Phil SumblerJay Fulton is a player seemingly coming in from the cold. Three recent substitute appearances have been unexpected to say the least after the midfielder’s Swansea future looked to be over after more than three months without a sniff of first team action.
Links with Nottingham Forest, Barnsley and Blackpool have so far come to nothing and his recent appearances from the bench suggest that he could indeed have a longer future here than we probably imagined and that could leave him in line for a start this weekend with the chance increasing due to the suspension of Flynn Downes after his sending off against QPR on Tuesday evening.
Russell Martin confirmed yesterday that Olivier Ntcham would be available for selection against Hull after missing out on Tuesday evening through injury
“He’ll be fine for Saturday,” Martin told Wales Online after the draw at QPR.
“It was more of a precaution than anything on Saturday. He wasn’t quite ready for today.”
It was the subject though of Fulton that attracted interest when the Swans boss spoke about his recent substitute appearances and Martin was clear in his praise not just for his recent games but for the way he has handled himself through his absence from the side.
“Jay’s done great. We have options, it’s no problem,” he said.
“Flynn’s a loss for us because he’s been incredible, on and off the pitch.
“Jay has been really good when he’s come on in the last couple of games.
“Whether you’re in the squad or out of it, whether you’re playing or not, you get all of the detail, you don’t get left out, you’re not training on your own.
“You get every bit of detail and every chance so that when you come into the team, you know what’s expected of you and you have clarity in your role. Jay has that, and Jay is a fantastic professional.”
Martin finished by hinting at a potential change of shape for the visit to Hull.
“We’ll have to see what we go with, we have options. We can maybe change the shape a little bit, but if he has to play there he’ll be totally fine.”
If Fulton does get a start on Saturday it will cap a pretty big turnaround from the manager to include him back in his plans and also give a pretty good hint that we are looking to keep hold of him post the Monday 11pm deadline.
