Spaniard shows his grasp of English is coming on with interview on official site
In what is surely his longest interview in English so far, our floppy haired maestro spoke to SwansTV.com about his form, new signings and the team's performance so far this season.
The headline of the blog today shouldn't be taken too seriously as the video attests - Michu is clearly joking when he refers to the players "speaking Spanish in the changing room" and while that is obviously the case, I think it's also true that in the past Spanish players have made an effort to acclimatise quickly, and I imagine that'll also be the case with our newer signings too.
It raises an interesting point that was discussed on yesterday's EPL Roundtable Podcast - are there too many foreign players in the Premier League/UK Football? Personally, I think while it would be nice to see a continued stream of young talent making their way from the youth teams to the first team at present it's very much a case of building for the future. I think the Swans are putting measures, and facilities, in place to rival those of all but the biggest clubs, and if we're patient and allow the club time to develop their academy it will ultimately pay dividends. The signatures of Jernade Meade, Kristian Scott, Gregor Zabret, Kenji Gorre & Alex Gogic show the club is serious about youth, and I'm hopeful that over the next year or two we'll see some local talent emerge through the ranks too.
The impact Ben Davies' meteoric rise to fame will have had on other youngsters at the club won't have gone amiss either. He's shown that firstly if you're good enough you'll get your chance in the first team, and secondly that if you impress you aren't necessarily going to go straight back into the development squad.. Players like Henry Jones, Daniel Alfei & Kyle Copp will be watching developments with keen interest as they hope to make their own breakthroughs.
Back to Michu, and it seems he's set to see a lot of game time in his preferred attacking midfield position. I've got everything crossed that Jose Canas finds someone with whom he can successfully control the midfield, because despite everything we gain by having Michu behind the striker we're still struggling to retain possession as we've become accustomed to. It's early days, and Canas has looked very good, so hopefully I'm worrying over nothing.
The bookies clearly fancy Michu to score goals - he's only 5-1 to score 16 and given his performances so far this season you wouldn't bet against him matching last season's tally. I just hope it doesn't come at the expense of midfield domination. If nothing else it's going to be interesting to see how our midfield develops over the course of the season, as Laudrup gets to know his new signings and which players work well together. The proof is in the pudding, as they say.