A year on and it’s time to evaluate the business that Swansea City concluded last summer.
Swansea renewed the contract of Francesco Guidolin after he kept them up, and spent approximately £30m bringing in six senior players.
The club also let go of four first-team players, recuperating an estimated £42m.
The signings
Leroy Fer
Fer was signing for a reported fee of £4.75m after he was relegated with Queens Park Rangers. Fer started 27 games and played 2405 minutes this year, and was influential early on, scoring some very important goals against Burnley and Chelsea. The more the season went on though it became apparent that it was going to be difficult fitting Fer into the midfield. He was tried in a midfield two for the most part of the season but his defensive effort was poor so the two were overran in the middle third. He worked well on the right of the three-man-midfield that Paul Clement employed alongside Leon Britton and Tom Carroll, and if Fer is to stick around next season as is expected, it should mainly be in a similar role.
Mike van der Hoorn
Signed from Ajax for a reported £2m, van der Hoorn was a very uninspiring signing. There were doubts over Ashley Williams’ future and the other centre-backs at the club were not quite up to the necessary quality. The Dutchman only made seven starts and played just 661 Premier League minutes as he found himself far down the pecking order. With Kyle Bartley back at the club after a successful season on loan at Leeds United it shouldn’t shock anyone if van der Hoorn finds himself a new club this summer.
The Australian goalkeeper was signed on a free transfer from Newcastle Jets on a two-year contract despite the club already having Lukasz Fabianski, Kristoffer Nordfeldt and Gerhard Tremmel on their books. He didn’t make a single Premier League appearance and was last reportedly on trial with Willem II in Holland.
The strikers
Fernando Llorente
Signed for just £5m on a two-year deal, Llorente will go down as just not Swansea’s best signing of last summer, but one of the best deals of any Premier League club. After a slow start, Llorente adapted to the league and ended the year with 15 goals in 28 starts, with only Diego Costa’s goals earning more points than Llorente’s. He delivered when necessary and was one of the major reasons why Swansea managed to avoid the drop.
Borja Baston
It has been a very difficult season for Baston. He joined the club as their record signing, putting a lot of pressure on the man who had scored 18 La Liga goals at Eibar the season before. He was then injured and missed most of pre-season. He made 18 league appearances this season, but started just four games and only played 549 minutes, scoring one goal. It is tough enough to move to another country, learn their language and culture whilst playing football, but doing so after missing pre-season and only getting minutes here-and-there is even more difficult. The stats backed up signing Baston, and he hasn’t transformed into a terrible striker overnight. It would seem very harsh to let him go this summer.
Alfie Mawson
Swansea’s last piece of business that summer was bringing in young Mawson from Barnsley. He was bought for a reported £5m fee and in the second half of the season has shown to be a superb piece of business. At just 23 he looks like he has played in the Premier League for a decade and is not just an outstanding defender but looks the part in a passing system too. A future England international without a doubt and is one for Swansea to build upon in the future.