Home » Teams » Swansea » Why Swansea Must Do Everything In Their Powers To Complete This £18m Double Signing

Why Swansea Must Do Everything In Their Powers To Complete This £18m Double Signing

Nacer Chadli

Why Swansea Must Complete A Double Swoop For Nacer Chadli And Carl Jenkinson

Swansea City are planning a double swoop for West Bromwich Albion attacker Nacer Chadli and Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson, according to reports from the Express.

The Welsh club, led by Paul Clement, managed to avoid relegation by a small margin last time around and will be keen on avoiding a similar season this time too. But they haven’t been very adventurous in the transfer market as of yet.

The Swans have brought in striker Tammy Abraham on loan from Chelsea, along with midfielder Roque Mesa from Las Palmas and goalkeeper Erwin Mulder for free from Dutch side Herenveen. But they are facing the prospect of losing their best player Gylfi Sigurdsson in the summer.

The Iceland international, who scored 9 goals and registered 13 assists last season for the Swans, aided their fight to avoid the drop to the second tier in a big way. The 27-year old has been their best player for the last two seasons and that has reflected in him winning the club Player of the Year award two years running. However, his performances have attracted interest from the bigger fish and Everton are close to signing the former Tottenham Hotspur man, with Toffees manager Ronald Koeman admitting it in an interview with Sky Sports. 

This is going to leave a huge void in the Swans’ attack and could have a detrimental effect on their hopes of maintaining their status as a Premier League club come next season. With less than three weeks left for the transfer window to slam shut, they will need to find a replacement at the earliest for Sigurdsson, and the £13.5m rated Chadli seems like a good fit for the club.

The 28-year old finished last season for West Bromwich Albion with 5 goals and 5 assists in 31 league outings. He may not have had the excellent numbers with West Brom last season, but that did have a lot to do with Tony Pulis’ rigid style of play. Chadli comes in with good amount of experience in the Premier League, having played 119 times in the English top flight with Tottenham Hotspur and West Brom, in which he has managed 20 goals and 15 assists.  

The Belgium international can play anywhere in the attacking line, be it out on the flanks or through the middle behind the main striker, very much like Sigurdsson. He may not have produced similar output as Gylfi, but he certainly has the ability to do so, especially with the style of football that Clement deploys. So he could turn out to be a shrewd purchase. With Sigurdsson heading out, Chadli could prove to be a decent replacement.

Another key issue in the ranks for Clement is the lack of depth at the right-back position. The club has Kyle Naughton as their first-choice in that position, but the lack of a proper backup is a bit alarming. They do have Angel Rangel, but the Spaniard is ageing and may not be able to shoulder the responsibilities week in week out.

Carl Jenkinson (right)

So, a move for Arsenal’s Jenkinson too makes perfect sense for the club. The £4.5m rated 25-year old may not have been able to carve out a place for himself at the Emirates, but had impressed during his 18-month loan spell at West Ham United, starting from the summer of 2014, till January last year. Having suffered a ligament problem, the Englishman made only 5 first-team appearances last season, but has shown the ability to be able to stick it out at this level.  

Jenkinson possesses a decent turn of pace and has a good end product on which the likes of Fernando Llorente and Tammy Abraham can feed off. Defensively too, he has shown enough strength and awareness. He may not be a top talent, but Jenkinson has the ability to help Swansea improve as a team and his presence will also keep Naughton on his toes to keep doing well.

With the deadline day not far away, Clement and Swansea should act quick to sort their deals out and signing Chadli to replace Sigurdsson and bringing in Jenkinson to increase the squad depth will be good business by the club.