As Good As Any New Signing

It has been a story that has rumbled on throughout the transfer window with Llorente tipped to join up with former manager Antonio Conte as backup to Diego Costa at Stamford Bridge.

Llorente has scored eight goals since he arrived at the club during the summer in a side that has struggled for large parts of the season. It is also seven in his last ten Premier League appearances which would have made any departure difficult to cover in a window where we know that the better players tend not to be available. Or at least not a price that would have been in our range.

Even boss Paul Clement was not completely convinced that we could have held onto the striker, admitting that interest from a club like Chelsea can be hard for any player to ignore.

“I was not always sure we would keep Fernando, no,” he said.

“But after that game at Liverpool he felt good, he felt happy. We are happy with him and when both parties are happy it makes sense for people to stay where they are.

“It can put questions in a player’s mind when you have clubs like Chelsea being linked with you, but in my conversations with him he has been happy here, and he has been happy with how he has seen the team is starting to play. He is very important to us.”

Llorente will once again lead the Swansea line this evening when Southampton arrive at the Liberty with us looking to build on that famous win at Liverpool – a game where Llorente scored twice.

Let’s hope that Chelsea’s loss is our gain

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