Window Shopping: Coming into the January transfer window Swansea City needed, at the least, to add depth at striker for the injured Michu and soon-to-be overworked Wilfried Bony, a flexible central midfielder and a right-back to provide cover for an under-whelming duo of Angel Rangel and Dwight Tiendalli.
A series of low-profile moves addressed some, but not all, of these issues as strikers David N’Gog and Marvin Emnes, as well as left-back/center mid Raheem Hanley, right-back/center mid Adam King and center midfielder Jay Fulton, all made their way to the Liberty Stadium.
Players In: David Ngog (Bolton, $1.3m), Jay Fulton (Falkirk, $33,000), Adam King (Hearts, Undisclosed), Raheem Hanley (Blackburn, Undisclosed), Marvin Emnes (Middlesbrough, Loan).
Players Out: Daniel Alfei (Portsmouth, Loan), Alan Tate (Aberdeen, Loan), Lee Lucas (Cheltenham, Loan), Rory Donnelly (Coventry, Loan)
Grade: D
Two points shy of the relegation zone with 14 league matches to play and the Europa League set to start up, Swansea City are in the muck and did little transfer-wise to give themselves hope of getting out of it. They desperately needed to land players who could contribute straight away and failed to do so.
N’Gog and perhaps Emnes are the only players of the lot who could potentially make an impact in the top flight. The 24-year old N’Gog has Premier League experience with Liverpool and Bolton and although he didn’t exactly light it up, there were matches where the 6’3″ Frenchman showed promise. The 25-year old Emnes scored 24 goals in 141 matches at Championship side Middlesborough, hardly numbers that will have the Jacks thinking the Dutchman can make an impact at the Liberty. Meanwhile Fulton, King and Hanley are all under the age of 20 and are projects for the future.
It was bargain basement shopping by Huw Jenkins. Over time, one or two of these players might pan out but the likelihood any will have a significant impact this spring is extremely low. Making things worse, Jenkins also went ahead and fired manager Michael Laudrup this week (appointing long-time defender Gary Monk as caretaker manager), so things at the South Wales club are, without a doubt, in shambles.
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