Swansea's new young signings - who are they?

With young talent heading to SA1 in search of a more cultured footballing education, what do we know about our new youth players?

As mentioned in the last blog post, the Swans yesterday confirmed the acquisition of Kristian Scott, a USA Youth International, from Stoke. Scott is the latest in a line of youngsters to view Swansea as the ideal place to further their footballing education, so I thought I'd try and piece together some info on our new signings, and combine it with what I found out about Zabret & Gogic when they signed on.

Gregor Zabret   Age: 17   Position: Goalkeeper 

Zabret is a young Slovenian signed from NK Domzale, who finished third in the Slovenian League last season. He played 11 times last season (and three the season prior to that), keeping three clean sheets and attracted interest from several parties.

He apparently knocked back offers from West Brom and Sporting Lisbon to join the Swans after completing a trial period at the club in January. He's already playing for the Swans' development side and hopefully he'll go on to big things.

He's certainly got a physical presence at 6'2", but I can't say I've seen him play yet, and the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. From the match report of the development game against Millwall it doesn't sound like there was much he could do about either of the goals, so it must have been a fairly encouraging start to his Swans career.

Kenji Gorre   Age: 18   Position: Winger/Forward

Gorre joined up with the Swans in March after previously being on the books at Manchester United. He's the son of Dean Gorre, who some fans may remember playing for Ajax, Feyenoord and Huddersfield. Yes, you read that right. 

A tricky forward, he shot to fame at United after scoring this goal against the Wolves youth team. Apologies for the ghetto nature of the video. 

He went on tour with the squad to Holland (as did Zabret and, I think Alex Gogic) and even managed to get himself on the scoresheet when the Swans beat Excelsior 5-1, and his involvement would indicate to me that the powers that be at the club hold him in high regard.

Alex Gogic   Age: 19   Position: Midfielder

From what I can garner online, I think Gogic is a wide midfielder who operates in one of the positions either side of the striker in our formation. Signed from Olympiakos on what I think we can assume to be essentially a free transfer, he's a Cyprus U21 international and is another already in the fold of the development squad. There's not much info about the lad online so we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully I'll be able to get down to see the development team in action soon. 

Kristian Scott   Age: 18   Position: Central Midfield

USA international Scott signed this week from Stoke City after previously being on the books at Bristol City - where his dad Kevin (an ex-Newcastle defender) was an academy scout. When his dad moved east so did Kris and he's continued his development by moving to South Wales. 

A talented individual, he's been selected for the United States U15 and U18 squad, and was recently called up to the Ireland U19 squad on account of qualifying through his grandmother. He couldn't feature due to injury, and when I briefly spoke to him on Twitter he said he's as yet undecided as to whether he'd play international football for Ireland, the US or England (his father is English, his mother American). 

Hopefully now that he's swapped long ball for tika-taka he can kick on and become an important member of the squad.

Jernade Meade   Age: 20   Position: Left Back

Meade signed from Arsenal earlier in the summer and is arguably the coup of the lot. After he signed, I did a bit of digging online and found quite a few Arsenal fans disgruntled at letting him go, as they viewed him as a very exciting prospect. He made his debut for the Gunners in their mental 7-5 win over Reading in the League Cup and impressed sufficiently to be handed his full debut as Arsenal took on Olympiakos away in the Champions League. We've got a player in the development side who's already played in the Champions League. Mental.

An attacking left-back who can also operate on the wing, he seemed set to break into the first-team when injury curtailed his progress, and he'll now be hoping that he can stay injury-free and get his career back on track in SA1. It seems strange he wasn't offered a new deal at Arsenal given his (granted, limited) first team involvement, but hopefully the Gunners' loss is our gain. 

One thing to note is that at 5'3" he's nicked Leon's crown of "most diminutive player"...

Best of the rest

It would be rude not to mention a few other names now that I've mentioned the new guys. Scott Tancock (captain of the reserves) and Daniel Alfei both look tidy centre-backs, while Rory Donnelly got his full debut away at Petrolul the other night. Somewhat of a baptism of fire, but he's definitely shown enough to give us hope for the future.

Other names that are held in high regards behind the scenes in SA1 are those of James Loveridge, Henry Jones and Kyle Copp. Jones is a central midfielder (read an excellent article on him here) and has shown a great range of passing so far, while Copp is a forward who has long been touted as a serious prospect. Loveridge has been impressing of late and got the MOTM award in the FAW Youth Cup Final against West End after bagging himself a hat-trick. Check out the highlights here to see a couple of the guys in action:

With the training facilities looking very, very good indeed and a burgeoning youth system, hopefully we can start to produce more and more home-grown players, as well as bringing in other young players who look like they'll fit the way we do things around here. Another success story like Ben Davies' would go down very well indeed.

Swansea sign Betis midfielder Pozuelo, plus youngsters Zabret & Gogic

Trio of signatures announced while rumours persist of a big money bid for Jonjo Shelvey

One of the more low-key stories of the transfer window so far was that Swansea were looking to sign Alejandro Pozuelo from Real Betis, after his contract (kind of) came to an end. Betis disputed this (they had an automatic one year extension they felt he'd triggered) but in the end he got his way as long as the Swans paid around £500k, and so we've picked up a once-highly-rated midfielder for next to nothing.  

