No trip to Exeter for Baston, despite return to Swansea colours
BORJA Baston made his first appearance in a Swansea City shirt in more than two years when he featured for the club’s Under-23s against Chelsea on Monday.
The Spaniard has not featured for Swansea’s first team since coming on as a late substitute in a 1-0 win over Everton under Paul Clement in May 2017.
Swansea are keen to offload the striker this summer as they aim to further reduce the wage bill following last year’s relegation from the Premier League.
After spending the duration of the 2018/19 campaign on loan with La Liga outfit Alaves, Borja – who still has one year left to run on his current deal with the Swans – returned to the club’s Fairwood training base.
He has trained alongside the rest of the club’s first-team players this summer, although he has not featured in any matches under Steve Cooper while he did not travel with the squad for the weeklong training camp in Spain.
Borja donned a Swansea jersey for the first time in more than two seasons earlier this week as he played the opening 45 minutes of the Under-23 side’s 3-0 defeat to Chelsea at Cobham training ground before being replaced by Josh Thomas.
It’s understood that the Swans are keen to ensure Borja remains fully fit this summer, hence his involvement with Cameron Toshack and Gary Richards’ side.
There’s a possibility that he will continue to feature for the youth side in the coming weeks until Swansea can find a buyer.
Swansea are yet to receive any bids for the Spanish forward, who netted five times in 29 appearances for Alaves last season.
The former club record signing’s only goal for Swansea came in a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in what was Bob Bradley’s first match in charge of the club.
He has made only 20 appearances for Swansea since joining from Eibar in the summer of 2016.
But Baston will not be included in the first team’s clash against Exeter City at St James’ Park today (3pm).