Sacked Clement takes aim at Swans

SACKED Swansea City boss Paul Clement has launched an extraordinary broadside at the club and come out swinging over a range of issues.

Clement says signing Wilfred Bony was a mistake, criticises the delay in selling star man Gylfi Sigurdsson to Everton and questions the decision to sell Stephen Kingsley to land Sam Clucas from Hull.

He also uses the word ‘ damaged’ about star summer capture Renato Sanches, saying the Portuguese Euro 2016 ace just got into a vicious cycle of making mistakes in matches despite looking the Swans’ best player in training.

Clement (pictured) was dismissed just before Christmas with his Swans rock bottom and looking doomed to relegation. New manager Carlos Carvalhal has produced a remarkable turnaround in results, including yesterday’s draw at Leicester.

Clement told The Times: “Because they beat Arsenal and Liverpool, the perception is straightaway, ‘Oh maybe it wasn’t a problem with the players, the problem was me.’

“Perception is unbelievable, how it can be shaped in people’s minds without knowing really the details behind everything.”

Questioning the club’s transfer dealings, Clement said: “We lost two players (Sigurdsson and Llorente) who created and scored, and we replaced them with someone (Bony) who had not played football for the two years and was going to be a gamble. There were mistakes made.”

Of the stand-off over Sigurdsson’s record £45m sale to Everton, he said: “I understand from the owners’ point of view they want to maximise revenue because he’s an asset, but at the same time you are eating away at time and potential targets are slipping through your fingers. From my point of view, that was a mistake.”

He said of Sanches: “When he came, he was far more damaged than I thought. It was really sad. He had almost got the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

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