Swansea City: Luke Williams must look at 2015 January haul as inspiration | OneFootball

Swansea City made an effective triple signing in January 2015, with two of them still making a big impact in SA1

January is always a difficult month to do transfer business in, but it's fair to say that Swansea City enjoyed a successful 2015 mid-season transfer window in hindsight.

The Swans made three permanent signings, bringing in Kyle Naughton from Tottenham, Jack Cork from Southampton and Matt Grimes from Exeter City, three deals that have certainly stood the test of time.

Next month will mark ten years since that transfer window, and two of those three players are still at the club now, showing just how successful a window it was.

It's rare in football that every signing works out, but for Swansea City to strike gold with all three permanent deals that month shows that they certainly scouted well, and current boss Luke Williams would love a repeat of that successful business a decade later.

Luke Williams should look at Swansea City's January 2015 haul as inspiration

Swansea were in a different place a decade ago, and they'd go on to finish 8th in the Premier League during the 2014/15 campaign, but there's no reason why they can't recruit players who will become cult-heroes at the club in years to come this January.

Grimes was the first player to sign, with the then 19-year-old making the jump from League Two to the Premier League, and while he wasn't someone who was going to go straight into the first-team, it certainly proved a good deal.

Meanwhile, Naughton and Cork were signed from Premier League rivals as Garry Monk looked to bolster his side and take them to the next level, and they became important players over the next couple of seasons in SA1.

Cork would spend two-and-a-half seasons with Swansea, helping them to stay in the Premier League in the 2016/17 season, where he wore the captain's armband on a regular basis, and while his time at the club was a lot shorter than that of Grimes and Naughton, he remains a popular figure at the club.

Cork, whose father, Alan, managed Swansea in the late 90s, is widely regarded as one of the club's most underrated players during their Premier League days, proving excellent value for the £1.5million they paid for him, and it's perhaps no coincidence they were relegated a season after he left.

All three signings played an important role at the club, and that's exactly what Williams will be looking for in January. He'll want players to come in and make an impact, and it could make all the difference when it comes to pushing for a play-off place or the season fizzling out.

Swansea City are still reaping the rewards of January 2015 transfer business

Grimes was always signed with the future in mind, but not many people would have expected both him and Naughton to still be featuring for the club a decade on.

Naughton is a veteran now at the age of 36 and, while he's not a regular starter, he's still a very useful player to have around and can always be relied on to do the job.

He penned a new deal in the summer of 2024, showing that Williams is keen to keep him around despite his age, and it's fair to say that the ex-Tottenham man has become a cult-hero in SA1 now after his £5million switch from Spurs.

He certainly wouldn't have expected to be at Swansea for a decade, particularly as they were relegated from the Premier League in 2018, but relegation from the Championship has arguably proved a blessing in disguise for the defender, and it's certainly benefited Grimes.

Grimes' time at the club looked like it was coming to an end after failing to make a breakthrough with the first-team, and after struggling on loan in the Championship with Blackburn Rovers and Leeds United, the writing was on the wall.

He spent the 2017/18 season on loan with Northampton Town, who were relegated to League Two, and only Swansea's relegation from the Premier League and their subsequent lack of senior players saw them left with no option to use him.

The rest is history and Grimes has missed just a handful of games since, being club captain since the beginning of the 2019/20 season and cementing his status as one of the Championship's best midfielders.

His move was a slow burner, but the success he's enjoyed in recent seasons means that all three permanent signings from January 2015 have proved successful, and it should provide the blueprint for Williams when the window opens next month.