Who should start up front against Hull?

With options limited at centre-forward, who should lead the line on Monday night?

When Michu was first ruled out through injury, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't, for me, a bittersweet aspect to the injury as it gave Wilfried Bony a guaranteed starting berth - which I thought he'd use to kick on and endear himself to Swansea fans. 

Sadly for Bony, he himself picked up an injury against Valencia - although fears that he'd torn his hamstring proved unfounded. While it's only a minor strain, it's still ruled him out for a couple of weeks - which gave Alvaro a chance to cement a more regular starting berth. After enjoying a fairly anonymous time of it against Man City, the Spaniard seemed to have the bit between his teeth against Newcastle before he himself succumbed to injury - a groin strain which looks set to keep him on the sidelines for a few weeks at least. 

This leaves us with Rory Donnelly the only recognised striker anywhere near the first team - though it seems highly unlikely he'll be selected to play up front against Hull, given that Laudrup has (so far this season) preferred him to ply his trade for the development side. 

So, who will/should play up front against Hull? There are a few candidates - Jonjo Shelvey, Roland Lamah, Alex Pozuelo... all operated in a kind of "rotating false nine" system against Newcastle, and if we're being honest it worked quite well - Newcastle struggled to pick up our runners from midfield and with the variety of passing, plus the pace of players like Nathan Dyer and Pablo Hernandez, most teams would surely struggle to deal with this approach.

After Bony tweaked his hamstring I made a tongue-in-cheek comment about whether Jonjo could operate in the "false nine" position, and I'm rapidly warming to the idea. He's clearly got an eye for goal and is rapidly winning over any doubters, and if he keeps going the way he is there's no reason why he can't turn into a player like Lampard or Gerrard - an attack minded midfielder who you can bank on to collect around ten goals a term.

I made a comment at half time against Newcastle regarding Shelvey (and numerous other players I've seen down the years), based around how when he's got too much time generally he panics and the result isn't that great. When given the ball under pressure however, he normally produces results. Evidence of this can be found both in his goal at Fulham - where he had to jink his way through before digging out a finish - and his goal against Newcastle. Earlier, he'd gone clean through but didn't manage to produce a finish, whereas when he was given the ball in a position where the first time shot made sense he found the back of the net. 

I feel lots of players perform better when under pressure, and that sometimes given too much time to think they end up fluffing their lines, and Jonjo could be the perfect example of that. He's still so young that his composure and decision making should improve dramatically in the next few years, but in terms of raw talent no-one can deny he has all the attributes to make an attacking midfield position his own. It could simply be a case of forcing him to occupy more advanced positions, and the goals will start to flow.

So, Jonjo Shelvey at false nine? It's got my vote. Much like Michu (who prefers a deeper role), I feel he could excel if made to play in a more advanced position. If he does indeed line up in the most advanced of the Swans' midfield positions, Steve Bruce won't know what hit him. 

Man City 3 - 0 Swansea - That could have been worse...

Aguero & Co stopped from running too wild 

Pre-match, Matt from the excellent "Lost Boyos" posted a question on Twitter regarding the match against Man City - it asked which two current PL records were set in matches between City and Swansea. The answer was 1) longest PL game [or more specifically the most added time] and 2) most shots saved by a goalkeeper [Vorm in the our first ever PL match]. It's the latter of the two records which was always most likely to be broken - City are in freewheeling form at home and with Negredo, Navas, Nasri & Aguero up top they're always liable to score three or four goals against any defence.

So it was, that when the match kicked off I was definitely in the "hopeful but hardly confident" camp. I assumed we'd be put to the sword and that we'd spend the entire match wildly clearing our ranks, and given City's prior form that wasn't a particularly negative viewpoint. More realistic than anything else - as I'd tweeted earlier today "hope for something, expect nothing".

In the first half, the Swans pinged it about well but we need to be making the most of our chances. At half time you could easily have argued the Swans had been the better side until that point, however goals win games and as long as we're shy in this department we'll struggle to break down stern opposition defences. City opened the scoring within ten minutes, but they'd fashioned chances much sooner than that. Less than a minute was on the clock when Tremmel saved from Aguero, before Negredo drew another stop from the German stopper with only five minutes gone. 

The opener came in the 7th minute when Canas got the wrong side of Negredo, and clumsily climbed all over the back of him. Negredo got up to fire the resulting free-kick past a wrong-footed Tremmel, and the Swans had 83 minutes to weather a Man City storm. Or did they?

