The days of Swansea City being a stable Premier League side may feel like a lifetime ago for supporters, but less than a decade ago the club were enjoying one of the most successful periods in their history.
After an eighth-place finish in the 2014/15 Premier League, Garry Monk looked to strengthen his Swansea side, and he brought Marseille talisman and Ghanaian international Andre Ayew to the club on a free transfer.
Ayew had become a key player for Marseille during his eight-year stay at the Stade Velodrome, and the fact that a side like Swansea could sign one of France’s biggest club’s best players really showed their pull at the time, and it proved excellent business for the club in more ways than one.
It was pretty clear that Ayew saw joining Swansea as the first step on the ladder in his plan to become a Premier League star, but the Welsh side certainly weren’t going to complain if it made them money in the future.
Swansea City made huge money from Andre Ayew’s free transfer in 2015
Ayew wasted no time in showing the Premier League what he was all about, and he scored three times in his opening four games as a Swansea City player, helping his side top the Premier League table going into the first international break of the season.
The Jack Army couldn’t quite believe that they’d managed to sign a player of that calibre for free, and his impressive start to the season saw him win the Premier League Player of the Month award for August 2015.
Swansea fell off badly after their impressive start to the season, with Monk actually being sacked in December 2015, but Ayew remained a mainstay in the team under caretaker manager Alan Curtis and new boss Francesco Guidolin, and while he was unable to sustain his impressive August form, he was still one of the Swans’ better players.
He started the season as he’d finished it, and he scored four times in the Swans’ final three games of the season to take his tally to 12 Premier League goals for the campaign, not a bad return when you consider he was playing out wide for a side that struggled for a large part of the season.
It was enough to attract interest from elsewhere, and West Ham, who had finished 7th the previous season and qualified for Europe, forked out £20.5million to bring him to East London.
While Swansea would have been disappointed to lose Ayew after just one season, the fact he made them a £20.5million profit was exceptional business, and it vindicated their decision to sign the Ghanian forward.
Andre Ayew would return to Swansea just 18 months after leaving for West Ham
While their decision to sell Ayew was a good one financially, Swansea struggled during the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons due to a lack of goals, and 18 months after selling him to West Ham, Swansea paid a club-record fee of £18million to bring him back to south Wales in January 2018, meaning they were technically still £2million in profit.
Ayew’s time in East London got off to a tough start as he suffered an injury on his debut, and in total he made 50 appearances, scoring 12 times and registering five assists.
However, his second spell at Swansea proved more difficult, and he failed to find the back of the net during the second half of the 2017/18 season as his side were relegated to the Championship, and he subsequently joined Fenerbahçe on loan for the 2018/19 campaign.
It looked as if that was his Swansea career over and done with, but remarkably, he returned for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 Championship seasons, becoming a real cult-hero thanks to his performances, and helping to shake-off the mercenary tag he’d begun to develop thanks to his constant chopping and changing of clubs.
He scored 37 goals and registered 11 assists in 87 Championship appearances as he led the Swans to consecutive play-off finishes, before leaving on a free transfer in the summer of 2021.
From there, he spent time with Al Sadd in Qatar, before a shock short-term move to Nottingham Forest in 2023, where he reunited with former Swansea boss Steve Cooper.
| Andre Ayew’s senior career – Transfermarkt | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | Seasons | P | G | A |
| Marseille | 2007-15 | 209 | 60 | 25 |
| Lorient (Loan) | 2008-09 | 24 | 3 | 1 |
| Arles-Avignon (Loan) | 2009-10 | 26 | 4 | 3 |
| Swansea City | 2015-16 | 35 | 12 | 2 |
| West Ham | 2016-18 | 50 | 12 | 5 |
| Swansea City | 2018-21 | 106 | 35 | 13 |
| Fenerbahçe (Loan) | 2018-19 | 38 | 5 | 2 |
| Al Sadd | 2021-23 | 41 | 22 | 3 |
| Nottingham Forest | 2023 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Le Havre | 2023- | 20 | 6 | 0 |
Now 34, Ayew is back in France where it all started, and he recently signed a fresh contract with Ligue 1 side Le Havre after spending the 2023/24 season with the side from Northern France.
It’s clear that his best days are behind him, but he still has plenty to give, as shown by still playing in Ligue 1, and Swansea’s decision to bring him to the Premier League in 2015 proved an excellent one.
Ayew was a great player for Swansea across his three different spells at the club, and the fact the club made over £20million a year after signing him on a free shows how shrewd a deal it was.
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