Golazo! It turns out Alvaro packs a punch...

Swansea's new singing may not have the best goals to games ratio, but he does love a screamer

So, I get home from work and decide to have a look at some videos of Alvaro Vazquez. This was after reading on the official site that he's happy to be here, and that he already knows quite a bit about the club:

“I’m very happy to be here. This is a really good opportunity and I will try to make the most of it this season. I know a lot about Swansea, not just the club but the players as well. They have a lot of Spanish players that I was aware of, and of course Michael Laudrup as well. 

“I’m also aware of the great season that they had last year and now they are playing in the Europa League as well. I have never played in that competition and I’m really looking forward to it. Playing in the European Championships was very good. We managed to win it and I’m sure it will help me in the Premier League. 

“Also, having a manager that speaks my language is great. Also, coming to a new country and new culture, I now have lots of other Spaniards here that will be really helpful. I speak to Jordi [Amat] very often. As soon as he knew I was coming he rang me and told me it would be a great move. 

“He spoke highly of the club and said I would fit in well here. I know Laudrup as a player, and as a manager as well. When I was playing for Espanyol I played against his Mallorca team.  I have seen lots of videos of him as a player, and I know his teams play good football and achieve great results. 

“It’s an honour for me to be here and I will try to do my best and repay him for showing faith in me.” Alvaro Vazquez

Read more at http://www.swanseacity.net/news/article/vasquez-on-swans-1034019.aspx?#t4RUqZT3fhOHqlgk.99 

Good on you Jordi! It's quite clear that once again Laudrup's high standing in Spain swung this deal for us, and if you take a good look at the first video you can see a Laudrup-esque "look one way pass the other" assist which leads to Alvaro scoring an absolute belter.

This next one you have Talksport to thank for flagging up earlier today - it's another peach!

So it seems the guy does indeed produce some amazing goals, and hopefully we can give him the platform to do it on a more regular basis than he has done so far in his career. When you look at the video in yesterday's profile of him he produced a hat-trick of varied finishes, so there's clearly talent there, and I for one am more and more encouraged by this signing. With a growing feel-good factor within the squad in terms of self-belief there's reason to be confident we can kick on again this season and push on to unparalleled heights.

He's been pretty active on Twitter since signing- you can follow him @AlvaroVazquez91 and he seems likely to retweet more or less anything you send him. Good on him! I'm really looking forward to seeing him play now, and once the international break is done and dusted the games will be coming thick and fast, so I expect him to feature sooner rather than later. Let's hope he produces plenty of finishes as evidenced above as we chase success on multiple fronts this season. Good luck, Alvaro.

Swansea sign Alvaro Vazquez on loan: A statistical profile of our new signing

What do the numbers tell us about our new frontman?

Alvaro Vazquez scoring a hat-trick in the Copa Del Rey

I won't be alone in knowing next to nothing about Swansea's newest addition to the squad, but when it was announced that the Swans had secured Getafe's Alvaro Vazquez on loan for the season it brought a smile to my face - if only because it meant we wouldn't be signing Peter Odemwingie or David N'Gog. 

With that in mind I thought I'd turn to the internet to see what statistics I could dig up to hopefully give us some idea of what to expect. Given I'm yet to find a reliable source of information for previous season's statistics it's proved quite a struggle, but I've managed to put something together.

Alvaro (as he's normally more simply known) was born in Barcelona and was a product of the Espanyol youth system. He progressed into the first team by the age of 19 and his main claim to fame during his time there was scoring a hat-trick which saw him help his team through to the quarter finals of the Copa Del Rey.

In the summer of 2012 Getafe paid £2.6million for the striker who'd shown a lot of promise for the Spanish youth teams, and he's continued to feature for them - picking up a winners' medal in this summer's European U21 Championship. Despite being 22. You have to love football. 

If we're looking at recent stats, last season he featured 31 times (16 starts) and only scored 5 goals. In his breakthrough season he scored 4 goals, before grabbing five the season before last too, so at least he's consistent...

One area he does seem to have improved in is shooting accuracy. In his first season he managed 11 of 31 shots on target (35.48%), followed by 14 out of 39 (35.89%) the season after and 14 out of 30 (46.67%) last season. A steady improvement and getting almost half your shots on target isn't bad for a young striker. The lack of goals isn't encouraging but at least the boy knows where the goal is. Having said that, this season in his only appearance (as a 62nd minute substitute) he had three shots and none of them were on target. Stats, eh?

Given the frequency of his appearance as a substitute last season he averaged a goal every 288 minutes last year, which really is actually a lot more respectable than the stats suggest. For example, Michu averaged one every 167 minutes last year, so while it's not great it's definitely not that bad. Sadly, I've been unable to find any passing statistics for last season, but at around 6 foot tall we'll have to hope he's capable of holding the ball up and linking play when needed.

Let's hope we see him replicate some of the finishing in the video above, and that we get the most out of a player who Laudrup clearly rates. Beinvenido, Alvaro!

Who's the mystery striker?

Laudrup promised to bring in a forward today...but who is it?

Over the last week we've seen continued rumours that we could expect to see West Brom's wantaway striker Peter Odemwingie moving to SA1, as well as heavy rumours we have been in for Getafe's Alvaro Vazquez. In the last 24 hours though a new name has emerged, that of Bolton's David N'Gog. 

David N'Gog?! I think most fans would be forgiven for being perhaps a little less than enthused about this one. Maybe Laudrup sees something we don't because at present Bolton are rock bottom of the Championship and the former Liverpool striker is yet to open his account for the season, despite featuring in the last few matches. Even Darren Pratley has scored twice so far - I'd rather see Pratters return than bring in N'Gog!

Out of the three names mentioned above I'd be inclined to lump for Vazquez - assuming Laudrup rates him. I'm basing that purely on not being a big fan of N'Gog or Odemwingie - for differing reasons. N'Gog for me is a footballing decision, and I simply don't rate the guy, whereas Odemwingie made headlines last January for driving to London with the aim of securing himself a move to QPR. Given Huw's continued insistence we only sign players who are committed to the cause, it surely seems unlikely we'll bring in a player who could upset the apple-cart, so to speak. That being said, we did sign Leroy Lita...

Whoever we bring in today, at least it makes deadline day interesting. Long terms fans will be reminiscing of times gone by, where Huw would go play golf and turn his mobile phone off. Ah, those were the days...