Swansea City man takes aim at Michael Obafemi after Burnley move | OneFootball

Swansea City captain Matt Grimes has questioned Michael Obafemi’s impact for the club in the first half of the season, following the striker’s January move to Burnley.

Obafemi joined Swansea from Southampton in the summer of 2021, and enjoyed an impressive debut campaign with the Welsh club, scoring 12 goals and providing three assists in 32 Championship games.

That saw the Irishman become the subject of bids from Burnley last summer, and while no deal materialised, he was left out of Swansea’s matchday squad for some of their outings early in the season.

The striker then went on to score three times in 19 league games for the Swans this season, before getting his move to Burnley late in the January transfer window, joining on loan with the option to buy.

Now though, it seems that Grimes believes his side will be capable of coping without Obafemi, given what the striker did for them in the early part of the current campaign.

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Reflecting on the departure of Obafemi to Burnley, the Swansea captain was quoted by Wales Online as saying: “OK, you lose Oba who was one of our main goal scorers last season. But how much did he contribute this season? I’d argue very little.”

The Verdict

This does seem to highlight the mood there is in the Swansea squad about Obafemi’s departure.

It looks as though Obafemi’s head had been turned by that summer interest from Burnley, as evidenced by him being left out of games, and his lessened impact for Swansea in the first half of the campaign.

Now, the fact that Grimes has made this sort of comment about Obafemi, suggests he was not entirely happy with the way the striker conducted himself at Swansea in the last few months.

As a result, a parting of the ways in January may have been best for all concerned, given they will not have wanted a negative atmosphere around this, to have created a distraction behind the scenes at the club.