Earlier this summer, former Huddersfield Town winger Rajiv van La Parra became a free transfer after being released by Serbian side Red Star Belgrade. After becoming a free agent, the former Huddersfield Town and Wolves man was heavily linked with a move back to the Championship.
In the summer transfer window, we covered a report from Dutch outlet Voetbal International here on Swansea Independent that QPR and Swansea City were both interested in van La Parra. The reports emerged almost a month ago now but van La Parra remains a free agent. With the season well underway, the Dutch winger will be hoping to find himself a new club sooner rather than later. We believe his wage demands were in excess of what CEO Julian Winter wanted to pay. However, time marches on and had he taken the 10k a week salary he would now be 60k plus a signing fee richer. Winter knows the player, and lets be honest he hasn’t diverted from his promises when he took over from Trevor Birch in the summer. Quite simply Winter is going about his business quietly and seemingly sensibly.
However - we do know this.
Van La Parra’s agent is again touting him to championship clubs. And has been in touch with Swansea today. And as stated Winter is very much aware of what he can bring to a club. For us here on this website it’s difficult to see where a player like Van La Parra would fit in, albeit a similar player to Jamal Lowe he doesn’t offer the goal threat that Lowe does.
The 29-year-old has bags of experience in English football. Van La Parra first moved to England to link up with Wolves in 2014, previously spending time with Dutch sides Feyenoord and SC Heerenveen and in France with SM Caen. With Wolves, van La Parra scored two goals and laid on 11 assists in 57 appearances, spending time out on loan with Brighton and Hove Albion and Huddersfield Town, who he later joined permanently. With Huddersfield, the winger played 102 times for the club, netting seven goals and providing five assists for the Terriers. van La Parra linked up with Middlesbrough on loan, eventually leaving the John Smith’s Stadium last summer. Now, with his one-year stint with Red Star Belgrade finished, it awaits to be seen if van La Parra seals a return to the Championship.
To gauge his worth we can compare Van La Parra’s stats at Huddersfield, his last English club. In his last 55 games he scored two goals with three assists, and if it’s goals the swans need to continue their promotion push he doesn’t really seem to be the answer.
Fabio Borini would be a much preferred choice but he too is holding out for a last big salary transfer, believed to be in the region of 25k a week - and if that remains the case it won’t be at Swansea City.
What do you think, are the swans in need of a Van La Parra ?
Comment below.