Swansea are right to leave Michu in Italy when Bony goes to ACoN
Published:
Swansea boss Garry Monk’s assertion that Spanish forward Michu will not be recalled from his loan at Napoli in January, in spite of Wilfried Bony’s expected absence on African Cup of Nations duty, should cheer the Liberty Stadium faithful no end.
The former Rayo Vallecano man proved a revelation after being picked up by then-Swans boss Michael Laudrup in the summer of 2012, smashing home 22 goals in 43 all-competition fixtures during his debut season in England.
Unfortunately for Michu, injuries took their toll last term and the 29-year-old was only able to find the back of the net in six of his 25 Swansea appearances.
The 2013/14 campaign started well enough, with five in his first 10 matches under Laudrup, but missing three months due to an ankle complaint completely derailed Michu’s Swansea tenure.
Upon regaining fitness, Monk had taken over the reins from Laudrup and Bony was banging in goals as if they were going out of fashion.
Injury struggles may explain a return of one goal in 14 Swansea appearances from the end of September, but Michu has also missed Napoli matches with knocks this term and is yet to find the net for the Partenopei in five outings.
Monk clearly doesn’t trust Michu to stay fit, and with a striker like Bafetimbi Gomis on his books the Swansea chief need not bother taking the punt.
During the past eight seasons in France, Gomis turned out in Ligue 1 at least 30 times per term and posted a useful tally of 64 strikes in 178 top-flight matches for Lyon over the last half-decade.
The 12-cap Les Bleus hitman has made good use of his limited time deputising for Bony at Swansea too, scoring twice in 12 all-competition appearances, of which only five have been starts.
However, if any Swans striker is going to break the deadlock away to Manchester City it’s sure to be the Ivory Coast international, who bagged three Premier League openers in a row in October.
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