Reports: Swansea In Negotiations To Cut Renato Sanches’ Loan Short And Send Him Back To Bayern Munich In January

Chris Wright

15th, December 2017

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Swansea are reportedly at the end of their tether with Renato Sanches and are currently in the process of negotiating an premature conclusion to the Portuguese midfielder’s season-long loan from Bayern Munich.

Sanches has failed to make much of an impact at the Liberty Stadium since his high-profile arrival in September as his once-golden glow, stoked by a series of buccaneering performances at Euro 2016, continues to fade.

Indeed, so far his only memorable contribution to the canon has been a misplaced pass delivered with aplomb to the Carabao logo during a League Cup match last month.

Reports, which emanated in Mais Futebol on Friday morning, suggest that the Swans are keen to terminate Sanches loan at the nearest available juncture and have opened discussions with parent club Bayern to that end.

However, this has apparently all come as news to Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes, who admitted later that very day that the Mais story was the first he’d heard of such machinations (quotes via Wales Online):

I am surprised. I know nothing about this and haven’t talked about it.

There were no talks to bring him back. We are well stocked in midfield. I don’t think we need more.

I’m assuming that (Bayern sporting director) Hasan Salihamidzic has spoken with Renato on the phone, but it was not at all talked about that he comes back in the winter.

It could be that Swansea are working through intermediaries. It could be that ‘talks’ are still at a conversational level. It could be that Mais Futebol have plucked it out of the ether.

Either way, it’s difficult to envisage the best course of action for Sanches and his floundering career trajectory. Staying put in his rut at Swansea isn’t doing anybody any favours and a return to Bayern’s backwaters can hardly be viewed as preferential either.

Of course, he’s only 20 and there’s plenty of time for him to turn it around, but the 2016 Golden Boy will definitely need a hard reboot somewhere, anywhere else come the summer if he’s to salvage his early promise.