Joe Allen – his fitness is key for Swansea City

Joe Allen’s name will always be carved in the history books at Swansea City as one of the players who played a huge part in the Swans rise into the Premier League, a status that they achieved back in 2011.

Allen played 150 games for the Swans between his debut in 2007 and his final game against Liverpool in May 2012.  Ironically, his next league game was for Liverpool after he followed Brendan Rodgers to Anfield in a £15m deal making 130 appearances over 4 years at Anfield before his time came to an end with a £13m move to Stoke.

Six further years followed in the Potteries and over 220 games before he returned to South Wales back in the summer with his career moving full circle in the final stages of it.

His return to SA1 has been blighted though by injury and whilst he did manage to regain fitness to represent Wales at the World Cup it is league football that Swans fans want to see him playing with just nine league appearances under his belt since his return here.

Allen was a second half substitute at the weekend as the Swans marked their own return to league action with a defeat to Norwich but he is now very much in the frame for selection this weekend when we head to Coventry looking for a first league win in seven.

Allen’s fitness could very much be key for the Swans this season with creativity lacking in many parts of our midfield who can dominate games in terms of possession but very rarely in terms of taking complete control of the game to turn that possession into the points that we all crave.

Allen himself knows he wants to make a bigger impact here in Swansea following his return and not just play a small part of a team which would make the move last summer look like glorified romanticism rather than a move to add value to the team and results.

“I’m looking forward to having a much bigger impact on the second half of the season,” Allen told the club’s official website.

“It’s been great to get back among the swing of things here and great to be back amongst the boys.

“Training has been great all week, which has been good.  It’s been a long spell for me now without regular training or game time so the aim for me now is to be fully match fit, get more minutes and get out on the pitch and help the team get results.

“The timing of the games has fallen well for me – normally at this time it’s the complete opposite – so I’ve been lucky in a way because I’ll have a better chance to get the training in which I desperately need and it means I won’t miss out on too much game time hopefully.”