David N'Gog? Rhys Williams? What is going on?

Swansea linked with second Championship player as off-field issues hit the headlines

Well, quite a few days we've had eh? Firstly, there was this: link, the Daily Mail reporting that in a training ground bust-up with Garry Monk, Chico Flores had picked up a brick and it resulted in the police being called. Now, there's since been statements from both players via Twitter and the official site stating that while the police were called, at no point did anyone pick up a brick, so someone's fibbing somewhere. The Mail story was based on the eyewitness account of a mysterious passer by "believed to be the mother of a youth team player". If true, why would someone with a connection to the club do something capable of causing so much instability?

Some have pondered whether the bust-up was perhaps partly fuelled by the rumours that the Swans are in for Rhys Williams, Middlesborough's club captain and an Australian international. Capable of operating anywhere across the back four and at defensive midfield, it's his preference for playing at centre-back which could have caused consternation in the ranks, and with both players reportedly involved in the clash also centre-backs it could be that while it wasn't the main factor, it had added a bit of extra pressure to the situation. No-one likes looking over their shoulder, and with Garry Monk returning to fitness the acquisition of Williams would mean we'd have five centre-backs. Too many? I'd say so, even if Monk's playing career is possibly starting to draw to a close.

Is Rhys Williams any good? Honestly - I don't know too much about him but I can't say I've ever been that impressed. I must have seen him play against the Swans at some point in the Championship but he can't have made an impression, and while Boro at one point fended off a £6million bid from Bolton for their captain his star has fallen somewhat - although he's not been helped by a couple of fairly nasty injuries which have kept him out for months at a time. 

Of late, in fairness, it seems he's playing well despite some Boro' fans comments on Twitter ("You can have him" being the gist of most of them), and last week Middlesborough manager Aitor Karanka (when did that happen?!) denied any knowledge of a Swansea approach for the defender. Make of that what you will, but the figure mooted is £1.5million. Honestly? I don't see the point in signing someone permanently in that position right now. Our defence is almost fully fit, it's defenders we need. Would Rhys Williams be a suitable replacement for any of our midfielders? I can't rule it out, but it seems unlikely.

Moving on... David N'Gog. What? Again? It was depressing enough the first time we were linked with him, so hopefully this is just the press regurgitating something on a slow news day. As @Paulleyshon said on Twitter - "N'Nspiring". Personally I'd rather have Darren Pratley back and stuff him up front than N'Gog, who's shown he's consistently average even at Championship level, and why we'd be in for him I don't know. There must be better options out there than him, and if we aren't exploring any our scouting network needs some work.

Yes we need cover, yes we don't want to break the bank, but unless the players coming in are at least as good as those currently occupying places in the squad then we should go with what we've got. Yesterday I was told we're 5-5-2 against teams in the bottom half of the league, and if true that's indicative that once the fixture list thins out and we get players back from injury, we should be just fine. 

Rhys Williams? Maybe. David N'Gog? No ta.

Should Chico return to the team in place of Amat?

Melodramatic centre-half may struggle to regain his first-team berth...

Following on from the 1-1 draw at Norwich this Sunday, there seems to have been an outpouring of praise for our other Spanish centre-half - Jordi Amat. I won't have been alone in reserving judgement on the man acquired from Espanyol this summer, but this was mainly based on his level of physicality, and when you consider how young he is (especially for a centre-half), there really is reason to be hopeful we've got a player who can go on to great things during his time here.

This begs the question; should Chico automatically regain his spot? He missed the Norwich game as he was banned for accumulation of bookings, and at least one of those bookings was acquired after throwing himself to the ground like a rag doll, feigning injury. Pretty pathetic, and what's more despite Laudrup coming out in the press to say Chico needed to cut that sort of thing out he's still carried on making the meal of anything that comes anywhere near his face. Man up, mate.

As I didn't see the game at Norwich, I can't comment on Amat's performance but he does seem a very tidy player with all the attributes he needs to be a big success. He did seem to stand off Johan Elmander in the build up to Gary Hooper's goal, but you can't predict a striker will produce a finish of that calibre, and if he retained his place in the first-team I think it would send out a twofold message - one, that fringe players can expect to retain their place if they perform well and two, that needless bookings and a lack of professionalism won't be tolerated.

Personally, I've got absolutely nothing against Amat lining up instead of Chico against Everton this weekend. Whether Laudrup feels he's up to it we can't say though.

Would you prefer to see Chico reinstated against Everton or should Amat get the nod? Get involved in the comment section below!

Jon Walters wants Chico punished - that's quite rich for a Stoke player...

Quite how someone playing for the Potters feels he's in a position to call for reprimands is beyond me...

