As much as people are now drawing their own conclusions on Swansea City head coach, Alan Sheehan many fans around the country are also making their own minds up about those players they see each week. Our first review is twenty four year old Florian Bianchini, the Swansea City forward player currently on loan at Portsmouth.

Fans forums have always been a good way of gauging how a player is being received at a club. Especially when there are few if any who want them to fail. We had a look at ‘The Pompey Chimes’ forum to gauge where Bianchini sits with them at the ten game point of the season. There were a few posts referring to him having ‘something’ but overall it seems he hasn’t gone down that well at Fratton Park. It’s a shame because we felt there would be less pressure on him at Portsmouth and maybe some room to reflect and learn on the south coast.

Unfortunately and it seems evident when we have spoken to Pompey fans they think he is trying too hard. Some believe he has the ability and it’s early days, he has the physicality and pace but we live in a very demanding football environment. If you are going to charge football fans £33 for an adult ticket including a bizarre £3 booking fee, expect customers to point out failings.

In his third game of the season for Pompey against Norwich City Bianchini supplied his only assist so far this season. He has now played in seven Championship games and one EFL Cup match. No goals have been registered and unfortunately the fans at Fratton Park are not happy with him overall.

His performances are pretty similar to those he had for Swansea last term, one goal in eleven back then and we are scratching around to recall any assists at all. The money spent on him by the Swans was around two million (€2.3M) they will still be dipping into their coffers to pay that off. These are the deals that cost clubs dearly, unearthed by then Sporting Director, Paul Watson it’s unlikely the Swans will have paid off SK Bastia any time soon. We hear 2028. The Ligue 2 team will no doubt have thought they had struck gold when Bianchini left. Especially as they are looking hopeless this campaign.

It’s a sign of the times, and pretty much as Alan Sheehan will find out at the end of this weeks two home games against beatable opposition. Hero to Zero is a very quick journey, a couple of goals for Bianchini would be as valuable to him as Sheehan getting six points this week. Unfortunately it’s hard to see either happening.

But we can hope can’t we ?

⚽️ Thanks to The Pompey Chimes

Photograph, previously licensed from Reuters