IT’S CLEAR PATO IS A TOP PLAYER
RUSSELL Martin believes the clarity Jamie Paterson has in his role has helped him thrive at Swansea City.
The 29-year-old joined the Swans on a free transfer in the summer after being released by Championship rivals Bristol City following the conclusion of the 2020-21 campaign.
The attacker has netted eight times and has registered four assists in his 20 league outings so far this term and has become a firm favourite with the Jack Army.
And Martin says Paterson, who was on trial with Middlesbrough in the summer, has brought plenty of experience to what is a young Swansea squad.
“We speak about Pato a lot, as we always do with players who are goalscorers and creators, but the great thing about him is that he has come in and understood what has been expected of him,” Martin told the club website.
“He has been given real clarity, and he is turning himself into a real leader in the group and on the pitch. You can hear how vocal he is on the pitch when he is at close quarters.
“He is always talking to his teammates about positions, when to play forward, when to keep the ball. He understands his role and is really enjoying himself.”
Martin added: “He shows discipline, and when he gets the ball he takes care of it because he knows how hard his team-mates have worked to give him the ball.
“He has been fantastic, but he will be the first person to tell you the importance of the people around him.
“He loves being here and it shows on the pitch.”
Yesterday marked Martin’s fourmonth anniversary as Swansea boss.
The 35-year-old has overseen 23 matches at the club, of which they have won nine, drawn six and lost eight, while they claim an average of 1.35 points per game in the Championship.
Martin boasts an overall win rate of 39% at Swansea, although that drops slightly to 35% for league matches.
However, when you split the league campaign so far in half, the improvement is clear.
Swansea had a league win rate of just 20% from their first 10 Championship games this season, butthat jumps to 50% for their most recent 10 outings.
As for their average points per game, that stands at one per game for the first 10 league games but rises to 1.7 when looking at games 11 to 20. ■ Why Swans striker felt he had to leave club
“TAKE risks and prosper.”
The simple but intriguing message Ali Al-hamadi posted on social media after completing a switch to Wycombe Wanderers summed up the situation he found himself in this year.
The striker left Swansea City in the summer after opting against signing a new contract with the club.
It came after he ended the 202021 campaign by winning the under23s’ Player of the Year award.
But after failing to see light at the end of the tunnel when it came to featuring for the Swans’ first team, Al-hamadi knew it was time to move on to pastures new.
“Last year I was doing quite well I thought,” he told the Evening Post.
“I was expecting to have at least a chance with the first team, at least to be on the bench or have someone say to me ‘you’ve done well this season, keep doing what you’re doing and you might have more opportunities to train with the first team’, but I never had that.
“I always felt a bit underappreciated. However well I was doing, I always felt more overlooked than the other younger lads for some reason and I didn’t get why.
“I’m not naive and thinking I’m going to start every Championship game. I just felt if they could promise me an opportunity to prove myself I would stay.
“Steve Cooper was still there at the time. A week or two after I left, he then left. You never know what could have happened if I’d stayed but you can’t really have any regrets.
“I’m driven and I didn’t want my career to stall. I want to get to a first team as soon as possible so I took a gamble.”
As many players across the globe are discovering, securing a transfer in a pandemic is far from easy.
Al-hamadi was poised to join Nottingham Forest, although a dramatic change in circumstances at the City Ground ensured a move failed to materialise.
“That was just a matter of getting me in, but the difficult thing was, because Swansea offered me a contract, whatever club I went to had to pay a compensation fee for me, which is hard because of Covid and things,” explained the forward.
“It’s weird because you don’t really know how much that fee is because it’s not a set fee.
“It was hard for us to tell Forest how much they’d have to spend. I did really well there, the coaches liked me and I did well in the games I played for them.
“It was taking quite a while to get over the line and I realised I couldn’t keep waiting around. I asked if they could promise me 100% that they could make the deal happen, which they couldn’t.”
His stint at Forest served to be an indicator of how tough the months that lay ahead were to be.
The Iraq international, who moved to the city of Liverpool from his homeland at the age of just one, went on to have spells with Bournemouth, Derby County, Bristol Rovers and Stockport County before
training with Wycombe Wanderers in early October.
“I went to Bournemouth with the first team for a week. That was crazy,” he explained.
“The standard there was mad. They were doing well at the time in the first few games of the season, but they ended up signing Jamal Lowe on deadline day so that put me out of the question.
“But it wasn’t a negative thing, I gained a lot out of it. It was good to be in that environment.
“Then I went to Derby. That was good as well, I was doing well with the under-23s, then I got the chance to train with their first team.
“Steve Mcclaren liked me there and I think he wanted to sign me, but then two days before they were going to give me a decision they went into administration.
“I’ve had some bad timing and bad luck. But luckily, Swansea have said they were willing to let me go for free as long as there was a sellon clause.
“I went to Bristol Rovers to keep my fitness up, Stockport County as well.”
Impressing Wycombe manager Gareth Ainsworth became Al-hamadi’s prime aim as the 2021-22 campaign continued to tick by, with the frontman still eager to find a new home.
Al-hamadi stayed in various locations around the UK, including at the house of Swansea winger Jordon Garrick, who is currently on loan with Plymouth Argyle, as he continued his pursuit to impress sufficiently to be offered a contract.
The arduous efforts proved to be draining for the 19-year-old.
“Mentally, it’s been the toughest period of my life in terms of dealing with the challenge,” said the teenager. “Most of my belongings were in Swansea, but I’ve been living in Jordon Garrick’s house.
“I packed things for two weeks thinking ‘this will be done and dusted’ and then move. I was going back to Liverpool and staying with my family and I’m staying in London right now. I’ve been all over the place.”
But it swiftly became apparent that a move to Adams Park was the right move for Al-hamadi, who will remain with the Chairboys until the summer of 2023.
“I’m closer to a first team than I would have been if I’d stayed at Swansea so I’ve still made some progress,” he stated.
“Wycombe don’t have an under23s team, so the whole squad trains together. You’re in the eyeline of the manager and you’ve got that opportunity to get into the first team.”
So the focus is now on the future for Al-hamadi, who recently addressed the “hurtful and simply untrue” social media rumours regarding his Swans exit.
And while certain online messages left the forward feeling somewhat dismayed, Al-hamadi was quick to show his gratitude to the club he joined from Tranmere Rovers in 2018.
“It was annoying to see fans saying certain things like ‘I’ve heard he’s big time and it’s about money’. It’s frustrating to think some people think that,” he concluded.
“I loved my time there. They’ve developed me as a player and as a person as well.
“I owe a lot to Swansea and it wasn’t an easy thing for me to leave, I just had to make that decision for my own career.”
In leaving South Wales, Al-hamadi has taken the biggest risk of his career to date. And the striker’s sole aim is now to ensure Swansea’s loss is Wycombe’s gain.