Swansea City have been recognised for several clever transfer dealings over the years, particularly during their ascension up the EFL pyramid and into the Premier League, with the £2 million deal to bring Michu to South Wales being one of the most infamous.
However, the Swans, like any other club, have not been flawless in the transfer market, especially given their access to Premier League funds.
Let’s take a look at FOUR instances where the Welsh outfit got things horribly wrong throughout the years.
Swansea were well-versed in the Spanish market by 2017, and they’d had Roberto Martinez as a manager and a player earlier in his career, so there was a lot of trust in their transfer transactions in that area of the world.
And, just before the start of the 2017-18 season, the Swans shelled out on Roque Mesa, a tiny midfielder from Las Palmas, for £11 million.
Mesa was meant to keep things moving in midfield as an improved Leon Britton, but he struggled to adjust to the rigours of English football.
Mesa has returned to Spain by February 2018 after appearing in 11 Premier League matches in the first half of the season, with a loan transfer to Sevilla confirmed.
That eventually became permanent, and to Mesa’s credit, he has played pretty consistently in Spain’s top league for a number of years thereafter – he was simply not suited to Swansea at the time.
Bony was a cult hero at Swansea during his first time, but his second spell couldn’t have gone any worse.
Bony’s 34 goals in 70 games after joining Vitesse for £12 million in 2013 made him a target for larger teams, and in January 2015, Man City came knocking with a £28 million deal that was approved.
Bony was permitted to leave the Etihad Stadium after only 18 months, and following a disastrous loan spell with Stoke, he made a heroic comeback to Swansea in 2017.
Swansea spent £12 million for the Ivorian’s talents again, but he wasn’t as successful this time, and after some niggling ailments throughout the 2017-18 season, a ruptured ACL in February 2018 kept him out for a lengthy period.
When Bony returned to fitness, City were back in the Championship, but after only seven appearances in the second division, he was loaned out to Al-Arabi of Qatar in January 2019 when his contract expired.
Fans will always remember the big striker for his efforts during his first 18 months, but his second stint was a financial catastrophe – he was most recently at Bolivian team Always Ready, but at the age of 34, Bony is presently without a club.
Clucas was another poor buy for City, but they did recover part of their money back.
Clucas rose quickly from non-league and lower divisions to the top tier, and following his 2016-17 Premier League season with Hull City, Swansea opted to pay the better part of £16.5 million for a midfielder who contributed only four goals that season.
And, although starting frequently for the Swans, Clucas was ineffective and was part of a team that was relegated from the Premier League in his first season.
Clucas ended up staying in the Championship in 2018 when Stoke City paid £6 million for his services, so while Swansea recouped some money, they still lost money on a player who made no significant effect – Clucas is currently at Rotherham United.
Swansea had three players signed prior to the summer of 2017, and a year earlier they had won the services of Baston from Atletico Madrid.
The club spent a club record £15.5 million for the Spanish striker, who had scored 18 goals on loan for Eibar in La Liga the previous season, so he arrived with a strong pedigree.
Baston, on the other hand, struggled to adapt it to English football, scoring only once in 18 Premier League appearances in his debut season and spending the next two years on loan with Malaga and Alaves.
With one year left on his contract, Baston tried his luck in the Championship with Swansea in 2019, and after scoring six goals in the first half of the season, he secured a short-term move to Aston Villa in the Premier League, with the Midlands club paying no transfer fee for his services.
Baston was another player Swansea spent a lot of money on over a two-year period that isn’t remembered warmly – he’s now in his early 30s and plays for Real Oviedo in Spain’s second division.
