Ex-Aston Villa man makes surprise move to Championship rivals of West Brom and Birmingham City

Swansea City have signed former Aston Villa winger Yannick Bolasie on a short-term deal which is expected to run until the end of January 2024. The former Everton and Crystal Palace man has been a free agent since leaving Turkish club Caykur Rizespor in June.

He trained with Swansea last week and has convinced the club to offer him a short-term contract. He could make his debut on Wednesday night when Michael Duff's side make the trip to Elland Road to face Leeds United. Swansea face West Brom on January 1 before making the trip to Birmingham City on January 13, with the FA Cup third round sandwiched between those fixtures.

The 34-year-old is best known for his time at Selhurst Park where he made 144 appearances, scoring 13 goals and providing 30 assists. He left Palace for Everton in 2016 but never got this career going at Goodison Park and joined Villa on a season-long loan in August 2018. He played 21 times for the club, scoring twice and providing five assists but returned early to the Toffees in January and was loaned back out to Belgian side Anderlecht for the remainder of the 2018–19 season.

He said of his move back to the Championship: “I’d like to think I can add something to the group on and off the pitch. I’ve played in different countries and different leagues, and I am here to help the team and play to the best of my ability.

“I would like to think I will bring something on the pitch with the way I play. Over the years I’ve always played in different positions, as a number nine, a seven or 11, and sometimes even behind the striker. I’ve got a wealth of experience now, I've adapted to play those types of roles and I'd like to think I can come and do that here. I think that might be one of the reasons the club brought me here, because I can play all three positions.”

He added: “I’m going to go game by game. I’d like to think I can come in flying, but at the same time I need a bit of match fitness. But I'm not worried about that, I’ve been working hard over the last six months, and I’d like to think that a couple of games in, just being back in a stadium and being in front of a crowd, I think I'd get used to it very fast. 

“To be fair, I’ve had some really good performances at the Swansea.com Stadium, and now I’m putting on the Swansea shirt, I’d like to think I can do the same again. I’m looking forward to that, I think there’s been some good performances and that tells me that it’s a good stadium for me, I hope that will be the case now.”

Manager Michael Duff added: "He's been in, he's looked good. It'll be a two-month deal and we'll see how it goes from there. We need bodies in the building, we need help. We're not in a position where we can cherry pick the exact player we want."