Swansea man proving Liverpool still missed best summer bargain
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Swansea new boy Andre Ayew is celebrating becoming the Premier League’s first official Player of the Month in 2015/16 after a tremendous start to his career in England, showing several other top clubs what a trick they missed this summer.
Ayew has been rewarded for a fantastic return of three goals in only four Swans appearances, taking in a magnificent instinctive strike at Chelsea and a headed equaliser to set the Welsh club on course for a famous comeback victory over Manchester United.
Having starred for Ghana at last summer’s World Cup, the former Marseille forward’s talents were in no way a secret to the Premier League’s top brass.
Indeed it was Liverpool’s name that was heavily associated with a potential move for the powerful Ghanaian after goals against the United States and Germany in the so called Group of Death – yet no offer was forthcoming.
In Liverpool’s case, they even chose to ignore positive noises from the player himself according to reports at the time.
Instead £20m was splurged on lesser-known Benfica winger Lazar Markovic, who has subsequently been loaned out to Fenerbahce having underwhelmed Brendan Rodgers and fans alike throughout his debut campaign.
A year down the line, and off the back of his fourth season in five netting double figures for Marseille, Ayew’s appeal rocketed even further skywards as he was available on a free transfer.
Still only 25 and with his peak years right in front of him, it’s incredible to think that Manchester United decided to break the bank on a teenager instead (even if Anthony Martial eventually turns out to be a world beater), while Arsenal never flickered an eyelid.
It’s widely perceived that Liverpool have conducted some fairly shrewd business this summer having prised James Milner off Manchester City for free and getting promising young striker Danny Ings for a fee likely to be well below £10m once compensation is sorted.
However, when you consider the last two players to have lifted August’s Premier League gong – Daniel Sturridge and Diego Costa – went on to finish second and third respectively in the top scorer stakes, it’s looking very clear that Swansea are the big winners here.
With Ladbrokes paying out at a 1/4 of the odds on the first four places, Ayew looks a sizzling bet at 50/1 in the Premier League top scorer market.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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