Swansea City should look to Nottingham Forest to fill Matt Grimes void | OneFootball

Lewis O'Brien could be a replacement for Matt Grimes.

Thursday morning brought the news that no Swansea City fan wanted to hear, as the club confirmed that they had accepted an offer from Coventry City for Matt Grimes.

Grimes has been present in South Wales since 2015 when he signed for the Swans from Exeter City for a fee of £1.75 million. Since then, he has gone on to become a fan favourite and became club captain in 2019-20, at the age of just 24-years-old.

However, this January marks the likely end of his time at Swansea, as Coventry City have had an offer of around £3.5 million - £4 million accepted. In response to these rumours, Swansea City’s official X account released a statement confirming that Grimes has expressed intentions to seek a new challenge, and they have duly agreed a fee with the Sky Blues.

While this marks a sad conclusion to a wonderful chapter, Luke Williams' side must now move on and with just a few days left of the window, they must look to replace the midfielder as soon as possible.

Swansea City will miss Matt Grimes, but replacements must now be sought

A consistent performer year after year for Swansea, the 29-year-old will be a huge miss and his void could spell trouble in the coming months.

This season, he has played every single minute of league action and as is now expected of him, has been one of Williams' standout performers.

Akin to the head coaches' style of football, Grimes has completed the most passes in the league this season and has done it with an outstanding accuracy of 91%.

These aren't just routine passes either; his deliveries into the final third are the highest in the league, and he averages 1.21 chances created per game. This sees his expected assists stand at 4.20, with the poor finishing around him meaning he has only managed one actual assist all season.

Defensively, he also plays a key role, with his recovery stats ranking among the highest for midfielders.

These tallies are all for this campaign, but if you look over his time at Swansea you will see a remarkable pattern of consistency and losing that is going to be a huge blow.

Sitting 17th in the table, they will still have concerns about those below them, and as such, finding a suitable replacement for their star man is absolutely crucial to avoid further struggles in the coming months.

Lewis O'Brien could be a good stop-gap for Swansea City until the end of 2024-25

When a deal occurs this late in the transfer window, it often leaves clubs scrambling to find suitable replacements. Fortunately for Swansea, there is a ready-made option available in Lewis O’Brien, who is currently up for loan from Nottingham Forest.

This has seen interest arrive from other Championship clubs, with Football League World exclusively revealing that one of those clubs was Burnley. Outside of that, there are Hull City and Blackburn Rovers, who are also keen, with Preston North End the latest to join the race.

According to Nixon, Forest are asking interested clubs to cover a significant portion of O’Brien’s £40,000 weekly wages, but as the transfer window draws closer to its end, they may be forced to lower their demands.

This would suit Swansea and they should move swiftly and offer O'Brien an opportunity to move to South Wales to fill the boots of Grimes.

Looking at how he would fit into the squad, O’Brien appears well-suited to taking over Grimes' role, with Fbref ranking him as the ninth-most similar player to the departing captain, based on stats in the last 12 months.

While the 26-year-old has struggled to have an impact at Forest, previously in the Championship he performed superbly for Huddersfield Town, especially in the 2021-22 season as the Terriers made it all the way to the play-off final.

In that season, he ranked highly for multiple defensive metrics including duels won and recoveries and while not as comfortable on the ball as Grimes, can still certainly hold his own.

In more recent times, O'Brien has had stints with Middlesbrough and Los Angeles FC on a temporary basis, but after spending the best part of a year in the United States, the left-footer is most likely to head to an EFL club if any.

This deal makes sense for Swansea, and while O’Brien may not be a long-term solution, he can provide stability and buy the club valuable time to secure a permanent replacement in the summer.