Why Swansea City should try and win the race for Sydney van Hooijdonk
According to a report from Sky Sports (h/t Nottinghamshire Live), Swansea City are among a trio of Championship clubs interested in signing Sydney van Hooijdonk, who currently plies his trade with NAC Breda in the Dutch second-tier.
As per the report, Van Hooijdonk’s impressive start to the campaign has also put the likes of Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday on red alert ahead of the January transfer window.
Profile
The son of former Dutch international striker Pierre van Hooijdonk, Sydney van Hooijdonk rose through the youth ranks of NAC Breda, initially representing the club at U-17, U-19 and U-21 levels. He made his first-team debut in the Eredivisie in the 2018-19 season, featuring 12 times as Breda suffered relegation to the second-tier.
Van Hooijdonk benefitted from Breda’s relegation and established himself in a more prominent role in the following campaign. Having managed a decent tally of 7 goals in 27 appearances last term, the versatile forward has really come to the fore in the ongoing campaign.
The 20-year-old has enjoyed a terrific start to the 2020-21 season, bagging 8 goals and 2 assists in just 12 appearances in the Eerste Divisie so far.
Van Hooijdonk would add more firepower to the Swans’ attack
Swansea City have enjoyed a strong start to the 2020-21 campaign in the Championship after suffering heartbreak in the playoffs last term. Of course, there’s still plenty of time left in a 46-game season, but Steve Cooper’s side look well on course for yet another promotion push.
The Welsh outfit presently have the best defensive record in the division with just 10 goals conceded so far. Swansea, though, have struggled to match some of their promotion rivals in terms of attacking firepower, managing only 19 goals in the Championship. With the January window less than four weeks away, Cooper definitely has some food for thought.
Swansea signed Jamal Lowe from Wigan to bolster their attack in the summer while the likes of Viktor Gyokeres, Morgan Gibbs-White and Kasey Palmer also came through the door at the Liberty Stadium on loan deals. However, neither of those new signings has made a big impact so far, leaving Andre Ayew to shoulder the bulk of the goalscoring workload.
Ayew has been the standout performer for the Swans in attack with 7 goals and 2 assists in 15 appearances. But Swansea need more goal contributions from some of their other squad players if they are to stay within striking distance of the automatic promotion slots in the coming months. Bringing in a new striker should therefore be high on the club’s agenda in January.
Putting things into context, Swansea City should go all out in their pursuit of Dutch starlet Sydney van Hooijdonk next month. The striker has been on fire for NAC Breda in the Eerste Divisie and looks more than capable of offering Cooper some much-needed depth and quality in attack.
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Verdict
Suffice to say, Swansea need to seek some additional firepower up top in January and a potential swoop for Sydney van Hooijdonk would make sense. The 20-year-old has shown great potential in the Dutch second-tier and while the level of competition in the Championship is much higher, the youngster still has plenty of room for development.
Cooper is right up there with the best managers in England when it comes to maximising the potential of bright emerging prospects. The Swans have focussed their recruitment on enriching the squad with talented youngsters and van Hooijdonk fits the bill as yet another exciting addition to the ranks.
