Swansea City

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Ashley Williams says his former club Swansea City's capture of Brazilian winger Ronald is "positive news".

The 22-year-old officially sealed a move from Gremio Anapolis to the Swans on Monday afternoon to become Luke Williams' first signing as boss.

“A bit of good news today," ex-Swansea captain Williams said during BBC Match of the Day's coverage of Blackburn Rovers v Wrexham.

"A little bit of Brazilian flair. I’ve got to be honest, I don’t know too much about him yet, but we’ll see.

“I think it’s a welcome signing, we needed a few bodies in the door.

"Happy to see some positive news."

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Swansea City head coach Luke Williams says he is not surprised by speculation over the future of Jerry Yates.

Yates is Swansea’s leading scorer this season, having scored seven goals in 31 appearances – 20 of which have been starts – since he joined from Blackpool in a deal worth about £3m last summer.

But the 27-year-old has started only two of Swansea’s nine league games since Michael Duff was sacked in early December.

Blackburn Rovers have been touted as potential suitors for the striker as Thursday’s transfer deadline approaches.

When asked about suggestions Yates could move on, Williams said: “It’s normal, particularly as number nines are of a premium.

“Everyone is always interested in another striker and [he is] a player who’s played in the division and people know him.

“I am not surprised, but at the moment it’s just speculation. It comes from somewhere I am sure, but at the moment it’s nothing more serious than that.”

Jamal Lowe is out for the next few weeks with a knee injury, leaving Yates, Liam Cullen and the relatively untried Mykola Kuharevich as Swansea’s only centre-forward options.

Asked if the Welsh club could afford Yates, Williams added: “I think it depends. There’s so much work going on looking at players and potentially something falls in our lap and it changes the landscape.

“We are focusing on trying to strengthen the squad.”

Swansea have unveiled Brazilian winger Ronald as their first January signing, with Williams saying they “got really close” on two other potential recruits.

“I cannot fault the level of work that has gone into trying to get the right players and to try to persuade these players that this is where their future lies,” he added.

“We have very narrowly missed out on a couple of players. We could be sitting here with three players. That work hasn’t stopped.

“The window is coming to an end, but there’s always more activity at the end. Everyone is waiting. So let’s see if we can make right the deals.”

Swansea have sent under-21 defender Lincoln McFayden on loan to Cymru Premier side Penybont for the rest of the season.

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Head coach Luke Williams says he wrongly set up his Swansea City team to be “too aggressive” resulting in a “horrible” 5-0 defeat at Bournemouth.

Swansea conceded all five goals in the first half of their FA Cup fourth-round tie at the Vitality Stadium.

Defeat means they only have their Championship campaign to focus on this season and next face a trip to league leaders Leicester City on Tuesday.

“I set the team up too aggressive and they exploited the space on the turnover,” said Williams.

“They pressed us very well and we didn’t cope with that at all and they steamrolled us, the game was over after 15 minutes.

“It’s a horrible feeling when you feel like you’ve let so many people down. Let’s try to make sure the message is don’t give up.

“I knew the fixtures approaching when I came here, so we have to try to find a way to help the players compete in these games, that’s my job. Let’s try to find a way that we can effectively defend but we have to try to get people to attack and score as well."

Williams paid tribute to the travelling Swans supporters for continuing to back the team even after such a heavy defeat.

“They’re incredible. I left an unbelievable club (Notts County) in a brilliant position because I think this is a club that’s unbelievable, so we owe them lot,” added Williams.

“We lost 5-0, it's horrible and it was difficult enough for the team to get here so imagine the travelling they’ve done and they’re still there clapping the team and myself.

“Certain players look like they have the confidence in themselves even though they were playing against Premier League players and other players looked more anxious, more nervous, that’s interesting for me to learn that and there were a few surprises”.

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Defender Nathanael Ogbeta is set to join League One side Bolton Wanderers on loan.

Ogbeta, 22, has played just three games since joining Swansea in January 2022 from Shrewsbury Town and is out of contract at the end of this season.

Last season he joined another League One team, Peterborough, on loan and made 17 appearances, scoring one goal.

When asked after last night’s FA Cup defeat to Bournemouth if a move to Bolton is happening, Swans head coach Luke Williams said: “I believe so."

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Bournemouth will not be able to play a weakened team in the FA Cup such is their quality – according to Swansea head coach Luke Williams.

Williams' Championship squad travel to play their fourth-round tie against a Cherries side who sit 12th in the Premier League table and have won seven of their last eight games in all competitions.

“They’re incredible. Brilliant,” said Williams.

“If you want to progress, at some point you’re going to have to meet very tough opposition.

“If they’re playing against top six opposition they need to probably be at full strength but I think outside of that they can’t really put a weak team out, they have enough good players, they know what they’re doing.

“Maybe one or two extremely key players maybe rested so that can make a difference.

“[Dominic] Solanke is incredible, what a player. He looks tired so maybe he should be rested!

“I was here before [as Swansea assistant manager] when we went to Bournemouth in the league and we had a heavy defeat, we started actually really well but they made some good changes. Many of their players are the same.

“Guys like [Antoine] Semenyo I worked with when he was a very young player at Bristol City, you knew he was going to the top level even when he was very young. They have a very good group of players.

“If we can play anywhere near the level we played at in the second half [against Southampton] then we should be really optimistic, but we have to play that type of football for longer periods.”

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Swansea City defender Nathan Tjoe-A-On has joined Dutch top flight side SC Herenveen on loan until the end of the season.

Tjoe-A-On, 22, has yet to play for the Swans since joining on a three year deal from another Eredivise team, Excelsior, in August 2023.

He signed for the Championship club for a fee believed to be in the region of £300,000.

In a statement, Swansea City says the left-back is looking “to get valuable game time under his belt and continue his development”.

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Swansea City fans may be relieved to hear that tonight’s fourth round FA Cup tie at Bournemouth will see VAR in operation – five years after it’s absence arguably cost them a semi-final spot.

The Swans game away to Premier League opposition will have video assistant reviews in operation, as is standard for games in the top-flight.

Its controversial absence for Graham Potter’s side of 2019, who took on Manchester City in the quarter-finals at the Liberty Stadium, is still a sore point for many Swans supporters.

Swansea shocked Pep Guardiola’s men by taking a 2-0 lead but City – at the time chasing a quadruple – came back to win 3-2, with their equaliser a contentious penalty and the late winner from Sergio Aguero seemingly offside. It was the only quarter-final tie not to have VAR in use that night.

"I'm sorry it was offside," Guardiola said afterwards of the winner. "I don't understand why VAR is not used in this competition at this stage. Hopefully, next season this won't happen."

On the same subject, tonight’s referee is Darren England who was at the centre of the VAR mix-up in Liverpool’s Premier League game with Tottenham earlier this season – and was also in the middle during last weekend’s game between Brentford and Nottingham Forest where VAR was unable to intervene when Bees striker Ivan Toney moved the ball to score from a free-kick.