The name Grégory Lorenzi won’t mean a lot to Swansea fans, but for the player himself, the Championship club will always be in his mind.
He never played at Liberty Stadium, but he came extremely close to back in 2010 after he was pushed to one side at Stade Brestois, who were then in Ligue 1.
At the time, Swansea were in the Championship, fighting among the playoff contenders, and were considering bringing in a new defender in the January window.
Speaking to Le Télégramme, the current Brest director of sports reveals what went down during that fateful collapsed transfer.
He said: “I felt there was a traffic jam in my role. I had the opportunity to go to Swansea. I speak to the manager, he says no, that he’s counting on me, but I forced the issue. They brought in Junior N’Tamé, so I went to Swansea for three days. Medicals, we spoke contract, wages, they were paying the hotel, my costs and gave me £1000 tip (to spend) that week!
“But, in the end, they decide not to bring in a defender! They decided to keep Ashley Williams. In that team, there was Joe Allen, Garry Monk. Eighteen players we ended up seeing in the Premier League”.
What could have been Lorenzi’s golden ticket eventually sealed his fate at Brest, as he ended up going out on loan to Bastia, which was then followed by another to Arles.
He stayed at Brest until 2013, when he tried his luck in Belgium, before coming back to the club he so desperately wanted to leave in 2015 for a year prior to his retirement.
