Why maestro Mesa’s arrival bodes well for a welcome return of the ‘Swansea Way’
Swansea City have completed a £11m move to snap up Las Palmas playmaker Roque Mesa on a four-year deal.
It is a transfer that has captured the imagination of Swans fans and is the third most-expensive signing in the club’s history – but what does it signify about Paul Clement’s plans for the new season and what does it mean for the direction of the club? Chief Football Writer
takes a look at the significance of the Spanish arrival...
THE talk for some time has been about the need for Swansea City to go back to their old ways. But to do so, they’ve tried something new.
And it’s the most promising and pleasing signal that pennies have finally dropped at the Liberty.
The signing of Roque Mesa – confirmed on Thursday more than a week after WalesOnline revealed advanced talks were taking place on the deal – is both typical and unusual for Swansea.
On the one hand, his ability and strengths are archetypal Swansea. He is deemed a spectacular passer of unspectacular passes, and it says much about the Liberty longing for a fuller return to their possessionbased identity that his arrival is being accompanied by an excitement not witnessed for some time.
On the other, Swansea have spent £11m – the third-highest figure in their history – for a deep-lying midfielder. The two larger outlays were for the more expensive position of strikers – Wilfried Bony and Borja Baston – neither of whom had as much time on the clock as 28-yearold new boy Mesa.
It has long been a Swansea given to keep a tight grip on the budget and, when it’s come to spending, it tends to be done on those players who are young enough to either provide long service or carry a healthy sell-on potential.
So, it is fair to say this is a change in transfer tack – and it’s a welcome one after sailing so close to the wind in the last couple of years.
Mesa appears to be a signing for the here, now and near future. A late developer, only winning promotion and tasting top-level football in Spain two years ago, he arrives in South Wales in the form of his life. So much so that social media searches reveal fan frustration from some Barcelona supporters that they did not attempt to land him.
He ticks all the boxes for a Swansea midfielder. Described once as the guardian of tika-taka, he should be the player of the type, temperament and the talent to reinforce the area of the field that was the bedrock of Swansea success from the minute Roberto Martinez injected his dose of passing philosophy.
You only need look at the influence of Leon Britton – at least on the field – at the end of last year to show that it remains such a key role for Swansea to get right. They hadn’t in too long.
The club hadn’t addressed the need to find a new Britton, either finding players weren’t quite of the same mould or strengths (Ki SungYueng and Jack Cork spring to mind) or just not up to it (Jose Canas).
When the chance came last year to resign Joe Allen, they blew it.
His Euro 2016 performances only underlined the foolishness in not pushing harder for the £8m deal Liverpool had been hinting at before the tournament, and even the increased £13m he went to Stoke for would have been money well spent, given what he would have added.
Swansea, by their own admission, took their eye off the ball. They almost paid a price far greater than £13m.
To their credit, they have appeared to learn a lesson. Though all will await to see whether Mesa’s magnificent La Liga form travels to the Premier League with him and his unmistakable moustache, the club – and Paul Clement – has recognised an area in need of addressing and recognised that you pay what it is worth to you.
It is not to say Swansea are about to spend wildly – they won’t and nor should they, given the need to stay on firm financial ground – but it is a welcome move to know when the right time is to push forward.
The way Swansea’s transfers work mean there could be all manner of people to take credit for this (though you suspect his incredible passing statistics in Spain more than ticked the transfer analytics box of Dan Altmann) but, regardless, Mesa’s arrival also signifies something many had hoped for.
In his first words after the deal’s confirmation, Mesa spoke of how being wanted badly by Clement had swung favour Swansea’s way, and described how the former Real Madrid No.2 “wants to create a different Premier League team, a team that likes to play.”
“Maybe that’s why I’m here because he chose me; he knows me, he knows how I play and what I can contribute to the team. I’ll try to make the team play.”
Music to the ears of those who believe that at least some of the side’s problems have stemmed from moving too far away from their identity, the blueprint that put them in a position to spend eight figures on players in the first place.
Clement spoke at the end of last year that restoring that said identity – the ‘Swansea Way’ – was high on his list of to-do things when he first walked into the Liberty.
The signings of January were a step in the right direction and Mesa more so. In character too; as mentioned, Mesa had to fight as well as pass his way to this stage and there have been fine examples of success stories in Swansea white of those over the years.
The hope will be that Mesa is another such success as Swansea take a new way of going back to old ways.