Swansea City got it massively wrong with £16.5m Hull City transfer - The Tigers must still be laughing | OneFootball

Sam Clucas is the third-most expensive player in the Swans' history

Sam Clucas' brief but expensive stint at Swansea City stands as one of their most costly transfer mistakes in recent history, with Hull City emerging as the clear winners.

The Tigers signing Clucas from Chesterfield in 2015 for a reported £1.3m seemed shrewd business from the outset, as the then-24-year-old had scored 12 goals in 49 appearances for the Spireites across all competitions the previous season.

It was reported by Sky Sports that the Derbyshire outfit's then-League One rivals, Scunthorpe and Wigan, both submitted offers for Clucas — yet neither could come close to his valuation.

Hull had just been relegated from the Premier League and apparently first proposed the move for the left-sided player after playing a pre-season friendly at Chesterfield.

Hull City rejected offers from Swansea City and Burnley before cashing in on Sam Clucas

There's no denying thatHullgot excellent value from Sam Clucas during his two seasons at the formerly-named KCOM Stadium, with the versatile midfielder making 96 appearances and scoring nine goals while helping the club achieve promotion to the top-flight in his first year.

Swansea City made their move in August 2017 after Clucas featured in all but one match during Hull's Premier League campaign, and was their supposed replacement for Gylfi Sigurdsson after he moved to Everton for £45m. Clucas, of course, had big boots to fill in South Wales - and to say he fell short of filling them would be something of an understatement.

The Tigers, who reportedly dismissed Burnley's approach first, rejected an initial £12m bid from the Swans before eventually accepting a deal worth up to £16.5m, that also saw left-back Stephen Kingsley move to Yorkshire.

This represented a staggering return of over 1,200% on Hull's original investment, with Chesterfield also benefiting through a sell-on clause that netted them approximately £760k.

Sam Clucas was a desperate gamble by Swansea City that horribly backfired

As previously mentioned, Swansea's pursuit of Clucas was seemingly driven by desperation following Sigurdsson's departure to Everton, who just contributed to 23 league goals before going to Merseyside.

Manager Paul Clement needed to fill the obvious goalscoring and creative void left by the Iceland international, and Clucas appeared to offer the versatility and experience to justify the hefty price tag.

However, the 17/18 season proved to be a nightmare for both Clucas and Swansea. Despite showing glimpses of his quality — most notably with a brace against Arsenal in a 3-1 win, Clucas managed just 29 Premier League appearances and three goals.

Somewhat surprisingly, after Clement was replaced by Carlos Carvalhal, the Portuguese boss revealed he was shocked to find out that Clucas had struggled at the club before he took over.

"If he was bad at the start of the season that is the surprise, because he is a player I wanted," Carvalhal said, also admitting he tried to sign Clucas when manager of Sheffield Wednesday.

By the summer of 2018 though, Carvalhal left the club after being relegated and Clucas was sold for around £6m to Stoke City on deadline day — less than half what Swansea had paid for him.

The man who signed him, Gary Rowett, praised the signing as "a great deal for us as a football club, especially when you take unto account the sum of money he moved for just a year ago,".

"Sam boasts real Premier League quality, and the versatility that he offers will be hugely important to us," Rowett added.

Ultimately, Hull City may indeed still be laughing at how perfectly their £1.3m gamble paid off at Swansea's expense, who only saw a season out of the third-most expensive player in their club's history.