For the rest of the half, the Swans most definitely gave as good as they got. Shelvey drew two excellent saves from the City keeper and Alvaro scuffed a good opportunity, while City also spurned a few chances. The best opportunity of the first half was, however, fashioned and fluffed by Jonathan De Guzman. A lovely flick away from him man saw him clean through on Costel Pantilimon, but after seeming set to place a finish in the top right hand corner he contrived to lift it clean over the bar. 

That was more or less the last moment of note in the first half, and the statistics you could pore through at the break paid testament to what we'd witnessed - Swansea's passing accuracy was 87.5% to Man City's 86.5%, while we'd also played almost 50% more passes (321 to 222). Possession too was massively in favour of the Swans - we remarkably had 58.7% of the possession heading in to half time - though that wasn't destined to last much longer.

The second half was much more as most neutral fans would have expected. By my count City had 16 shots (most of which were thankfully off target) to Swansea's 4 (all of which were sadly off target), and Nasri bagged himself two tidy goals. What was disappointing was how the centre of the midfield seemed to drop off in the second half, with Jose Canas in particular disappearing from view for large periods of time. Nasri's second goal, for example, saw the Frenchman advancing with Canas jogging casually back some ten yards behind him. It seemed to me that Nasri was very much "Canas's man", so why he wasn't making more effort there I don't know. I'm a big fan of the Spaniard, but he's got to do better than that.

Overall, the Swans did better than I thought they were going to, and if we'd have made the most of our first-half chances we could - and should - have been level at half time. As it was, we didn't take our chances and that allowed City the chance to regroup and come at us refreshed, which ultimately let to them extending their lead and securing the win. 

The positive we should be taking from this game is that once again, we showed that by retaining possession in the centre of the park through neat tika-taka triangles we can defend by starving the opposition of possession. As Brendan and Bobby used to say, your opponent can't hurt you if they haven't got the ball. I thought that we looked at our best when we were knocking the ball around the centre of the field at pace, and Shelvey in particular was impressive (completing 72 passes at 93.1%). The more Jonjo plays like that the better, and on another day one of his two strikes would have found the corner of the net. 

Whilst recording the EPL Round Table podcast this evening I predicted the Swans would win their next four games. Newcastle & Hull at home, before St Gallen & Norwich away. Confidence is everything, eh? It's entirely doable, and when we click as a team we play some excellent stuff - it's just about doing it on a more regular basis. How we go about doing that without our two main goalscorers is another matter though.

Jonjo Shelvey as a false nine, anyone?

Jonjo Shelvey let side down with gestures to crowd

Midfielders "swimaway" taunting of Cardiff crowd was unneeded and embarrassing

Seeing as I left the pub within minutes of the final whistle going, I'd managed to miss this until a little later in the night. Video footage of the ex-Charlton & Liverpool midfielder making gestures to the crowd after the final whistle was quickly doing the rounds on the internet, and in fairness most Swans fans seem to be in agreement that it was pretty unacceptable. There's talk of the FA punishing him - I think that'd be harsh but I don't set the rules.

I do think, however, that this display of immaturity from Shelvey marks him as a player who has some serious growing up to do. This derby has a history of serious crowd trouble, and the media were waiting, just waiting for something like this to happen, so well done Jonjo, you gave them what they wanted.

I suppose one argument could be that at least it stops the press talking about the poor nature of our performance, however why shouldn't they be talking about that? Considering how well the media seem to avoid talking about actual footballing matters it beggars belief we'd gift them a story like this which, the next time we play Cardiff, will be dug up again, exaggerated, and used as a tool to rile up fans ahead of the return derby. 

What's more - we bloody lost! How, in Jonjo's head, that qualified him to take the mick out of the Cardiff crowd I don't know, and only he knows what went through his head. 

Hopefully some of the senior players have already taken Shelvey to one side and explained his actions impressed no-one, and can't be replicated. He's shown he's got ability on the field, but it now appears he's got some growing up to do before he realises his full potential. 

Over to you Jonjo. 

Jonjo Shelvey scores a screamer for England U21's

Young midfielder bags himself a peach as England run riot over Scotland

I'm putting this blog up more or less entirely so you can see the goal - it's pretty damn tasty.

Shelvey was replaced shortly after scoring, and as a Swans fan the idea of him playing around 60 minutes is a lot more preferable than the idea of him playing the full 90, what with Manchester United now only three days away. Thank Christ Stuart Pearce wasn't in charge for this one...

Those who watched the game last night were effusive in their praise for the ex-Liverpool & Charlton midfielder, with many referring to him as "the best player on the pitch by a mile". It seems any doubts anyone had about the size of his transfer fee are set to be pushed firmly to one side, as Shelvey continues to impress in the short time that he's been with us so far. I for one was dubious, but I've been made to (happily) eat my words as he already looks a player well worth the £5million which was required to see him make the switch from Merseyside to South Wales.

