There’s just a week left in the transfer window, and Swansea City still have gaps in their squad and need to sign quality but who could they sign for which positions?
Swansea have already signed Borja Baston, Fernando Llorente, Leroy Fer and Mike van der Hoorn for the first-team. Their combined transfer fees look to be around a reported £25m. However, the Welsh side have also seen Ashley Williams, Andre Ayew, Alberto Paloschi and Eder leave the club and have recuperated around £40m for their sales.
So, Swansea are in profit of around £15m from transfers this summer, and with the new American takeover the money is there to spend. There’s also places in the squad that need improving, but where?
Centre-back
Swansea have lost key players before, and coped without them. (See: Wilfried Bony, Joe Allen, Darren Pratley, Lee Trundle etc.) Although losing Williams is gong to really hurt the club. Van der Hoorn has been signed from Ajax, but with Kyle Bartley moving on loan to Leeds United it means that there are only three senior centre-backs at the club.
Jordi Amat hasn’t impressed in place of Williams either, meaning the club should really look to make a marquee signing in this area.
Mamadou Sakho has been made available for loan by Liverpool, and would suit Swansea to a tee. A physical defender that’s also a fantastic passer of the ball is exactly what the club needs, and they would be silly not to move for him.
Another option, should the club think that a Fernandez-Amat partnership is the way forward could be Jason Denayer of Manchester City. He is more of a project and could develop and challenge the two aforementioned for a spot in the starting eleven.
A wide-forward
Swansea really need another goalscorer. The current squad only scored 18 goals between them last year, and 11 of them came from Gylfi Sigurdsson. Baston and Llorente will hopefully provide goals, but there’s only three players in the squad capable of scoring goals reliably, and only two will play at any given time.
This wouldn’t be a huge problem if the supporting cast could chip in, but all four wingers netted only three times goals last year, the midfielders scored three, and the defenders scored just one: Fernandez’ winner over Aston Villa in March.
The Swans struggled to find the back of the net last season, and have now lost Ayew and Gomis. Baston and Llorente will likely replace their goal tallies, but the point remains that Swansea need another player who can chip in with five-to-ten goals in a season.
To emphasise, Swansea have created 15 chances per 90 minutes this season, second only to Liverpool, and their expected goals per 90 minutes are bettered by just Hull City and Tottenham Hotspur. Nonetheless, they have scored just one goal in these two games, a problem most supporters would argue.
One solution could be Nacer Chadli of Tottenham Hotspur. He regressed last season, scoring just three times in the Premier League from 10 starts, but in the previous season he scored eleven times in 28 starts and would be a real coup for Swansea.
Another option is Hakim Ziyech of FC Twente. The midfielder scored 17 times last season, scoring 0.44 non-penalty goals per 90 minutes and averaging 4.59 shots too. He is naturally more of a number ten, but could also be deployed on the right, a seemingly perfect replacement for the departed Ayew.
Other areas
It’s very optimistic to hope for more than two Swansea signings this window, but other areas are looking slightly weak.
In midfield, Jack Cork is a strong option. However, a partner for him could be outsources, as Fer, Ki Sung-Yeung and Leon Britton all have various factors against them. The club did try to sign Joe Allen, which would have been perfect but he instead chose Premier League rivals, Stoke City. Other names have been suggested in the media like Vicente Iborra, who would be a welcomed signing.
Another area that could do with some improvement is right-back. Kyle Naughton has taken over Angel Rangel as first choice in this role but doesn’t seem good enough defensively for the role.It’s unlikely that the club will make a move for someone in this role though, as there are more pressing issues and manager Francesco Guidolin seems happy with Naughton.