Swansea City make move to beat Burnley, Derby County, and Middlesbrough to striker | OneFootball

The Swans are looking to bolster their forward options.

Swansea City have placed a bid for St Johnstone forward Adama Sidibeh, amid links to Championship competitors Burnley, Derby County and Middlesbrough.

Journalist Alan Nixon has reported, via his Patreon, that they are going after the Gambian forward who has a reported £500,000 fixed price clause in his contract.

The forward's club are said to want the money in full, or a near approximation, but they may be forced into making the deal happen sooner rather than later, per Nixon.

Previous reports from The Courier suggested that, despite the links between Sidibeh and clubs like the Clarets, the Rams and Boro, the Saints were yet to receive an offer for the forward, and that no official contact had been made over a prospective deal.

Football Insider linked the aforementioned second tier trio to Sidibeh in late May.

Swansea's needs up front

The south Wales-based club are really lacking in natural number nines.

Swansea had been linked with a move for their boss' former leading man, Macaulay Langstaff. The 2023/24 League Two and 2022/23 National League top scorer worked with Luke Williams at Notts County.

However, their hopes of securing the services of the 27-year-old when he signed for Millwall for a reported £750,000 fee.

On top of missing out on Langstaff, the Swans also knew that they were going to be without former loanee Jamal Lowe this season. He was the club's top scorer in the league last time out, netting nine times.

He returned to AFC Bournemouth, where he was then duly released after the expiration of his deal with the Cherries. However, there was almost an acceptance from Williams that they weren't going to be able to afford his Premier League-level wage demands. The 29-year-old has since joined Sheffield Wednesday.

City have also lost another forward option in the form of Jerry Yates, who has been sent temporarily to Pride Park to play for league rivals Derby County in the upcoming campaign.

The former Blackpool forward was signed when now Huddersfield Town boss Michael Duff was in charge of the Swans. He was relatively unproductive last season, and the £2.5 million signing doesn't look to be in Williams' plans for the future.

The 26-year-old only joined St Johnstone in the winter transfer window from English non-league side Warrington Rylands.

He scored 15 goals in the Northern Premier League - Premier Division before moving over the northern border, where he continued his good run of form, netting five times in 15 games.

Usually, you could look at figures like this, given it's not a huge sample size at the top level, and think 'Maybe half-a-million is a bit much for a player with such little record at the professional level.'

That jump from Step 4 of the English pyramid all the way up to the top of the Scottish leagues is a huge one though, and one that would catch out those who aren't ready for that level pretty quickly.

If he wasn't good enough, St Johnstone would have known it full well after five or so games. But they kept playing him, and he kept scoring.

A rich vein of form is, of course, another possible explanation too. That said, the jump in opposition was so great that it's hard to put that down to luck. There appears to be a real player there that Swansea could have their hands on soon.