Mesa forced to take watching brief... so what now for Swans’ Spanish star?
WHEN Swansea City were in the mix to sign Las Palmas midfielder Roque Mesa, respected Spanish football journalist Sid Lowe was full of positive noises.
“The assumptions that certain players are not suited to the Premier League haven’t always stood up; (Juan) Mata, is he going to cut it in the Premier League? (David) Silva – is he going to cut it? (Santi) Cazorla – is he going to cut it in the Premier League? All these guys did quite well,” he said on the Spanish Football Podcast.
“They were the very top level, admittedly. They were that level of players that either had to go to Real Madrid or Barcelona or had to leave thr country because they were that good.
“Roque Mesa is not quite at that level, but I think he’s not far off. I think he is a wonderful player. I would imagine they (Swansea City) would try to protect him, that he won’t play at the base of a midfield diamond, he will play slightly to the right but effectively coming and receiving, sort of doing a Xavi role.
“There is a touch of (Luka) Modric about him, he kind of does those six or seven-yard bursts, just to get through one line of the opposition, and then the passing options open up to him. He’s a throw-back in the way he plays.” That was at the end of June. Fast forward to the middle of October and Mesa, signed in early summer for £11million, was left out of the matchday squad that faced Huddersfield at the weekend.
Before the game he tweeted “Let’s go Swans. Matchday.”
But he would watch the game in the stands.
“He’s not injured, he’s OK,” Paul Clement said in his post-match press conference.
“I left him out of the squad today, I thought that was the right line-up and bench for the game.
“He’s very much part of the plans for myself and this club moving forward, but I’ve got eight midfielders. One was injured – Renato (Sanches) – but that is still seven players for three positions and if you go with three in the team you can only really have two on the bench if you want a balanced bench.
“So someone is going to miss out and it is him on this occasion.
“But I’ve told him he is in the plans moving forward.”
From the little we have seen of the 28-year-old so far, Mesa looks like he has what it takes to get Swansea ‘moving forward’.
Why are we not seeing him feature at present? The story so far THE Spaniard has featured five times so far this campaign – with just one start coming in the Premier League.
He lined up in Clement’s starting XI that faced Manchester United on the second matchday of the season.
He has clocked up just 132 minutes of top-flight football since.
Granted, he has two full games in the EFL Cup under his belt too, but for a player of his undoubted calibre and price tag, it begs the question; why? Does Clement just not fancy him? THE head coach’s words seem to contradict his actions.
He was clearly disappointed with the midfielder for his error that led to Watford’s winner at the Liberty last month, but also praised the impact he made when he was introduced at half-time.
Clement has always preached patience