You can tell the January transfer window is now open as the papers are full of transfer rumours already with today's instalment suggesting that West Brom are looking at Federico Fernandez and a possible £7m move in the window.

Fernandez has never really lived up to the billing he arrived with at Swansea when he joined from Napoli a couple of years back. A club record fee for a defender meant he arrived with big expectations but that has never really been repaid.

Indeed I expect there will be many Swansea fans who would tell you that at £7m they would take him to the West Midlands themselves but the key has to be a replacement within the same window and while £7m feels a good price we need to be able to buy a better replacement within the budgets that are available

It is widely accepted that the Swans will be looking to bring in at least one defender in the transfer window with several names already linked. 44 goals conceded in 19 Premier League games tells you just how badly we need to tighten up at the back.

First and foremost though we need to conclude a deal to get the new manager in with many media outlets confirming today that the Swans are in talk with Paul Clement to take over as manager and we really need him to cast his eye properly over the squad before we think about moving people on. We should also remember that Fernandez may be a better player than we have given him credit for and may just be suffering from a series of poor manager appointment decisions.

Welcome to January.

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