Swansea City paid the price after doubling down on past transfer mistake: View | OneFootball

Swansea City paid the price after doubling down on past transfer mistake: View | OneFootball

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·20 September 2024

Swansea City paid the price after doubling down on past transfer mistake: View

Article image:Swansea City paid the price after doubling down on past transfer mistake: View

Swansea City signed Dwight Tiendalli on two separate occasions, but he failed to live up to expectations

Swansea City saw plenty of players come through the Swansea.com Stadium doors during their days as a Premier League club, some enjoying far more success than others.


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It's easy to remember the likes of Wilfried Bony, Michu, Jonathan De Guzman, Michel Vorm and co, but there were also a fair share of flops who were brought into the club.

One of these players who falls into the latter category is Dutch international defender Dwight Tiendalli, who joined the club as a free agent during the 2012/13 season after being released by FC Twente.

Tiendalli was brought in as cover for Neil Taylor who had broken his ankle at the beginning of that campaign, and it's fair to say that the Dutchman didn't enjoy the best of times in south Wales, but strangely had two spells at the club.

Signing Dwight Tiendalli twice was a strange move by Swansea City

Article image:Swansea City paid the price after doubling down on past transfer mistake: View

With the transfer window closed, Tiendalli joined Swansea City as a free agent in September 2012 until the end of the season, and he failed to impress, being a solid enough option as squad depth but not good enough to be a regular in the Premier League, and struggled for minutes.

In total, Tiendalli played just 21 times, starting just 11 times in the Premier League, usually when Ben Davies was rested, and was released at the end of the season when his contract expired.

That looked like the end of the Dutchman's time in south Wales, and he was back to being a free agent, but eyebrows were raised in August 2013 when it was announced that he would actually be returning, this time signing a three-year deal.

His performances hadn't warranted a three-year deal, and it was a decision which Swansea would come to regret.

He made 19 appearances during the 2013/14 season, just 10 of those in the league, and just two after Garry Monk took over in February 2014, and things would get worse for him the following season.

He played just six games, starting just one Premier League game, a 5-0 loss to Chelsea, and it was clear that he didn't feature in Monk's plans, struggling to make the matchday squad on a regular basis.

Tiendalli was loaned to Middlesbrough in March 2015 in the search of regular game time, but he certainly didn't get that there, playing just twice for the side chasing promotion from the Championship.

The Dutchman had another year left on his deal at Swansea, but after his struggles for playing time, he departed in the summer of 2015 when his contract was cancelled, and the decision to give him a three-year deal proved a puzzling one.

Article image:Swansea City paid the price after doubling down on past transfer mistake: View

Tiendalli was without a club for two years after leaving Swansea, only adding more scrutiny to their decision to give him a three-year deal in the summer of 2013, but he signed for Oxford United on a one-year deal in the summer of 2017.

After two years out of the game, the defender understandably struggled to get up to speed, and his time at the Kassam Stadium was a pretty uneventful one, playing just 18 games in all competitions, before failing to make a matchday squad from February onwards under Karl Robinson.

That brought down the curtain on Tiendalli's career, and after enjoying success in his homeland, it's fair to say that the two-cap Dutch international struggled to adapt to English football.

The defender probably wasn't quite good enough to play in the Premier League, and Swansea's decision to re-sign him after releasing him in the summer of 2013 was a strange move which certainly didn't pay off.

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