In the aftermath of fluking a point thanks to a horrific refereeing decision, Jonathan Walters decided to take to the press to say that he thought Chico should be punished by the FA for his playacting.

Now, I'm not defending Chico. His theatrics are embarrassing, and it's clear Swansea fans are growing tired of it as after he received a yellow card for throwing himself to the ground in the Stoke game the East Stand actually applauded. That's the first time I can remember Swansea fans applauding one of their own being punished, but to be honest it was deserved.

There is, however, an element of pot kettle black involved here. Walters spent quite a bit of time on the ground in the recent matchup if I remember correctly, as did a number of his teammates, and their goalkeeper Asmir Begovic was guilty of both consistent time-wasting as well as a couple of shoves which were only punished with a yellow card. When you couple that with the style of "football" Stoke have played over the last few years, and the injuries they've inflicted during the same period, it really is a bit cheeky.

I can honestly say that whenever we played Stoke under Pulis I grew worried for the safety of our players. It seemed officials had become used to their "committed tackles" and rough-house tactics, and that to me was inexcusable. A foul is a foul, regardless of the team it was committed by. Hopefully Mark Hughes can pull them away from that kind of thing, but with a squad full of players deeply saturated in the Pulis way, I doubt it. Nathan Dyer is someone I remember getting a particularly rough time of it, and he was regularly "tackled" with such a lack of consideration for his safety that I considered it a miracle if he got out of the game without suffering a serious injury.

It gets even more ludicrous when you consider the only reason they got anything out of the match was because of a ridiculous penalty decision. Stoke gained a point thanks to the officials, and should be counting their chickens - not lashing out at what they perceive (rightly or wrongly) to be cheating on Chico's behalf. Whether he was baited into talking about the incident I can't say, but in my opinion he should look closer to home before accusing an opponent of bending the rules. 

Jonathan Walters - sit down, and shut up.

Man Utd tickets go on sale, Chico close to return from injury & Dyer hopes to sign new contract soon

Tickets for league opener go on sale

Today you can get your mitts on tickets for the opening day clash against David Moyes' Manchester United. It's a typical staggered release; Non-season ticket holding Jack Army members with 26 loyalty points have first preference, then Non-ST holding Jack Army members with any points, then ST holding JA members with 26 points or more, before ST holders with any points and finally, next Monday (if there are any left) they'll go on general sale. Priced at £45 (£22.50 for concessions), you can order online here: http://www.swanseacity.net/news/article/tickets-man-utd-away-936604.aspx?

Chico close to return from thigh injury

This is the news that Chico Flores is expected to return to training towards the end of this week, following a thigh injury which kept him out of the Swans' most recent friendly (the 2-0 win away at Exeter). Jordi Amat was also suffering the effects of injury, carrying a shoulder injury to the game against the Grecians, however he completed 45 minutes and should be fully fit for the Europa League tie next week.

Speaking to the Evening Post, Laudrup was confident he'd have his full compliment of central defenders available for the beginning of the season:

"Jordi came into the game with a shoulder injury, he had a knock the other day. He wanted to play like everyone else so he had 45 minutes, but he was not 100%. 

"I think he will be okay for Europe. We will have to see with Chico as well, I hope he will be back in training on Thursday. We will have all four centre-backs back again for the start of the Europa League. We have very good depth in our squad this season." Michael Laudrup

There have been rumours surfacing in the last day or two that we're interested in Espanyol centre-back Hector Moreno (certain Spanish clubs may start getting sick of the sight of us!), a Mexican international who enjoyed a solid season last term. It's even been suggested in certain media outlets that we've had a £5million bid rebuffed - if that's true there's a strong possibility that Arsenal have firmed up their interest in Ashley Williams, which isn't a surprise given their injury woes (and inactivity thus far in the transfer market). Thomas Vermaelen is rumoured to be out for three months, while Laurent Koscielny has picked up an injury which leaves Arsene Wenger with Per Mertesacker his only fit registered centre-back. A bid for Ash may now be imminent, if it hasn't arrived already.

There's the distinct possibility Arsenal haven't made a bid earlier because Huw is developing a reputation as a shrewd negotiator who'll always squeeze every penny out of the bidding club - Arsenal are famously stingy and it's likely any negotiations would be lengthy, however if Ash does fancy the move the chances are the two clubs will come to an agreement. There's no point retaining a player who wants to be elsewhere, and you can forgive any Swansea player who wants to play for a club who've spent the last 10 years playing at Champions League level. Obviously I hope this doesn't come to bear, but with Arsenal in desperate need of defensive reinforcement it's hard to imagine they won't make a serious offer.

