By writing two stories about Nicolas Gaitan in two days, it really feels like we’re back in the year of 2012.
Yesterday, we covered an interview from the Argentine player where he gave the reasons why he never signed for Manchester United, and now, there are some quotes coming from Portugal which say that Swansea City were looking to sign him a couple of years ago.
Since Gaitán has claimed he’d been keen on a return to Benfica, manager Bruno Lage has revealed he’s been interested in his signing back at his time at the Welsh side.
“You don’t know, but we, as members of Carvalhal’s coaching staff, were after Gaitán at Swansea. He was our target, we thought he could help us at that time”, said Bruno Lage (via O Jogo).
“It’s always good to hear those words. But for what is our project and our targets, things are very well identified. The big challenge is to find [players like] Gaitán and Salvio at the age they got here. For Benfica’s project and vision, let’s look at other players”.
Lage has been an assistant for Carlos Carvalhal, who stayed in charge of Swansea between December 2017 and June 2018. After that, they’ve parted ways, with Lage taking charge of Benfica’s reserve squad, later being promoted to the first team. He ironically now has a better job than Carvalhal, who’s been in charge of Rio Ave since June.
As for Gaitán, he’s currently set to become a free agent after a stint with Chicago Fire in the MLS, although the club do have an option to extend his contract by a year if they so wish.
