Korean midfielder is deemed surplus to requirements despite impressing last season
Now, anyone who's a regular visitor to the site will know I'm a big fan of Ki Sung-Yueng. The midfielder impressed me massively throughout last season, despite playing the entirety of it out of position as a defensive midfielder - finishing as the Premier League's most accurate passer to boot.
Let's put that into perspective - when Leon Britton finished his first PL season with the same accolade the national media jumped all over it - comparing him to Xavi and Iniesta. When the same feat was achieved a year later by a player new to the Premier League, his team and what's more the position he found himself playing in, it was only flagged up by his most loyal of fans and those with an interest in statistics.
Something I've been banging on about for a week or two now is how Swansea aren't running the midfield like they used to, and I firmly believe this is because a number of times so far this season we've lined up without one of Leon or Ki at the base of our midfield, and I think we suffer as a result. I'm not saying it's impossible for us to adapt to playing without one of the two, just that at present I'd still prefer to see one or the other anchoring out midfield. They operate unlike any of the other midfielders we have in the squad, and the selfless nature of their respective games allows the team around them to flourish.
The game against West Brom yesterday was easily the best we've performed without either of the two in the team, and I am pretty confident as our new look midfield gels we'll continue to see an improvement in terms of ball retention and our possession game, but I can't help but feel that Ki can legitimately feel quite hard done by. For his part, Laudrup has stated the Korean has a future at the Swans despite moving on loan to Sunderland, and we do have an option to recall him in January if necessary, so we may yet see Ki featuring for us before the end of the season.
I for one hope we haven't seen the last of a player who we broke our transfer record to sign for £5.5million. Good luck Ki - show us what you can do!