Dyer hoping new contract will be tied up soon

As mentioned previously, the Swans are in negotiations with Nathan Dyer's representative(s?) regarding a new contract for the diminutive wide-man. Remarkably, he's the only member of the current "first-team" squad whose contract is set to expire at the end of season; that to me would indicate that all the hyperbole from Huw and the board regarding "only having players who want to be here" is very much true. You can't make a player sign a contract, and given how unlikely the Swans are to award bumper contracts the feel-good factor in SA1 is clearly evident:

"Swansea are a great club and I've always felt at home here, so I hope something can get sorted out soon. I don't think about my contract situation too much; I just try and play football. 

"I'm really happy at Swansea. Every year since I've arrived, we have improved and improved. It's been great to be part of the rise of Swansea." Nathan Dyer

Since arriving on loan from Southampton he's gone from strength to strength, and as I've said a couple of times he has improved his finishing (and final ball) dramatically in the last 18 months. Hopefully there's still more to come from Dyer as if he can add a touch more savvy to his game he could be a top, top player, and one who could realistically expect to gain international recognition at some point. If Matt Jarvis can get into the England squad, so can Dyer.

Fingers crossed, this will be wrapped up soon and we'll be seeing Nathan Dyer charging around for years to come. We love you Nath!  

A profile of Swansea target Jordi Amat

Young Spanish centre-back seems to fit the bill for the Swans

The latest player to be linked with a move to SA1, Amat is a 21-year old centre-back who spent this season on loan at Rayo Vallecano (from whom we signed Michu), playing 28 games in all competitions. He only scored once, but it's worth mentioning and here's why:

Wowzers. Sign him up? Let's see. 

A product of the Espanyol youth system (where he signed on as a seven year old), and after appearing for the "C" and "B" teams he made his debut in La Liga aged 17. He's gone on to make fourty-one appearances for Los Blanquiblaus but they decided a loan spell would aid his development, and so at the beginning of the season he moved from a Catalan club in the shadow of Barca, to a Madrid club in the shadow of both Real & Atletico - Rayo Vallecano.

One thing to note is that Amat picked up 12 yellows in his 28 games this season - that's almost Cheick Tioté standard! Hopefully added experience will see him mature and stop picking up so many, as it's frustrating watching a player consistently miss games through suspension. His pass accuracy this year was 81.1%(825/1017 completed) and if you compare that to Chico's 89.3% or Ash's 86.3% it's clear there's a bit of a disparity, however 21 is young for a centre-back to be a first team regular. I'd also say that any player who signs for the Swans would almost automatically see their pass success rate increase dramatically as they adjust to the style of football we play.

In action for Espanyol

The Espanyol man won 1.4 aerial duels per game (38 in total) and again this pales in significance to Chico & Ash, both of whom had around double that figure. He makes 2.3 tackles per game (Chico has 3.3 while Ash has 1.2), and 2 interceptions to boot (Chico 3.5 & Ash 3), both pretty impressive figures, and also makes a pretty tasty 5.6 clearances per game (although again this is far from the 8.7 & 10.3 managed by Chico & Ash respectively). It seems that we have two particularly tasty centre-back's at present and using them as a yardstick is making Amat look bad, so I'll try to desist from now on. 

He only gets dribbled past once every 0.6 games, and that's a very encouraging statistic for a young centre-back, while he makes on average 37.7 passes per game - about 20 less per game than the Swans centre-backs average but again, any player who joins will see their statistics (in terms of passes at least) improve. One interesting stat is that he plays 6.6 accurate long balls per game - double Chico's average and a little more than the 5.7 Ash averages. It seems he's adept at picking out a man up top or out wide, and with the Swans preferences for outlying wingers it could be that we'd see him pinging the ball out to the wing Ashley Williams stylee.

Here's some funny stats. Spot the Spaniards. Ash averages 0.1 dribbles per game, Chico 0.3 & Amat 0.6. In turn, that would account for the fact that Ash is only dispossessed once every 0.1 games too, whereas Chico & Amat both average once every other game (0.5). Amat matches the Swans' boys in turns of turnovers too (giving the ball away through poor control) - his 0.2 per game is equal to Ash's, and better than Chico's (although only slightly at 0.3). 

It seems he's a pretty tidy footballer, and if he's available for the £2million asking price that's rumoured then it would be a very prudent signature. He's likely to hold his value at the very least for that money, but I'd say if he's performing well in La Liga at 21, a move to a possession-based footballing team in a different league could well benefit him. Huw Jenkins has reportedly been meeting agents this week in a bid to get Swansea's summer shopping underway, so it shouldn't be too long until we learn of some firm targets. Until then we're all left to speculate on what may be, but I'd say he seems a very decent prospect. 

I'm still sold by the goal. How about you?