Revealed! The man Swansea want to fill Bony’s and Gomis’ boots
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Speculation rents the air as to what Swansea will do with the £28m Manchester City bequeathed on them in return for Wilfried Bony, especially now it seems fellow striker Bafetimbi Gomis could be on his way out of the Liberty Stadium.
Popular website WalesOnline believes Monk is targeting much-travelled Sampdoria forward Stefano Okaka, who enjoyed a decent spell on loan at Fulham a couple of seasons back.
Okaka spent eight years on Roma’s books between 2004-2012, but only made 34 Serie A appearances for the Giallorossi, 31 of which were from the bench.
Alongside his stint at Craven Cottage, the striker took in loan spells at Modena, Brescia, Bari and Parma as a Roma player, eventually signing for the latter in the summer of 2012.
Okaka turned out 14 times in Serie A whilst on loan at Parma, scoring three goals despite only making four starts, but the 6ft1in hitman found no permanency in the north either as Roberto Donadoni shipped him off to Serie B outfit Spezia straight after acquiring his signature.
Having finally found a satisfactory situation at Sampdoria, where Okaka has notched eight Serie A strikes in 26 starts over the past twelve months, the Swans are thought to be pondering a move for the recently-capped Italy international.
Under Roy Hodgson at Fulham, Okaka racked up more goals than starts, rippling the onion bag twice in the Premier League and once each in the Europa League and FA Cup.
The player’s agent Andrea Catolli moved to dampen down talk of his client leaving Stadio Luigi Ferraris any time soon with the statement “We agreed with the club that in June we will all discuss Stefano’s future, while he is still tied with Sampdoria.”
However, with money burning a hole in Swansea’s pockets, allied with the prospect that unsettled French hotshot Gomis could leave during this window, Monk and chairman Huw Jenkins may be on the verge of making Sampdoria an offer they can’t refuse for the £6m-rated striker.
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