Swansea City’s Yousef Salech 2.0? Cardiff City trick isn’t being repeated | OneFootball

Leo Walta hasn't hit the ground running in the Championship, unlike his former teammate, who joined Swansea's rivals

One of the more intriguing signings of the January transfer window saw Leo Walta make the switch to Swansea City from Swedish club Sirius.

The 22-year-old attacking midfielder joined on an initial loan deal with the expectation being that the move would be made permanent in the summer, "subject to conditions."

It was intriguing, as just 12 months earlier, Walta's teammate at Sirius also moved from Sweden to South Wales, when Cardiff City dropped between £3 million and £4 million on Danish striker Yousef Salech.

Both were great goal scorers in the Allsvenskan. In the 2024 campaign, Salech scored 11 times. Walta would then exceed that tally in the 2025 season, scoring 16 times from attacking midfield.

So, given how Salech managed to translate that scoring nous from the Swedish top-flight over to England, netting eight times in 20 games despite Cardiff's relegation to League One, many felt that Walta would follow suit, and perhaps even exceed the scoring numbers posted by his former teammate at the Bluebirds' rivals.

Leo Walta has been slightly disappointing at Swansea City so far

Unfortunately, in the couple of months since Walta made the move to Swansea, there hasn't been much indication that he'd be matching the expectations set by Salech, let alone exceeding them.

The Finnish international hasn't been able to carve out a regular spot in Vitor Matos' side, despite being a part of every Championship squad since making the move on deadline day.

He featured off the bench in his first three second-tier games, and was then given an opportunity from the off against Preston North End in front of co-owner Snoop Dogg. That game saw him subbed off at half-time, though, with the Swans a goal behind.

Since then, it's been three games in four where he has been unused from the bench, with his only appearance coming in the form of an eight-minute cameo in the Welsh derby defeat against Wrexham at the Stok cae Ras.

Overall, he's failed to attribute a goal or an assist in 123 minutes of Championship football in what has been a disappointing opening couple of months at his new club, made even worse by knowing that Swansea's bitter rivals, Cardiff, were able to profit from a goal scorer from Sirius just a year earlier.

Leo Walta shouldn't be written off just yet at Swansea City

Soccer Football - UEFA Nations League - Group F - Finland v England - Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland - October 13, 2024 Finland's Arttu Hoskonen celebrates scoring their first goal with Leo Walta Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith

It's worth noting, though, that Salech's first couple of months were also spent riding the bench at the Cardiff City Stadium last year. The Dane wouldn't earn his first league start until the middle of February, in what was his seventh Championship appearance.

The main difference between the two is that Salech had netted twice off the bench to earn those starting minutes, while Walta's bench cameos have seemingly shown Vitor Matos that he isn't worthy of starting games just yet.

But, to write him off because he hasn't adjusted to the Championship in the way that Salech did would be madness. Cardiff needed attacking reinforcement last January to help their bid for survival, while Walta's arrival helped bolster Swansea's midfield department, so starts were never guaranteed.

With Swansea's season coming to a close in terms of competitiveness, as it won't be long before they become mathematically safe and mathematically unable to finish in the top six, there'll be a few games that will matter less come the end of April, and you'd imagine that Walta would be afforded opportunities in those to make more of an impact, which is hard to do off the bench at times as a midfielder.

At just 22, there is a lot of potential for the Finnish international to improve and be a serviceable attacking midfielder next season for Vitor Matos. With a full pre-season and a little more time to get acclimatised to South Wales, he'll be in a better position to make his mark.