For Franck Tabanou, the mention of Swansea doesn’t exactly bring back the best football memories, even if he learned a lot about himself during his spell at the Liberty Stadium.
The left-back, now at En Avant Guingamp in Ligue 1, arrived in Wales off the back of a £4.4m transfer from Saint-Etienne in 2015, a club he would return to on loan just six months later.
A season long temporary spell to Granada followed the next year before his contract was terminated last summer, meaning that over two whole seasons, the defender appeared just three times for the Swans.
Speaking to So Foot, the 28-year-old discussed his time at the Premier League side, and explained why things didn’t go his way.
He said: “There was a quick change of manager because of bad results. At the start of the season, Taylor was playing, which was normal since he was coming off a good season. When the starter is better than you, and the results are going your way, you take it silently.
“However, that wasn’t the case, so I felt I deserved to play a game or two to get my bearings. I didn’t get that chance, and that frustrated me. I made my point, and decided to return to Saint-Etienne. The next preseason went really well, but when I saw Garry Monk didn’t count on me, I knew it’d be hard.”
Tabanou also revealed that around that time, he let himself a go because he felt no one counted on him at Swansea City, because ‘when you know you won’t be playing at the weekend, you don’t put in the effort needed during the week’.
However, he does admit he took a lot from his time at Swansea, especially on the mental side of things, learning he needed to remain as professional as possible even when things don’t go his way.
A candid interview, to say the least.
