Swansea City confirmed the signing of Lawrence Vigouroux from Burnley in the customary way last evening, no fee disclosed, that’s only natural, and a big smile on Luke Williams face. However, there’s a lot more to Swansea City’s new number 22 than meets the eye, a hell of a lot more.
Many will know by now that Lawrence started off life with Brentford, and then Tottenham Hotspur, his home city club, and then moved on to Liverpool. The facts are there, but it was something more than club changes and a slide down the EFL ladder that brought things crashing home for the now thirty year old keeper. Interested ?
Read on.
It was summer 2019 when Lawrence had no club to go to, and nobody in the UK wanted his signature. This was a huge crossroads. He flew from England, the country of his birth to Chile. The reason ? Swindon Town had just released him and his ambitions for the future came to a screeching halt. The 6’4” goalkeeper would now have time to reflect on why he was now crossing the world to South America in a desperate attempt to save his football career. What he saw there in his first three months before signing for Everton de Viña del Mar in the city of ‘Viña del Mar’ horrified him. A visit to his grandfather in Santiago brought everything home to him. Lawrence takes up the story, "The government raised the price of a train ticket by, in our money, about 20p and it just went mad,” he told the PA news agency. "They were setting supermarkets on fire and it was like, ‘Wow, I’ve come from Camden, the main thing I see is when someone leaves the cooker on and there’s a little fire in the kitchen. There were people protesting, they were standing in Plaza Italia, our equivalent of Trafalgar Square in Santiago. They were there for days, police were shooting people with rubber bullets. It was really scary. I went to visit my granddad in Santiago. I was on the coach and the forest was just on fire. It was mad. Smoke everywhere, both sides of the road, it was like I was in an Armageddon film. Big trees on either side on fire, the imagery of it was striking”
Some of the reasons why Lawrence found himself in what was becoming a living hell, notwithstanding his relationship with partner Shemika - and away from his children he was now most certainly reflecting on what he had left behind. And it affected him personally. "As a human being, definitely,” says Vigouroux, who with partner Shemika has children India, Thiago and Carmelo. "I had a lot of problems when I was younger in terms of discipline – being late or going out when I shouldn’t”
Was the reality of his situation dawning upon him ?
Especially when he recalls, "Now I’m completely different. I’ll be the first to say I wasn’t the most professional when I was younger. I don’t think you could say that now. I really wanted to make it work. And that time in South America remains with him.
At CD Everton he made ten match day squads, however, they were all on the bench. Being away from England and realising his position, Lawrence came home. His agents at Refuel specialise in goalkeepers, they have ex Swans Lewis Price and Archie Matthews on their books. And we shouldn’t forget another ex Swan, Ben Hamer. The final link of course is Andy Fisher. You can read whatever you like on Lawrence Vigouroux’s transfer and how it came about so quickly, but don’t look too much further than this agency.
During his loan spell at Swindon Town, Lawrence was returned to Liverpool for the £50 fine incident. It was his attitude and behaviour over his formative playing years and the Chilean adventure which ensured Swansea City have the mature goalkeeper they signed yesterday. On his return to England, three years at Leyton Orient and a more focussed maturing footballer ensured a transfer into the Premier League to Burnley. At Orient he set a club clean sheet record and was player of the season twice. His stats for the last season he played (last season he made no appearances) are very impressive.
We canvassed a few Leyton Orient fans on their forum yesterday afternoon, and it seems they have no doubt as to Lawrence Vigouroux’s qualities. Look at the shots saved in those stats ! They are phenomenal. He seems a confident guy as well, and maybe, just maybe that’s another concern for the club and fans put to bed. The Swans are moving towards their goals for this summer pre season. But there remains much work to do.
Welcome to Swansea Lawrence Vigouroux, a paradise city, and the capital of Welsh football.
A big thank you to Nick Mashiter & The Independent for certain quotes within this feature.