These are your Swansea City headlines on Tuesday, February 8.
Pato spat has cost Swans play-offs
Sky pundit Don Goodman says the Jamie Paterson saga has cost Swansea an outside shot at the play-offs this season.
Paterson missed a number of matches at the turn of the year due to a dispute over his contract extension at the club.
Swansea's form dipped without their main creator, and Goodman believes his absence has come at a price.
He also questioned what Swansea want to be as a football club.
"You could see what he brings to the party," Goodman said of Paterson's man-of-the-match performance against Blackburn Rovers on the latest EFL Podcast.
"One of Swansea's big problems and why they're not a little bit further up the table is the lack of goals.
"I think there are only four teams who have scored fewer than Swansea. Jamie Paterson has been at the heart of an awful lot of the goals they have scored in terms of creativity and sticking the ball in the back of the net himself.
"He's scored some brilliant goals this season, important goals. It's such a shame really. I look at Swansea and it wasn't that long ago they were in the Premier League. I look and I ask myself 'what do Swansea City Football Club want? What do they want to be?'
"Do they want to be a mid-Championship football club because the last two seasons under Steve Cooper they finished sixth and last season fourth. Possibly - not possibly, definitely - a massive overachievement with what they had at their disposal.
"But Steve Cooper left for a reason, and it brings me back to Jamie Paterson. Steve Cooper left because he didn't feel that he was going to get the relevant backing from the Swansea City board to progress that football club.
"Progression from sixth and then fourth is probably pushing for an automatic spot, isn't it?
"He didn't get the backing, and what's happened with Jamie Paterson smacks to me of a club working on a very, very restricted budget. When you've got one of your best players, if not the best player, and you're not prepared to give him a pay rise after what he has achieved so far this season, then I question that.
"When Russell Martin says he's been ill-advised, Jamie Paterson, I think he's probably right. His advisors should have got in that contract that when they agreed to activate the extension of the contract that there was an automatic pay rise. For me that's where they went wrong. What that means is, he's only getting an extension to that contract if he's doing well.
"I think both sides are at fault. But the crux of it is, Swansea have missed one of their best players for the last half a dozen games, and it's seen them slip down the table.
"Now, I think, I'm not being bold when I say I think they haven't any chance of making the play-offs, whereas prior to Jamie Paterson not playing they maybe had an outside chance."
Obafemi goes viral
Rovers match-winner Michael Obafemi's post-match interview was fairly run of the mill.
He spoke about being hungry for goals, his delight at scoring in front of the home fans and pushing on for the rest of the season.
But it was the outtakes of the interview conducted with the club's media team which has hit the headlines.
Obafemi and Jamie Paterson fail to keep it together under questioning from Sophie Davis, the club's social media manager.
You can watch the brilliant clip below.
The hilarious footage even got a shoutout on Greg James' BBC Radio 1 show on Tuesday morning.
Obafemi certainly appears to be a character on and off the pitch. More of the same!
Bony making an impact
Wilfried Bony may not have made his debut for new club NEC yet but he has sure made an impact already.
Free agent Bony penned a short-term deal with the Eredivisie last month after almost 18 months without a team.
Team-mate Lasse Schöne has been particularly impressed with the former Swansea striker since his arrival. Work permit issues have meant he has yet to make his bow but his effort in training hasn't gone unnoticed.
“Bony is still bursting with quality, "Schone said. "He is very strong, his assumptions are almost always right and he can jump very high. He towers over the defenders and often hangs in the air. It's like a plane.
“Bony looks really fit. If you also see what he still does in the weight room after the training sessions.
"You shouldn't get into a squat competition with him. I don't dare either. No kidding: he teaches the young players how to handle your body. That is also very important.
“Look, we just have a very young team.
“Those guys need players who talk and coach a lot. That's what Bony does. He's not walking around here because NEC happened to pass by and he couldn't do anything else. He is ambitious and really wants to help NEC move forward. With him there, we have five veterans and we now have a really nice mix.”
O'Neill on Swans
Potters boss Michael O'Neill is expecting a tough game against Martin's men tonight and already knows that his side might not see much of the ball.
He also thinks their new arrivals could have a say in matters but maintains his own side's carrot of getting back in the play-off mix should give them ample motivation.
“They had a new manager at the start of the season and there’s a difference in their style of play," he said.
"They’re very, very focused on possession of the ball. The possession statistics are consistently very high. We have to be take care of the ball ourselves because if you aren’t, then you struggle to get it back.
“We have to be very good without the ball too. We were very good without the ball at Swansea, played well and won the game. The objective is the same.
“They will be a little further developed than early in the season when Russell wasn’t long in the job and hadn’t had a huge amount of time to impose his style of play and thoughts on the players.
“They’ve signed some players who have added to their in that period as well.
“It’ll be a tough game. They’ve had a really good result against Blackburn who are doing very well in the league – but it’s a game we are a capable of winning and to put ourselves back into the play-off reckoning we have to make sure our home form is back to how it was earlier in the season.”
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