat one of the biggest football clubs in the world – we, somewhat against what my head has been telling me all week, play both Gomis and Wilfried Bony up front, against their still very dodgy looking central defensive partnership. True we probably wont have our preferred dominance of possession, but their defence will not be able to cope with Bony and Gomis – lets remember two of the better strikers in the Premiership at the moment.
We keep things tight in central midfield – playing Ki right back on the central defenders shoulders, with Sigurdsson in front of him and Routledge tight to his left and Jonjo to his right. All three play disciplined, helping Ki out, but ready to spray long balls through to Gomis and Bony up front. Then if its 0-0 with twenty minutes to go we launch project speed – aka Montero.
Can I please assure everyone that saw the recent pre-season performances of their beloved Swans that summer signing Gylfi Sigurdsson will prove to be an absolute pearl, to put it simply he could be out “iced-gem”.
Icelandic international Gylfi Sigurdsson is an exceptional talent, he has an outstanding touch, a great shot and a real creative flair about him….unfortunately he is NOT a winger.
Garry Monk fair play for trying but if you want to get the best out of probably our most creative player – Gylfi – you need to switch him inside. Ideally an attacking midfielder, in the old Michu-role (albeit a very different, imo, better player). Trying to force Gylfi out wide is a waste of his talents. Routledge, Montero, even Dyer and possibly Jonjo are more suited to wide positions. You know what Garry, if you want to play Bony and Gomis (something that I think we might struggle to accommodate), it could work, but then you have to play Gylfi in central midfield…..I know I was a little worried about this defensive work, but you know what Gylfi has discipline and can tackle.
Problem: too many good attacking players
Solution: don’t play Gylfi out wide, possible switch Gylfi and Jonjo, or don’t play Bony and Gomis
Conclusion: its a good problem to have, however, baffling it might be at present (remember the old adage “you can’t have too many good players”)
Reports are that Michu is on his way to Napoli, potentially on loan, as he is reportedly unhappy at being at Swansea in the post-Laudrup world.
Should we let this happen? Absolutely not.
How can we stop it, and we don’t want to upset the proverbial apple-cart even more do we? No, but it isn’t that hard.
We talk to Michu, or at least we send whoever is closest to him, to talk to him. Be that Angel Rangel, Wayne Routledge, Garry Monk, or whoever. We talk to Michu, let him know that we love him, remind him of the player he was before Laudrup wore him into the ground and plan for an attack of him, Wilfried Bony and Gomis. Yes I know this looks a little top heavy, but it could work if we played two relatively defensive central midfielders behind Michu’s attacking mindset, and kept the wingers tighter. Michu strikes me as a different sort of individual, one that might need slightly different treatment, more of a personal touch, to get the best out of him. Not all players appreciate the sergeant major treatment, others need a more bespoke-touch, look at Fergie at Manchester United he was the master of that. If Monk can’t do this, maybe Curtis or Pep can.
Why don’t we sell him, as he isn’t happy? Because we will get nowhere near what he is worth. If a freshly fit Michu gets in the team and starts scoring again, which he will as long as he gives at least 80% (and Michu is a passionate man, he will try once out there), then quite quickly we have the player that many tops teams wanted in 2013.
Shouldn’t we at least keep Michu here while we risk losing Wilfried Bony to the African nations cup for most of our winter? …. yes. all I know for sure is that it is far too early to be giving up on Michu. Michu is a Swansea legend and we need to forget his injury-riddled 2014 and think back to the gem of 2013, he can get that back this year, lets not be hasty now.
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