With massively increased competition for places at the Liberty, what kind of shape will the midfield take on?
With this summer's acquisitions slowly stacking up, the Swansea engine-room is starting to fill out, and I have been wondering whether there's room for everyone as there does seem to now be a lot of talent kicking around. With an increased fixture list, there will be a massive amount more stress put on the squad, and it's likely that all our summer signings, plus existing central midfielders, will get ample game time.
There is, of course, the old adage regarding European football, which states that you need two players for every position in the team. With the exception of striker and possibly right-back, we are now approaching that level of cover throughout the team and I thought it would be interesting to have a look at two alternative lineups, with this summer's signings included.
In gold is what you'd call a more "established" Swans side given the team's 2012/13 performance, and in red is a team with more of an emphasis on new signings. I've included Bony as it seems his arrival is imminent, and it gives a better balance to the "second" team.
We've come a long way eh? At times towards the tail end of our maiden Premier League season we struggled in terms of replacing first team regulars, however we've rapidly increased the overall calibre of the squad and generally it's been done fairly under the radar. One thing which must be of concern to various midfielders, however, is that if we sign Bony then Michu is likely to spend a lot of time playing at the head of a midfield three, reducing the amount of available midfield spots by a third.
With Shelvey, Ki, Canas, Britton & Pozuelo all realistically fighting for two remaining slots, it'll be interesting to see which partnerships develop, and who benefits from playing alongside who. Pozuelo played alongside Canas at Betis, so it's likely they'll have a good understanding of each other's games already, and it won't be long before we see a pattern develop in terms of what type of team is sent out to face a certain type of opponent. I can't see us going with Ki, Leon & Pozuelo away at Stoke, for example...
Through some pretty ruthless raiding of the Spanish market and few other smart acquisitions we could well have a decent crack at Europe this season without jeopardising league form that drastically - and Huw has hinted that even if/after we sign Bony from Vitesse (which will take cumulative spending this summer to around the £20million mark with no player sales since January) another signing or two may not be out of the question.
One name strongly linked with us is Wakaso Mubarak, a right-footed left winger who scored three goals and got six assists in his first season for Espanyol last term. He'd signed for a nominal sum from Villareal following their relegation, but it seems he's set to depart with a fee of around £4.3million rumoured to be enough to see the Catalan club release the Ghanaian international. One thing is for sure, he's got an absolute cannon of a shot on him:
Whoever (if anyone) does come in from this point, they'll only be adding to what is fast becoming a top-rate Premier League squad. As a Swansea fan the last decade has thrown up many occasions which have led fans to reminisce, and to look back at "how far we've come", but to spend £20million and for Huw to then claim we're still in the market for more players is surely a watershed point - one which we'll look back on and think "this is where it got big-time".
Then again, people were probably saying that in 1982...