Borrowed Gems
By Nigel Davies
There’s been an influx of quality loans into the squad this summer, the likes of Charlie Patino, Harrison Ashby and Bashir Humphreys all coming in from the cream of Premier League clubs. It got me thinkiing about some of my favourite loan players from the past , lads that made brief borrowed appearances in a Swans shirt and never on a permanent basis. And as Editor I reserved the right to indulge one real crazy pick out of the five that follow!
Late 80's Flying Winger
Ian Evans called in a favour and borrowed 18 year old Nigerian born winger Salako from his former club Crystal Palace. Over the course of his 3 month loan deal Salako starred for the Swans, dazzling with his pace, trickery and ability to pick out a cross. He'll be remembered for his goal away at Panathinaikos more than anything. Alas this was 1989 and the £100k needed to make Salako's stay permanent was way beyond the Swans and the youngster went back to Palace and by the end of the season he was helping the Eagles edge out Liverpool in a thrilling FA Cup semi before narrowly getting beat in the final by Manchester United.
Mid 90's Rolls Royce
Signed on a one month loan from West Ham by Frank Burrows in January 1994, Rush made such an instant impression as a graceful wide midfielder that Burrows extended the loan to the maximum allowable. Unfortunately this meant that after playing an instrumental role in taking the Swans to Wembley in the Autoglass Trophy, Rush had to miss the final as his loan deal expired after the Southern Area Final victory over Wycombe. Unable to raise the £330k asking price the Swans had to wave a relcutant goodbye to the Rolls Royce-like Rush.
Cooper's Colossus
Magnificent Marc is my modern day pick for this feature; the imposing centre half made 50 appearances for the Swans over the 2019/20 and 20/21 seasons. In that second full season the boy blossomed into a man and he became a towering presence in Steve Cooper's side, helping the Swans to a Wembley play off final. Alas the limp defeat to Brentford proved to be Guehi's last appearance and he went back to Chelsea, signed for Palace in an £18m deal and went on to become a full England international.
Hero of the Hull game
Cutler came in to replace an injured Roger Freestone at the end of February, 2003 and he proved to be an inspired short term signing as he became one of the Heroes of Hull in the win to keep the Swans in the Football League. Indeed a triple save at 1-2 down in the first half probably proved the turning point. Had the chance to join permanently but spurned the Swans for Stockport to be nearer to his kid.
The Full Fat Option!
So here's that crazy pick I mentioned in the intro...a pick so left field that Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbot are on Warren's hefty right hand side! Chunky lad Aspinall was winding down his career whilst winding up his waistline; progressively big money moves to Everton, Aston Villa and then Portsmouth after starting out at Leyton Orient were rapidly dwindling memories when he arrived at Swansea for a short spell in 1993. I'd liked watching the bustling front man during his career and got a kick out of watching him bludgeoning his way through midfield in a Swans shirt...for a mere six games. It was never pretty, and it often took him half a match to build up some momentum, but when he did it was fun to see him scattering opponents, knocking them down like 9 pins as his giant girth picked up speed from momentum physics alone.
So he was a young Swans fan's guilty pleasure - so sue me, you heathens!
