SoS in ATFV
# 6 Should We Have Kept Latibeaudiere?
By Swansea oh Swansea Editor Steve Carroll
It’s always been amusing watching Steve Carroll watching Joel Latibeaudiere playing for the Swans. However, the latter has now left the club and the former is still doing a one man Mexican Wave in celebration…but is the Swansea Oh Swansea fanzine Editor wrong to extoll Joel’s departure?
When I was in conversation with the editor of this fine publication regarding what I could write about, I was not expecting to hear a response of “Joel Latibeaudiere”.
It feels as if I’ve spoken about him so many times over the last couple of years, that now he’s gone I feel a sense of relief. But am I being too harsh?
When he quietly arrived on deadline day in October 2020 he was very much seen as a back up option at centre back, and Steve Cooper rarely played him.
He made eight appearances in total in that campaign, but with the likes of Marc Guehi, Ryan Bennett and Ben Cabango ahead of him, it was never going to be easy to force his way into the side.
But after the Play-Off final loss to Brentford, the Swans went through a major rebuild and Russell Martin replaced Steve Cooper, allowing everyone a fresh chance to impress.
Latibeaudiere was one of the beneficiaries, he started on the opening day at Blackburn on the left of a back three and was of many who looked shaky as Martin tried to reintroduce the “Swansea way”. In fact he could’ve scored an own goal in the first few seconds when he blasted the ball back to Steven Benda!
In truth Latibeaudiere failed to establish himself as first choice centre back, and had to wait until we became short of wing backs in the transfer window to gain another chance of a run of games.
This is where my frustration came from, although to be fair it wasn’t the players fault.
At this stage I was sympathetic of Martin because he hadn’t been backed, therefore someone had to play there. But it shouldn’t have been him. In a system where wing backs are vital, you really couldn’t have a player there who offers zero attacking threat.
But as I said, we were short of numbers.
Last season the situation was similar due to the Board once more failing or refusing to support Martin, but by then my sympathy had run out.
The manager should’ve adapted, which he eventually did later in the season by adjusting the system to a 4-4-2 diamond which saw us end the season with one of our best runs of the season.
At full back his limitations going forward weren’t exposed so much, but the impression I had was we would have to offer him a fair wage rise to stay.
From my point of view there’s better out there.
If Latibeaudiere would’ve been willing to stay as a back up player on a reasonable wage then I could’ve seen the logic in that.
But once there was interest from other clubs at this level that was never realistic, so even though I may have been harsh on him I’m not sorry he’s gone.
It’s a move that suits everyone, we’ve gained half a million in compensation for a player we can replace without much trouble, Coventry played him in their opening day loss at Leicester so they clearly view him as an important player. And judging by the player’s girlfriend’s comments on Twitter, he hated playing at wing back – so now he should be happier plying his trade in the Midlands.
So I'm sticking to my guns and saying sending lati to coventry was the right move for swansea city!
