Swansea City: 2014 Bolton Wanderers swoop is not a blueprint to repeat | OneFootball

Swansea City made the bizarre decision to sign David Ngog in January 2014, a move they won't want to repeat when the transfer window opens

Swansea City made some hugely impressive signings during their days as a Premier League side, with the likes of Michu, Wilfried Bony and Jonathan De Guzman all plying their trade in SA1 at some point, but there was also a fair share of shockers, too.

None more so than David Ngog, who joined from Championship side Bolton Wanderers in January 2014, which looked a strange move at the time, and it certainly proved to be one.

The 2013/14 season was proving to be a difficult one for Swansea as they battled relegation for large parts of the season and signing a Championship striker who hadn't been anything like prolific didn't do much to excite the Jack Army.

Ngog is certainly remembered as one of Swansea's weirdest signings, and one that failed to deliver too.

Signing David Ngog in January 2014 was a bizarre move by Swansea City

Swansea had the likes of Michu, Wilfried Bony and Alvaro Vasquez as their striker options during the 2013/14 season, but Laudrup saw fit to bring in Ngog, as well as Middlesbrough forward Marvin Emnes in January 2014.

While Emnes was a bit of a Swansea cult-hero after scoring the winning goal against Cardiff City on loan from Boro a couple of years earlier, both signings were underwhelming for a Premier League side who were playing in the Europa League, particularly Ngog.

Laudrup clearly wanted bodies in the building with Premier League survival and Europa League knockout stages to navigate, but Ngog's time at Swansea was nothing short of a disaster.

He made his debut for the club just days after signing, playing 13 minutes off the bench in a 2-0 defeat to West Ham, which proved to be Laudrup's final game as Swansea boss, before being sacked and replaced by Garry Monk.

This was far from ideal from Ngog's point of view, and he'd barely feature under Monk, making just two further appearances.

The Frenchman played 13 minutes in a 4-3 defeat away to former side Liverpool, a game where Monk rotated the squad as it was between Europa League Round of 32 ties with Napoli, before playing 17 minutes in a 1-0 loss against Chelsea.

In total, Ngog played just 42 minutes for the Swans, and failed to make the matchday squad on most occasions under Monk and, unsurprisingly, exited the club in the summer of 2014 after just three appearances, joining French side Stade Reims.

The Frenchman was certainly a panic buy, and it remains one of the strangest deals Swansea have sanctioned in recent history.

Swansea City will be looking to avoid a repeat of David Ngog deal in January

The January transfer window is shaping up to be a very important period for Swansea City, and Luke Williams will be hoping that any business he completes next month will be a lot more successful than Ngog was.

With a new ownership group at the helm at the Swansea.com Stadium, Swansea will look to make shrewd, value for money signings which can hopefully be turned into a big profit in the future, everything that Ngog wasn't.

Swansea have made some poor signings in recent times too, particularly on loan, but none came close to Ngog's signing in 2014, with the striker not being suitable for a side playing European football at the time.

It remains to be seen why Swansea thought signing a player with just three goals in 17 appearances in the Championship would help them survive Premier League relegation, and Ngog's signing isn't fondly remembered by supporters.