So far this summer we've signed players from eight different countries - that can't be bad for "brand awareness"!
Much has been made of the Swans' transfer activity this summer, but the other day I noticed that pretty much every player we'd signed hailed from a different country - and most of these countries were previously nationalities that weren't represented in the Swansea squad. Let's have a look. This summer we brought in:
Marvin Emnes (Dutch - our previous Dutchmen Michel Vorm & Jono De Guzman both departed this summer), Giancarlo Gallifuoco (Australian/Italian), James Demetriou (Australian), Federico Fernandez (Argentinian), Lukasz Fabianski (Polish), Modou Barrow (Gambian), Jefferson Montero (Ecuadorian), Gylfi Sigurdsson (Icelandic), Bafetimbi Gomis (French), and not forgetting Stephen Kingsley (Scottish) and Tom Carroll (English) - though the last two were already nationalities represented within the squad. That means we brought in players from eight countries we previously didn't have ties to, which can only mean good things in terms of spreading "the Swansea way" across the globe.
That might sound a bit preposterous, but it really does help in terms of getting the name of your club out there. Modou Barrow, for example, hails from The Gambia and he's the only Premier League footballer to do so. If he gets any first team action it's highly likely we'll develop a bit of a following there, and I've noticed since signing the players listed above that this website is picking up more views from the countries detailed. Ok, it's not like you're going to bring in megabucks but we've seen with Ki the impact having "the biggest footballer" of a country at your club makes.
Continued involvement in the Premier League allows us exposure which it's imperative we capitalise on, and while I don't for a second believe we're bringing in players solely based on their nationalities it most definitely isn't a bad thing having this kind of makeup to your squad. If one of the Australian kids we've just signed makes it into the first team, for example, it's realistic to expect we'd pick up more of a following down under. These are all things which, long term, will benefit the club.
Maybe it's just my penchant for flags, but if we can have a good mix of nationalities as well as looking to always bring through our own youth talent, hopefully we can strike on the magic formula which sees us retain our Premier League status for the foreseeable future.