One failure doesn’t define you
HAD anybody told me back in January that in 10 months’ time, Viktor Gyökeres would be one of the Championship’s top scorers, I would have had a hard time believing them.
But 14 games into the 2021-22 season, the former Swan has nine goals to his name and only Aleksandar Mitrovic, Ben Brereton Diaz and Dominic Solanke have scored more than him in the entire division.
He’s been a huge part of Coventry City’s early season success, with his good form a major reason why they enter this weekend fourth in the table. Leading the line for the Sky Blues, he has found a confidence and a striker’s instinct which makes him stand out from the crowd.
On Tuesday night he will line-up against his old club, a different player to the one who left Swansea with little fanfare back in January.
Gyökeres was nowhere near as bad as many of his boo-boys would have had you believe. The way some fans celebrated his departure, you would think he was some kind of cancer within the dressing room.
But it’s fair to say the Swedish international did not make much of an impression during his brief loan spell in Wales. He had very little impact in his four months at the club, starting just two league games and playing a grand total of 276 minutes for the Swans.
His only Swansea goal came in a routine FA Cup win over Stevenage but other than his close range header, his performance in that match summed up a frustrating loan spell for the youngster. It was his final game for the Swans as his loan was cut short by parent club Brighton as he was shipped off to Coventry instead.
Gyökeres never hit it off at Swansea. He couldn’t unseat Jamal Lowe and Andre Ayew in the Swansea attack and failed to have much impact whenever he got off the bench.
Some loans don’t work out and that was definitely the case here. But failing at one club shouldn’t see a young player written off for life.
Gyökeres has taken time to find his feet in the Midlands. He scored just three goals in the second half of last season despite playing far more regularly.
But having made his move permanent over the summer, the Swede has found a new lease of life. He’s been scoring at a rate of one every 128 minutes and seems to be brimming with confidence.
There is no real comparison between the Viktor Gyökeres who was so anonymous at Swansea and the one who will be looking to hurt his former employers on Tuesday.
This doesn’t mean Swansea were wrong to let him go. Steve Cooper had two strikers in Lowe and Ayew who were playing a leading role in a promotion push. There weren’t many opportunities for Gyökeres to make an impression and on the rare occasions when he was given a chance, he couldn’t make the most of it.
It wasn’t a good fit at the time and there weren’t any signs he would go on to become the player he is today.
Gyökeres is a very rare example of a player who has failed at Swansea but then gone on to flourish with a club at a similar or higher level.
The most recent examples I can think of were Tammy Abraham and Renato Sanches, both of whom were on loan at Swansea in the dreadful 2017-18 relegation season.
Abraham began that season very brightly but the grind of playing in such a dysfunctional set-up soon saw his impact diminish, while Sanches was an unmitigated disaster from day one. It was a damaging season for both players but both eventually shook off the stink of that rotten campaign to make it as top players.
Abraham is now leading the line for Roma in Serie A and Sanches was a key player in Lille’s shock Ligue 1 triumph last season.
Sometimes players just aren’t right for a certain manager, system or environment. Sometimes they arrive at a club where they should be a perfect fit but other factors in their personal lives can get in the way and sometimes, as was probably the case with Gyökeres, a player simply hasn’t developed yet to the point where they’re ready for that kind of challenge.
Many top class players have had moves in their younger days which did not work out but they showed their quality in the long run.
Harry Kane famously had loans at Leyton Orient, Millwall and Norwich but never looked like a potential world beater at any of these clubs. He went on to captain England and has more than 200 Tottenham Hotspur goals to his name.
Serge Gnabry made just one league appearance while on loan with West Brom in 2015-16 but he’s now a regular for Germany who has won three league titles and a Champions League.
I’m by no means saying Gyökeres will ever come close to achieving what any of these players have achieved, but they are all examples of players who were written off to a large extent very early on in their careers but developed later on into outstanding footballers.
Just because a youngster fails at a certain club, that doesn’t mean they should be written off entirely. A bit of understanding and patience is required with younger players, even ones who seem to be going through tough times.
It didn’t work out for Gyökeres at Swansea but he’s had the strength to persevere and overcome that disappointment. He deserves a lot of credit for what he’s achieved so far this season and hopefully he can continue his progress. Let’s just hope he has an off-night on Tuesday.