Hopefully come 5pm on Saturday we're all discussing another Shelvey screamer - the winner against Manchester United. That'd be nice, wouldn't it?

Jonjo Shelvey...the next Ferrie Bodde?

£5million man already looking like an astute acquisition

While it's very early on to be making such a call, I'll admit to already feeling like I've got a little egg on my face. As previous posts will attest to, I wasnt' that enthused with the idea of signing the ex-Charlton midfielder for a fee around the £5mil mark, however from the (limited) highlights we've seen of the recently-completed Dutch tour it seems he's already bringing something new to the team that we've been lacking in recent years.

Since the departure of Ferrie Bodde, the Swans have lacked a midfielder capable of spotting (and more importantly playing) a killer pass, be it when we're breaking from deep or simply when a player has found space on the opposite flank. Early signs seem good - against Den Haag his exquisite pass found Wayne Routledge who clipped the ball over the keeper for the only goal of the game, while another example of his range of passing could be found earlier in the tour, when he played a lovely ball with the outside of his boot from right to left, finding Rory Donnelly in space out wide (before the youngster finished with aplomb).

When I first compared Shelvey to Bodde a friend asked whether he seems more like a Darren Pratley type of player (but with added passing ability), but Jonjo himself has come out and said he'd prefer to play in a deeper role, dictating play whilst bursting forward occasionally. Where we'll see him line up is down to Laudrup and we'll have to wait and see where the Dane prefers him, but I'd be surprised if we didn't see an increase in the amount of counter-attacks started by a quick ball forward from midfield. We've had plenty of pace to exploit for a while now, but sadly the service hasn't always been there.

Whether Shelvey can replicate Bodde's shooting ability remains to be seen, but apparently he had a go from halfway against Den Haag! Still a way to go, Jonjo...

Swans complete Dutch tour with a 1-0 win over Den Haag,while Shelvey is hoping to force his way into international reckoning

First half Wayne Routledge goal enough to see off our Dutch "sister-club"

The Swans celebrate Wayne Routledge's goal

Swansea today played out a 1-0 win over ADO Den Haag, a club with whom we've forged a strong bond thanks, mostly, to the efforts of director John Van Zweden. The Swans again changed the team more or less completely at half time, but trusty old Gerhard Tremmel completed 90 minutes. Whether this is to be viewed as an indication he's being considered for more of a no1 role, or an appeasement for being relegated to the bench again soon you can't say.

It was hard to tell from the stream I viewed the game on, but it appeared to me that Ki finished the game playing at centre-back? If anyone who was at the game could confirm this it'd be great, as given he played there in the Carling Cup final it's possible Laudrup is thinking he can mould the languid Korean into a ball-playing centre-back. In terms of distribution, players like David Luiz would have nothing on Ki. The game was also notable for Wilfried Bony making his Swansea debut, and he looked lively from the off when he was brought on for the second half. A couple of neat twists and turns saw him twice threaten, but the Den Haag keeper was up to anything the Ivorian could produce on this occasion. 

A particular highlight for me though was how confident Jazz Richards seemed. Some regular game-time at Palace last season, coupled with a few words which indicated he'd be seeing first-team action this season seem to have given him the boost he needed, and it looks like he intends to take the opportunity with both hands. At one point he was faced up against two Den Haag players right on the touch-line, and produced a couple of neat touches which saw him beat them both in succession, before being fouled by the latter defender - Jazz got up unscathed, but his assailant required medical attention. It's possible he's the hardest player in the Swans' squad, but he just doesn't know it yet.

Shelvey hoping regular game-time in SA1 will help him gain further international honours

Whenever any Swansea player of English descent starts talking about being called up for the national team, I can't help but feel sorry for them as historically SA1 has been ignored by Roy Hodgson. He has been seen here, however you can't help but feel he was here to watch the opposition as "The Swansea Way" isn't a very good fit with good old English 4-4-2...or even with the convoluted 4-5-1 they sometimes play in a strange effort to accommodate both Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.

That being said, Shelvey is clearly someone viewed by the English powers that be as an up-and-coming prospect, and that alone could pave the way for other Swansea players, who so far have been ignored, to be in with a shout of making the national team. When questioned about the possibility of future international appearances whilst in SA1, Shelvey reacted positively:

“That’s the hope. If I do play every week I hope my performances will get recognised international-wise. 