Pozuelo can play as an attacking midfielder or a striker, and will add another option to the Swans forward line. A tricky operator (read an in depth profile of him here), he lost his way at Betis but hopefully with a few positive influences around him in the Swans dressing room we'll see the best of him. For a player who was once linked with Barcelona and Manchester United, half a million could prove to be a real bargain.

Youngsters Zabret & Gogic sign on

As previously mentioned, the Swans had taken Slovenian 17-year-old goalkeeper Gregor Zabret on trial in January, and he's now chosen to sign a deal with the Swans, knocking back offers from Sporting Lisbon and West Brom. How times have changed. He's played quite a few games for NK Domzale who finished 3rd in the Slovenian league last season, so he's already had a lot of game time for someone his age, and hopefully he can kick on and prove to be an astute acquisition.

Midfielder Gogic, 19, signed from Olympiakos and no fee was mentioned on the official site. A fairly thorough search online only tells me what we already know from the club statement (that he's a Cyprus U21 international) and this one's going to have to be a case of "the proof is in the pudding" as no-one seems to know much about the kid. Good luck to both of them as they look to embark on a new chapter in their careers.

Swansea have £6million bid for Shelvey accepted, according to The Guardian & The Telegraph

Wow. So, at present (if true), Jonjo Shelvey could be our new record signing. I have to say, I'm really not up for that. The guy cost Liverpool £1.7million, and from what I've seen has done nothing to indicate he's now worth more than that, so for his price to more than triple seems frankly ludicrous. If we were signing him for £2million, or even on loan, I'd have much less of a problem with this, but unless he's been deliberately playing badly for Liverpool there's no way he justifies that transfer fee. Yesterday I put together a statistical profile of him (read it here) with the hope of convincing myself he's a rough diamond, however if anything it just reinforced my belief he's not worth the money.

Whether there's any truth in this we'll have to wait and see, but as WalesOnline pointed out it's widely accepted Shelvey was turned down as part of the Joe Allen transfer when offered in part exchange, so to now be throwing money at him seems daft. One saving grace is that Crystal Palace are also in for him, so hopefully he'll recognise he's more likely to gain regular playing time in London than in South Wales. There is the possibility that, with Allen costing £15million on top of the money agreed for Rodgers and his backroom staff, Liverpool still owe us a chunk of cash which they're hoping to cancel out by selling us Shelvey. Even if true, I still don't think that makes sense. Pozuelo cost £500k, for chrissake!

As I've stated often of late though, what do I know? I'm just a fan, and I could well go on to be eating my words as Shelvey turns into the new Frank Lampard...

The Swans sign Jordi Amat, but there's still no agreement regarding Wilfried Bony

Skysports are also reporting we're close to agreeing terms with 17 year old Slovenian 'keeper Gregor Zabret

Coming as it did at a time when all the talk was of Wilfried Bony's much reported transfer to the Swans, Jordi Amat could be forgiven for feeling like the announcement of signature was somewhat underwhelming. Perhaps a better indication of the potential bargain the Swans have picked up is that his name was still trending on Twitter long into today. Whether that indicates a lot of people were talking about him or that it was a slow news days day we can't say.

If you'd like to read a bit more on Jordi Amat, I put together a profile HERE with a load of stats for your perusal. Something which is a lot easier to digest though is this; his only goal of the season last year.

While we can hardly expect him to do that kind of thing with any regularity, his stats suggest he's got an eye for a pass and can rival Ash when it comes to pinging one out to the wingers - that'll give us greater threat on the counter-attack and won't go unnoticed by the Swansea coaching staff.

Swansea close to signing Gregor Zabret

According to Skysports, the young Slovenian spent time with the Swans in January and is going to be finalising a deal over the weekend, before joining up with the club's pre-season tour of Holland. Honestly? I've never heard of the guy and there's scant information online, but I'll have a look at some point to see if I can dig up any information online. It seems he's highly rated, and he's already made quite a few appearances in the first team for NK Domzale, who finished third in the Slovenian league last year, so hopefully in time he'll turn out to be a useful addition to the squad.

No news regarding Bony move

The latest on this is likely to come down to whether you believe what you read on Twitter or not. Some sources are claiming he's asked for £80kpw in wages, which I struggle to believe, but Swans director John Van Zweden has been quoted in the Dutch press as saying the club and the player are "way apart" in terms of agreeing a deal at the moment. 

Hopefully they'll agree something, because with all the fanfare now surrounding this move it would be a real shame to miss out - and it's also possibly something which could leave fans panicking that the club will be short a striker come the beginning of the season. It's not panic stations just yet, but everyone knows the Swans need a frontman and if it comes down to the wire they may well find that clubs stick an extra few million on any proposed fee. 

Which probably means we won't end up signing anyone, thinking about it...