Swansea move to bring former loanee back to Liberty Stadium
Published:Swansea are on the verge of re-signing Middlesbrough’s Dutch midfielder Marvin Emnes on loan for the second time in three years.
The 25-year-old former Sparta Rotterdam man scored two Championship goals during a five-match spell on loan at the Liberty Stadium three and a half seasons ago and the Swans have had numerous attempts to take him back since rebuffed.
Emnes is most fondly remembered in south Wales for his winner at Cardiff in his fourth game for the club, with Swansea’s 1-0 triumph on their rivals patch the first such victory for over a decade.
Boss Michael Laudrup will look to halt a disastrous run of results on the road in the Premier League when he takes his team to West Ham, with the visitors priced up at 17/10 for their first away win in the top flight since November.
Considering the Hammers haven’t kept all three points at Upton Park since the same month and against the same opponents (Fulham), the smart money should be heading for the draw in east London at 23/10.
Signing Emnes would cap a reasonably successful January for Laudrup, who’s also brought in Bolton’s former Liverpool forward David Ngog and Falkirk’s Lee Fulton for undisclosed fees.
However, Swansea were linked with moves for Spurs’ Nacer Chadli and Blackpool’s Tom Ince during the silly mid-season and landing neither will disappoint the Swans faithful.
Bringing in Championship and Scottish League ‘journeymen’ as cover may bulk out Swansea’s weak squad and with Michu still out injured they needed at least one new striker, but the prospect of signing England Under-21 star Ince in particular would have given fans a boost going into the latter part of the campaign.
Swansea may be back up to 11th after beating Fulham at home, but they’re still just five points off the relegation zone and that win against the Cottagers was only their second in 11 league games.
The 16/1 offered by Ladbrokes about them going down this term certainly holds greater appeal than the 7/4 on a Swansea top-ten finish for the second season in a row at this point.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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