What a Start to 2012!
2011 was quite possibly the finest year Swansea City Football Club has ever experienced and the curve has continued upwards into 2012 – the club’s long awaited centenary year.
We are only five days into the new year but already there’s been plenty to cheer about. The party poppers were still going off as supporters celebrated the New Year when Darnel Situ confirmed via Twitter that he had joined Rory Donnelly in becoming a full fledged Swan. The French Under-19 captain has been training with the club since the autumn, unable to play due to the FIFA red tape that prevented an agreed transfer being ratified on deadline day. Although Situ is viewed in the same light as Donnelly – very much one for the future – he is very highly thought of and will provide some additional defensive cover this season and with Alan Tate expected back sooner rather than later we shouldn’t find ourselves in the deep trouble we were in not so long ago.
Next up in the good news stakes was the capture of the attacking midfielder we’ve all been craving, although the player that Brendan Rodgers turned to was a little unexpected to say the least. The name of Gylfi Sigurdsson had slipped totally under the radar with all the focus on Josh McEachran and John Goossens but the young Icelandic international – who played for Rodgers at Reading – was signed and sealed in a loan deal from german club Hoffenheim within a couple of days. Sigurdsson is a gifted creative player that excels at set-piece delivery and weighs in with a few goals from midfield…in other words, EXACTLY the type of player that is needed to truly make Rodgers’ masterplan work in the Premier League.
With some exciting squad developments already sorted it was time for the existing playing personnel to crank up the feelgood factor -and they duly obliged by delivering the long awaited first away win of the season. And it wasn’t just the result that had Swans fans purring, it was the manner in which it was achieved as the team tore apart an established Premier league in the shape of Aston Villa. Stephen Warnock in particular is still being nursed back to health after being ass-whipped to within an inch of his life by a rampant Nathan Dyer!
And then just when you thought life as a Swans fan couldn’t get any better, along comes a tweet like this from ashley Williams on Twitter: “I just wanna tell everyone that one of the best players I have ever played with the legend that is Ferrie Bodde is close to a return!!” I know we’ve been here before with the Evil Genius but it is a promising sign that has rehabilitation is on course and maybe, just maybe there will be a happy ending for Ferrie after all. The mere thought of Bodde swaggering imperiously through a Premier League game makes me more excited than Bayo Akinfenwa at an all-you-can-eat buffet for one!
Life is ever so sweet as a Swans fan at the moment – let’s all keep on enjoying the ride 
