Swansea City would love to replicate Chelsea deal which led to promotion | OneFootball

Swansea City signed Scott Sinclair from Chelsea in the summer of 2010 and he fired the club to Premier League promotion

Now 36, Scott Sinclair has just been released by Bristol Rovers as his career winds down after being relegated to the fourth tier of English football.

However, 15 years ago this summer, Sinclair got his big break when he left Chelsea for Championship side Swansea City, a deal which cost the Swans an initial fee of £500,000 with the possibility of breaking the £1million mark in add-ons, a considerable sum of money for the club at the time.

It was a deal which proved to be worth every penny, and Sinclair would go on and write his name into Swansea City folklore in the two years he spent in South Wales.

Having played for Chelsea and been on loan at Premier League side Wigan Athletic prior to his move to Swansea, Sinclair was a real coup for Swansea, and, given the impact he had, it's a deal the club should be looking to use as inspiration this summer ahead of Alan Sheehan's first full season in charge.

Swansea City should be looking to replicate Scott Sinclair, Chelsea deal

Swansea had narrowly missed out on the Championship play-offs in their first two seasons in the second tier, and Sinclair was brought in to take the club to the next level.

He certainly did that, and it didn't take long for him to show his quality, scoring four Championship goals between the end of August and end of September, with a hat-trick against Peterborough United in the League Cup thrown in for good measure too.

Another 15 Championship goals followed for Sinclair between the end of September and the end of the 2010/11 campaign, helping his side to a third-place finish, and the ex-Chelsea man wasn't done there.

After a 3-1 win against Nottingham Forest in the play-off semi-final, Swansea took on Reading at Wembley with a place in the Premier League at stake.

The Championship play-off final is usually a cagey affair with neither side wanting to make mistakes, but the game between the Swans and the Royals saw the Welsh side come out on top in a six-goal thriller, with Sinclair bagging a hat-trick in a 4-2 win to take his side to the top-flight and to take his tally to 27 goals for the season.

Sinclair had no problems making the step-up to the Premier League either, and scored eight times and registered four assists as Swansea defied the odds to finish 11th.

Given his status as a young English player and his form over the past two seasons, it was no surprise to see bigger clubs chasing Sinclair, and after a goal for Swansea on the opening day of the 2012/13 season against QPR, he departed for Manchester City in a deal worth £8million.

Sinclair was the perfect signing for Swansea City. He won them promotion, performed well in the Premier League, then was sold for a huge profit, a move that benefited all parties.

While signing a player of Sinclair's quality would inevitably cost significantly more than £500,000 nowadays, Swansea should be using his arrival from Chelsea 15 years ago as the blueprint to success this summer.

Scott Sinclair may wish he had stayed at Swansea City for longer

While a move to Premier League champions Manchester City would have been hard to turn down, Sinclair struggled for playing time at the Etihad Stadium, making just 19 appearances and failing to score or assist, while Swansea went from strength-to-strength under Michael Laudrup.

Instead, Sinclair spent time at Aston Villa and West Brom before linking up with former Swansea boss Rodgers at Celtic, where he enjoyed huge success.

Sinclair was part of a Celtic side that ran riot in Scotland, and his 62 goals and 34 assists in 167 appearances for the Bhoys ensured he was a real fans' favourite at Celtic Park prior to his departure for Preston in 2020.

Two years at Deepdale followed, before returning to boyhood club Bristol Rovers in 2022, and now 36, Sinclair is without a club, and it remains to be seen what the future holds.

Whatever happens, Sinclair will be remembered as the man who made all the difference when it came to Swansea winning promotion, and he may well wonder what would have happened had he not left for City in 2012.