Swansea’s striker shortage could be solved by 35-year-old free agent: Opinion | OneFootball

Swansea City head coach Russell Martin has cut a frustrated figure this week following the closure of the January transfer window – a month in which he was not able to bring in any fresh faces to his squad.

With Fin Stevens and Armstrong Oko-Flex sent back to Brentford and West Ham United respectively following underwhelming loan deals and out of favour striker Michael Obafemi packed off to Burnley having downed tools since his summer move to the Clarets fell through, there was room for incomings in Martin’s squad before Tuesday’s 11pm deadline.

And yet when the window slammed shut, Martin’s squad was left significantly weaker with a move for West Brom’s Karlan Grant, which would have only sorted out one position depth-wise, falling through thanks to a domino effect which started with Chelsea not processing Omari Hutchinson’s move to The Hawthorns.

It has left Martin seriously short of numbers up-front – Joel Piroe is his main man and Liam Cullen is deputising, and his five goals in the last seven league outings suggests he is a viable back-up to the Dutchman.

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One more body though would have clearly been ideal, but now it is only free agents that can be explored – there isn’t too many of those available at this stage of the campaign.

A player who could be of interest though should Martin look into it is Lewis Grabban, who knows how to score goals at Championship level when given the service.

The veteran striker has played in the second tier for eight different clubs and has had varying degrees of success, but his latest stint with Nottingham Forest, which lasted four years, was a particularly good time for his career.

Grabban hit double figures in three of his four seasons at the City Ground, with 12 league goals struck in 32 outings in the 2021-22 season as Forest won promotion to the Premier League – he played a big part in their revival but didn’t make it to Wembley through injury.

He spent a brief time in Saudi Arabia’s second tier with Al-Ahli following the expiration of his Forest contract, but he netted just once in five appearances before departing the Middle East.

At 35 years of age now, Grabban is no spring chicken and a couple of niggling injuries have crept into his game, but that is all part of ageing as a player and coming to your latter years.

As a short-term solution and to add depth, Grabban would be a decent option for Swansea until the end of the 2022-23 campaign, and following his stint overseas he will surely accept reasonable terms to do a job for a few months.

If that doesn’t happen, then Martin is left with just Piroe and Cullen as striker options until May, and if one of those goes down with an injury with there is going to be a real nightmare.