“It was an exciting time to get my debut, not just for me but for my family as well. It’s every English kid’s dream to play for England, and then to do it at Wembley as well was magnificent. The aim is to get more. I didn’t realise I could be the first Swansea player to play for England. 

“If I can make a little bit of history that would be great because I do feel if I get the chance to play every week here I feel I can get myself into the England squad, but I am still in the under-21s and I have still got another two years at that level so I am biding my time. 

“I just want to get playing week-in, week-out, and it didn’t come into my thinking that when I came here it might harm my chances. First and foremost it was about getting back to playing football and finding my feet at a club again. 

“Later on down the line, if you are putting the performances in, I am sure Roy Hodgson will not be bothered about who you play for. Look at Ryan Shawcross at Stoke - you’d say they are not a massive club but he got his chance with England, so I don’t think it will affect me.” Jonjo Shelvey

While I do really like the fact that on paper we have just signed a full England international there is an elephant in the room; Shelvey has played once for England and it was against San Marino. Now, I don't mean to take anything away from the player as he featured in the U21 Championships this summer (a campaign always doomed from the off with Stuart Pearce in charge), however at this juncture I'd say it's so harsh on a player such as Leon Britton that Shelvey has a full international cap and the Swansea legend doesn't. 

Britton excelled in the Premiership in his first season, and in any other country I'm convinced he'd have been rewarded with an international appearance by now, but that he hasn't (and Shelvey has) says more about the way international selection works in England. As mentioned above, we can only hope (for Jonjo's sake and our own) that his performances are of a calibre which demands international attention, as it will ultimately be of benefit to the team as much as to the player himself.

Swansea sign Jonjo Shelvey for £5million

Former Charlton midfielder joins from Liverpool on a 4-year deal

Well, it's a good thing I didn't post anything on my site at lunchtime, as was originally the plan. When I heard this was going through today I wasn't amazingly enthused, shall we say, but more so purely because of the price. If it was two, perhaps three million then I could understand it, but five? It still seems a really steep fee, but I've had time to calm down now and in the cold light of day, he's 21, looked tidy on occasion for Liverpool (with Europa League experience to boot) and he is British, something which is quite important given FA regulations and the growing continental contingent in the Swansea squad.

Quite a few people have said that his performances waned as the season wore on last year, and that it started when he was dropped for the first time, but it is easy to forget how young he is. Kyle Bartley is a year older, and is going out on loan to get first team experience - Shelvey has a couple of seasons for Charlton under his belt as well as well as a few for Liverpool now, and he made ten appearances in Europe last year. 

You get the feeling, too, that he's been signed for one main reason - his willingness to shoot. The guy does have a cannon and it's often said that sometimes the Swans fail to make anything of prolonged periods of

Shelvey getting stuck into Jonny Evans.

time spent in the opposition area. That was less of a problem last year, granted, however we can still improve in that respect and it's likely Shelvey will be asked to help take the goal burden off Michu, as well as any other striker we sign (if any...gulp).

We've signed him now, so I'm behind him and the board. They know better than I do, and if they think he's worth £5million who am I to say otherwise? Who knows, we could look back at this as an amazing bit of business in a few years. 

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...

A profile of Swans target Jonjo Shelvey

With Swans supremo Huw Jenkins confirming the club are involved in talks with Liverpool regarding the acquisition of the one-cap England midfielder, how does he compare to the Swansea midfielders?

Jonjo Shelvey looking chuffed to be
involved with the England squad

This is a bit of a mad one isn't it? Most fans seem a bit perplexed, but there are those who rate the Liverpool central midfielder, so I thought I'd have a look at some stats from last season to see how he squares up. Worth mentioning is at this point in time, Jonjo Shelvey has an England cap and Leon Britton doesn't. The world is messed up sometimes.

Aged 21 (he's not 22 until February), Shelvey started his career at Charlton Athletic and made his debut aged 16, becoming the youngest player in the club's history (replacing Paul Konchesky in the history books), before also becoming their youngest ever goalscorer in an FA Cup match against Norwich, just before his 17th birthday. He went on to make 47 appearances for Charlton, scoring 8 goals, before he drew the attention of (amongst others) Liverpool who signed him for around £1.7million. He made 15 appearances for the club (although many were off the bench) in his first season at Anfield, but his starts included a full 90 minutes on his debut in the Europa League, along with other high-profile games.

The following season he found himself loaned out to Blackpool, where in all fairness he did really well - scoring 6 goals in 10 games (including his first senior hat-trick in a 5-0 win away at Elland Road), before being recalled by Liverpool due to an injury crisis. He made a further 16 appearances that season (2011/12) which brings us up to date, so now let's have a look at last season.

