Inflated prices at home force Swans bass to go overseas.
Check in to Crystal Palace vs Swansea City
Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup has said that inflated prices for players in England forced him to dip into the Spanish market for a striker again this summer, a move that saw him bag Alvaro Vazquez, Sky Sports reports.
Laudrup signed Spain U-21 international Vazquez on a season long loan from Getafe, having already raided his former stomping ground for Jose Canas, Jordi Amat and Alejandro Pozuelo.
The Danish boss insisted that he had not originally intended to bring so many player from La Liga to the club, but the value for money they were able to take advantage of, having previously spent just £2m on last season’s top scorer, Michu – meant that another venture into the Spanish market was necessary.
“It’s not that I always want Spanish players, but again it’s about the combination of the quality and what you have to pay,” said Laudrup.
“I think it’s relevant and the chairman thinks that as well – and he’s right. That’s how it is.
“I said for a long time we needed one more striker, one with different characteristics from the ones we’ve got already in Bony and Michu.
“We needed a player who can give us a little more depth in our squad, someone to make the runs in behind the defence.
“Alvaro will give us the movements we need in some games or part of the game and all the players we were talking to had those characteristics.
“They were different ages and different nationalities but they had all those characteristics because that’s what we were lacking in.
“We were looking into four or five different players but for one reason or another one or two were not possible, and in the end you come down to the same thing – value for money.”
Swansea have spent heavily this summer too, bringing in the likes of Wilfried Bony and Jonjo Shelvey for big money fees.