The early kick off in front of a sell out JackArmy at the Kassam Stadium tomorrow (12.30pm) will be the sixth consecutive game without a goal. If that happens again at the end of this fixture it will equal a record set under Jan Molby in the nineties.
News this afternoon is that Cyrus Christie has signed a deal with the Swans until the end of the season, his return seems to have delighted many Swansea City followers. Can Cyrus add goals ? Not many we think, he has scored goals whereever he has gone in league football, but his main stat is obviously defending. When last at the Swans he played twenty three games on loan, he scored three and assisted five. He had a good spell with the Swans, but salary was the big issue.
He eventually moved to Hull City who released him in the summer, thus he was until yesterday afternoon a free agent. That’s two signings this week in Christie - and Cullen extending his contract, but the futures of Ben Cabango and Harry Darling are not that clear.
Cabango & Darling latest here —> ⚽️ Disrespected
Away from there we are told Franco returned to training yesterday and is in the frame for inclusion come tomorrow afternoon. He is proving to be a very influential and important figure in the Swansea midfield. We are also seeing players target him nastily in tackles. On Saturday, a tackle which saw him subbed off and having treatment this week was right in that bracket. Cyrus Christie will travel to the Kassam Stadium with the squad, and is eligible as he has signed before the deadline today of twelve noon.
We reported on danger-man, Siriki Dembélé yesterday linking in previous reports on his possible move to Swansea City in the summer. We can assure you his fee and salary just wasn’t in line with the Swans expectations. That’s the most sympathetic we can be to the majority owners. It seems though he hasn’t hit the floor running. No goals or assists this season, and he missed out on the trip to Sunderland last weekend with injury, and could be out again tomorrow.
Click here —> Luke confirms again
U’s head coach, Des Buckingham has declared as of Thursday that left back Joe Bennett, midfielder Cameron Brannagan, and wingers Siriki Dembele, Kyle Edwards, Matt Phillips and Przemyslaw Placheta are all ‘potentially’ out. The latter isn’t surprising. Another bullet missed there. Mark Harris is fit, and is being touted as wanting to get one over on the Swans. On that Buckingham said, "We know we’ve got players out, and we know those players aren’t back until after the window, but we’ve already shown without those players, we can compete and take points in this league. Certainly at home, we’ve been able to demonstrate that a lot more in terms of returning points, and that’s what we’ll be looking to do on Saturday.”
Luke Williams pre match interview is below.
As is Liam Cullen.