Congratulations to Jordan Ayew, who takes his rightful place in the Premier League team of the week after his two goals against West Ham United at the weekend.
Today I’ll take a look at our contracted players outside of the club, those out on loan. The majority of these were loan deals made prior to my time at Swansea but some of them do come from agreements made during the January window. If the image isn’t on point like a decimal, just click and it’ll open up a fresh new window with a clear perspective.
BORJA BASTON
If, like me, your eyes are drawn to the goals scored column, you’ll note that Borja has scored 10 goals while with Malaga in La Liga. That’s nine more than he scored with Swansea during 2016/17. He has more ability and more potential than anybody else on the loan report. I’d have liked him to be available for us as really we only have three strikers challenging for the two starting places.
MATT GRIMES
Making the most of his loan spell this season at Northampton Town is Matt Grimes, who has been out on loan from Swansea for the last three seasons at Blackburn Rovers, Leeds United and now Northampton under Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink. He’s made 38 appearances, the most in one season already during his career. At 22-years-old, he should really be in the first team squad next season.
JEFFERSON MONTERO
Montero’s appearances in a Swansea shirt have been on the decline over his three previous seasons with the Swans, 30 games, then 23 and only 13 last year. He’s at Getafe and he hasn’t exactly set the world alight with the club in 19th place in La Liga and destined for relegation with a five-point deficit to Espanyol in 17th.
JORDI AMAT
Looking purely at the player stats, Jordi looks like a good option at centre-back for us. He’s worth £6.5 million, on 30k a week and his attributes look better in comparison than Mike van der Hoorn’s. However, his loan spell at Real Hispalis has stalled badly. Despite being ninth in the league, they have hardly turned to Amat with just 9 starts and 2 substitute appearances. Real Hispalis have preferred to play Aïssa Mandi and Alin Tosca.
JAY FULTON
At 23-years-old, he needs to do it now or I fear it’ll be never at Swansea. The central midfielder was shipped off to Reading at the end of January to compete in a Championship dogfight under Ryan Giggs. Unfortunately for Jay, he has only started one game and came on in two since arriving. He won’t play against us in the FA Cup because he’ll be cup-tied, reducing his opportunity for minutes once again. He has to train hard and earn a place in Giggs’ team.
OLIVER MCBURNIE
After recalling the young Scotsman from Barnsley to play in that crucial game against Newcastle at the end of January when we had a striking crisis, McBurnie has gone back to Yorkshire and picked up where he left off for Barnsley with four appearances. After six goals in the first half of the season, he’ll get his place back in their team and impress.
KYLE BARTLEY
The most senior player to go out on loan in January was Kyle Bartley, certainly in the case of Premier League starts this season. Having lost his place to Fernández and then van der Hoorn, it made sense to get him minutes at Derby County. He’s now played six games for Derby, which is everyone he has been eligible for (he can’t play in the FA Cup). Derby are tenth in the Championship but mounting a late push for the play-offs. Bartley plays alongside the likes of Curtis Davies and Richard Keogh in the centre of a three-man defence.
