Luke Williams is now under scrutiny regards the non selection of Mykola Kukharevych who many believe hasn’t been given any chance this season. He has twenty seven minutes of football in sixteen games and last played for one minute per game against Norwich, Leicester and Plymouth. He hasn’t started a game this term and has played just 135 minutes all season.
Whatever people are saying it isn’t appearance money that’s stopping his progress, that much is confirmed from a source we speak to regularly.
The real issue for us is the fact Mykola was deemed to be injured prior to the Cardiff City game and a few days later the Swans released him to the Ukrainian U23 Olympic side for a fixture against Japan. Luke Williams stated this very sheepishly at the time. Wasn’t the case though was it ? Mykola played seventy odd minutes in that game. Anyone who doesn’t see an issue here is not reading the script properly. When you look at the chances Jerry Yates had against QPR surely Mykola would have at least made good the header Yates missed in the second half. And then of course the trouble he would cause Championship defences hasn’t been tested at all.
Mykola now has to be involved and not passed off as injured when a few days later he is selected for his country. That aside, there cannot be any more compassion shown to the likes of Jerry Yates and Jay Fulton, both need to be set aside for others, Charlie Patino as an example. And that despite Patino’s issues be that in training or tactically on the pitch. The academy is bursting with talent.
We will keep an eye on that situation after we speak with Pro Star this week.
By comparison Jerry Yates is now on one goal in nineteen games, he last scored against Ipswich and before that in September against Rotherham. It’s not in the slightest an issue for us, the manager makes his decisions, however when they are to the detriment of a striker who cost two million pounds questions are obviously raised.
And need asking.
Away from those big questions we have some excellent prospects in the acadmey, and although Aimar Govea may need some time to develop in to the first team his introduction is timely. He has played age grade football for Ecuador and is back on the radar for Spain U21 football. Joe Allen and Przemysław Płacheta are both out on Saturday and it is looking like a few weeks for Placheta and longer for Joe. The boss made references to ‘Shemmy’ today whoever that is.
Luke Williams : "Joe is going to be sidelined for the time being, it’s not something that has settled down for him to come straight back in,” said Williams. We don’t know how long at the minute, it is still early but we know he won’t be involved in next game, but it needs to settle down before we can assess. I think ‘Shemmy’ is around two weeks from us seeing him again, hopefully his progress is good and soon he can be back. Naughton’s is a bit more serious than Shemmy, so we have to see more how he copes with conditioning now, he is working hard and it is great to see a senior player make that example where he is hammering away on the bike. He has been with the squad and travelled to Sheffield, and I have been so impressed with how involved he has been and how concentrated he has been on wanting us to win and do well, helping the staff and everyone. It’s been incredible. He is brilliant on the pitch and brilliant off the pitch. Bashir is getting there now, hopefully he can be in contention soon and Harrison is available but been unfortunate in terms of the balance of the squad. His attitude has been excellent, I’ve been happy with that.”
Pick the bones out of that, but Williams has to realise that young kids and adults read his viewpoints and the current collection of nicknames is confusing and not helpful. To be honest he is getting on our nerves a bit, especially recently. The Mykola situation which we see as a bluff and now this. Maybe he needs a course in PR ? It all feels like a situation where an organisation pushes their narrative and gets away with it, and they push it again. Well, both this website and Planet Swans are right on the case. It’s taking the Swans support for a ride.
On the academy there’s some real progress.
Maliq Cadogan and Glory Nzingo took Watford to the cleaners on Tuesday, and looking at the current Swans first team squad there’s no reason for them to be ignored. You only find out a players competency if you play them, hence our frustration with Mykola. And yes, we won’t stop keeping on about the Ukrainian, people are just going to have to live with it.
Anyone remember Kristian Fletcher ?
Bashir Humphreys is out for Saturday if the manager is to be believed. Ben Cabango is fit, he was discounted by Williams for the QPR game and then appeared on the bench. Harrison Ashby isn’t getting a look in because there are players ahead of him looking for a start, and that about sums up the cloudy issues that affect directly the teams ability to win games.
Annoying isn’t it ? The pressure starts here.