Borrowed colossus

When Marc Guehi arrived from Chelsea just over a year ago he was fourth choice, behind the likes of Joe Rodon, Mike van der Hoorn and Ben Cabango. His first couple of appearances justified that pecking order as the young centre half looked overawed by senior football.

Fast forward twelve months or so and that same young man is not only first choice for Swansea City he’s also head and shoulders above every other centre half in the Championship – he’s an absolute Colossus, a pillar of strength at the back and an unstoppable force coming forward.

The young man is an absolute brute and I’m yet to see a Championship striker bully him or upset him in any way.

On the contrary, he looks like an immovable object and his zen like calm helps to settle those around him.

For such a solid unit Guehi has a decent bit of pace in his locker, but it is his mature reading of the game that gets him where he needs to be so regularly, and it’s why he’s been on hand to make more than 40 interceptions this season already.

Stopping the opposition is clearly what Guehi does best, but he’s not lacking in the other side of the game either. Comfortable with the ball at his feet, Guehi cuts a dashing figure striding out from the back to provide our side with some momentum, and the strongman stopper is a force to be reckoned with in the opposition box too. Indeed, his glowering presence has caused carnage at set pieces and led to at least a couple of goals this season.

It’s all a stark contrast to those first few nervy performances that had many questioning the wisdom of using up a loan space with a fourth centre back and one that looked totally unready for senior action.

However, Fate intervened and football found itself closed down for three months and when it did return it was without fans; suddenly the environment that Guehi was being asked to play in resembled what he was used to at Under-23 level and the youngster was able to find his feet.

There was also the enforced change to a back three with wingbacks due to injuries and Guehi has thrived in that set up.

Watching Guehi rapidly mature in front of our eyes has been pretty satisfying, even though he’s not technically our player. Watching our own Ben Cabango maturing right there alongside him has been doubly satisfying.

We are so strong at centre back right now with Guehi, Cabango, the grizzled Ryan Bennett, the experienced Kyle Naughton and the precocious Joel Latibeaudiere. It’s meant that we haven’t missed the enormous talent of Joe Rodon since Spurs stole him in August.

But for all the talent alongside him, it’s Guehi who is the first choice with any two of the others alongside him.

Let’s hope that new Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has the Abramovich chequebook open ready to bring in his own players in the summer…