Fresh claim made as Swansea City battle Coventry City for ex-Celtic star | OneFootball

Swansea City face competition from Coventry City for Liel Abada's signature this January

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Swansea City have been linked with a move for former Celtic winger Liel Abada this January, but face competition from EFL Championship rivals Coventry City for his signature.

It hasn't been the season that many Swansea fans would have been hoping for following an exciting summer window.

The Welsh outfit were led into the new campaign under the watch of Alan Sheehan, but he was dismissed following a poor run of form and replaced by former Liverpool coach Vitor Matos.

Swansea's run of form and performances has seen an upturn since the Portuguese international's arrival, and supporters will be cautiously optimistic for their ambitions for the rest of the campaign.

The likes of Adam Idah, Zeidane Inoussa, Marko Stamenic, Ethan Galbraith, and Malick Yalcouye were all brought to the club this summer, as many tipped the Welsh outfit for an outside shot at the play-off places.

The top six remain some distance away from their current reach, but having recently been linked with former Celtic winger Liel Abada, head coach Matos is looking to stamp his authority on the club, but faces strong competition for his signature from Coventry City.

Football League World's Swansea fan pundit, Will, has reacted to the news of a potential deal for Abada amid rumoured interest from Coventry, too, and whether they think the winger would be a good addition to the squad.

Will said, "We're only a couple of days into the new year, and already we're getting a lot of transfer speculation and rumours, and to be honest with you, I absolutely love it."I really, really love it when the transfer window opens just to see all the news, and you know potential incomings and outgoings of clubs."I've seen that we were linked with Abada, I think, I want to say last season or maybe the season before, someone will have to correct me on that if I'm wrong, so please don't quote me on that, but one thing I will say is, with the Swans at the minute, I think a lot of fans will agree with me that our weakest areas currently are probably out wide."I think the lack of goals and just overall goal threat we have from our wide areas at the minute is quite alarming."Don't get me wrong, I do think Eom has improved significantly under Matos. He almost looks like he's toughened up, to be honest with you. He looks a lot tougher than he did since joining."Ronald always works hard. I can't fault him for that. You know, he's a real dog. But the end product has always been a bit of an issue. At the start of the season, he started scoring goals, and I thought, okay, here we go, but that's fallen away."Inoussa is very hit or miss. He's very sluggish. Almost like he's made of glass as well. One kick, and he's on the floor for ages, and it's almost like, right, you kick him, and he doesn't want to, he can't do anything for the rest of the game. But then he'll have one moment of magic where he'll beat two or three players."We need a winger to come in and be able to contribute goals and assists, more specifically, goals. For me, and obviously, we've also been linked with Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, as well as obviously Abada, and I see both of those players effectively in their careers, where they've gone, they have scored goals."You look at, more specifically, when Rak-Sakyi was at Charlton, is when I was first made aware of him. He scored quite a few goals in League One, so naturally, the next step-up would be the Championship. Went to Sheffield United, managed to get a good couple of goals there before injury."Obviously, with Abada, I'm not sure where he was before Celtic, but I'm fairly aware that he did score a couple of goals there. Then he scored a good number of goals for a winger at Celtic. My only issue there is, obviously, no disrespect to the Scottish League, but obviously, it's very hit or miss. You could bring someone in who's obviously scoring all the time there, and then they just, you don't see them score."You look at Kyogo, for instance, with Birmingham. I don't think he has scored all season. Adam Idah with us, obviously, you know, both talented players in their own right."But maybe the Scottish League isn't the best sort of, how do I put this, the best thing to sort of judge a player on as such. But from what I've seen, in terms of the player, he could add something different to us, and I'd be open to him coming in. If he can bring goals, then fantastic, because that is what we need."Obviously, it's still very early on, but I think it's very clear that Manuel Benson is going to go back to Burnley. It just hasn't worked out, unfortunately. I believe he's deleted all of his Swansea-related posts from his Instagram and his social media. So I think that speaks volumes about where he's going to end up. So I think if he goes, we've got maybe one or two loan slots left at the club.

Vitor Matos looks to stamp his authority on the Swansea City side amid rumoured interest in Liel Abada

Matos has yet to make any additions to the Swansea side he inherited, and following a relatively expensive summer, the likelihood that the Portuguese head coach will be afforded a similar budget to his predecessor is unlikely.

As well as Abada, Swansea have also been linked with Crystal Palace's Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, who is currently out on loan in Turkey with Rizespor.

Wide attacking options are clearly a priority for Matos, with neither Ji-Sung Eom, Inoussa, Ronald, nor Benson having able to make the desired impact in South Wales this campaign.

Abada, 24, is currently contracted to MLS side Charlotte and has been made available for a move this winter, with the new MLS season not kicking off until March.