He made 33 appearances in all competitions, but for ease of comparison I'll only use PL statistics unless otherwise mentioned. He completed 81.7% of his passes (389/476 in total), giving him an average of 25.1 per game. For a Brendan Rodgers team, that is mental. Does he avoid the ball on purpose? Not the best start. He only plays 0.7 key passes per game, and 2.1 accurate long balls, so passing really doesn't seem to be the thing to look at if I'm to convince myself he's worth the rumoured £5million that's been mentioned.

He makes 1.2 tackles per game (about the same as De Guzman and Ki), and only makes 0.3 interceptions per game, and 0.6 clearances. Ok, he only started 9 games in the league (with a further ten games as a sub) but the stats pale in comparison when compared to any Swansea midfielder. It seems he may be a bit confused as to what job he's supposed to do in the team, because he doesn't seem to be carrying out any role particularly effectively.

In the Championship for Blackpool, and whilst playing for Charlton earlier in his career, he seemed something akin to a Frank Lampard - a midfielder who'd charge into the box before smashing one into the top corner, but it hasn't really happened yet for him in the Premier League - despite hitting a screamer against Chelsea (although it was a screamer into an empty net, so I'm not as enthused about that one as some people seem). Worth a watch though is this goal he scored for Liverpool U21's against Man Utd's.

Offensively, last season he scored one goal and got no assists. He loses the ball 0.7 times a game through poor touches etc, and is dispossessed with the same frequency, while he only attempts 0.2 dribbles a game - so it seems he's mugged in possession quite a lot. He does manage 1.8 shots per game (35 in total) - which given a lot of his appearances have been as a sub (and he only scored once) would seem to indicate he's not that great at hitting the target either. I haven't got stats for shots on target, so shoot me.

It's only fair to mention that his stats for European football are a lot better - pass completion rate of 87.5% and 45.6 passes per game - what's up with that? He also managed 1.6 key passes per game and scored 4 goals, getting an assist for good measure - all of this from just 4 starts and 3 sub appearances. Mad.

Actually, I've just checked and 3 of those goals were literally scored against Young Boys. I could score 3 goals against young boys!

Nonsense aside, I'm still not convinced he's worth the kind of money that's being talked about. I saw an interesting idea on SCFC2.co.uk guestbook earlier, where someone was wondering if perhaps Liverpool still owe us some money for the acquisition of Rodgers, Allen etc? It would make sense given the huge sums involved, and would possibly account for why we're in for him, as Huw does love a bargain. 

£5million? Willing to be proven wrong, but I just don't see it right now. 

Transfer rumour roundup

A look at the plethora of players we've been linked with over the last few days

Well, the media circus has now gone into overdrive. As one friend has suggested, it's possible the Swans are being used by agents to drum up interest in their clients by putting their name into a sentence with "Swansea City", but it seems there's something in at least one or two of the rumours. 

Probably the most exciting name to crop up is that of Wilfried Bony. The Ivorian set the Eredivisie alight - scoring 31 goals in 30 league games (43 in 62 through all competitions), and is valued at £10mil+ by his club Vitesse. Likely? Who knows. If we're going to pay up to around £10million for a player, which I'm still not convinced will be the case, I'd rather we spend it on Bony than Bafetimbi Gomis, who is rated at around the same price but has never had a season as prolific as the man from the Ivory Coast.

One rumour which seems to have an element of truth in it is that we've made a loan bit for Matej Vydra. His agent has said that up to eight clubs are interested in his client's signature, and that Swansea are one of a number of clubs who've made loan bids for last year's Championship Player of the Season. I'll be honest, I didn't watch too much of the Championship last year but if he stood out that much playing for a Watford team littered with supposed "star loanees", picking him up without having to pay a fee could well be a really tidy bit of business. He's valued at between £8million and £10million by his parent club Udinese, but they seem willing to let him spend another season on loan as he looks to kick on again.

Jordi Amat is another name that's now been linked with the club for a while, and the Spanish centre-back is rumoured to be close to signing, while we've also reportedly had a bid accepted for Nathan Redmond - the latter is an exciting prospect, very much in the Scott Sinclair mould, while the defensive cover Amat would bring could be key if Kyle Bartley departs, as expected, on loan to Birmingham.

Last but not least, yesterday Jonjo Shelvey dropped to 1/8 to be at the Swans next season, and the press seem to be running with the idea we want to sign him for £5million. To be completely honest, I've never seen Shelvey play well and I'm really not enthused by this one, but as usual I'm completely willing to be proved wrong. There's a reason I'm not a football manager. 

Actually, there's probably a couple...