Goal-shy striker could be brought in as backup for Bony
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| Franco Di Santo |
The latest name to be linked with the Swans is ex-Chelsea youngster Di Santo, who's spent the last few seasons oop North in Wigan. The inspiration from this blog came from reading an article on footballfancast.com, which interestingly called him both a "former PL player" and "a star". Both of those statements are fairly tenuous given current goings on, but you can chew them apart at your leisure. The main point I wanted to look at was their assertation that Di Santo had earned himself cult status at the DW thanks to goal-scoring exploits which helped save the club from relegation (a few seasons ago).
I didn't really remember that happening (which is by no means proof it didn't; there are lots of things I manage to miss), so I had a quick look at matches he participated in to see if there was anything in this.
After a spell at Chelsea as a youngster (where he scored a prolific amount of goals for the reserve team) he made a few sub appearances before being shipped out to Blackburn on loan, where despite a decent start he fell out of favour. In fairness, he'd slipped out of the starting XI based on a lack of goals, so it wasn't like he was being particularly mis-treated, and after a full year on loan at Ewood Park he signed for Wigan for £2million.
In his first full year at Wigan, he played 29 games and scored only one goal. Given that goal was one of two scored by Wigan in a 4-2 loss to Sunderland, it doesn't seem it was 2010/11 he saved the club from relegation! Next!...
So, 11/12 then. Bingo. He got off the mark early in the season with two deflected goals against QPR, before a consolation goal against Everton preceeded one of two Wigan goals in a 2-1 win away at Sunderland on the 26th of November. That was his last goal for 5 months, as his next strike came in a 2-1 win away at Arsenal on the 16th of April, before he also managed to bag himself one in a 4-0 win over Newcastle, and another in a 3-2 win over Wolves on the final day of the season, giving him 7 in 33 overall that campaign.
Hardly the stuff of legends, surely? No-one can take away his contribution to the Latics, however I suspect that if indeed he is a club legend up there, it's because they were particularly short on suitable candidates.
Last season was more of the same really. 5 goals in 33 games really doesn't convince me that he'd be worth bringing in, but as I've said before if he is brought in he'd have my backing. I don't think he's a bad player necessarily, and psycohology can play a huge part in striker's going on scoring sprees. You don't score as many goals at youth/reserve level as he has without possessing the quality, and hopefully if he does arrive it'll be the spark he needs to rediscover his goalscoring touch. Because let's be honest, he needs to....