Why Lyndon Dykes would be a smart signing for  Swansea City 

According to the Glasgow Evening Times (h/t TEAMtalk), Swansea City have been credited with an interest in Australian striker Lyndon Dykes, who currently plies his trade with Livingston in the Scottish Premiership. 

Swansea, though, are not the only side linked with a move for the 24-year-old, who is also on the radar of Championship rivals Derby County, Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers. (TEAMtalk h/t Glasgow Evening Times)

The Gold Coast-born hitman recently grabbed the headlines with his goal in Livingston’s shock 2-0 victory over reigning champions Celtic in the Scottish Premiership, with Dykes’ display against centre-back Christopher Jullien earning him plenty of plaudits from fans and pundits alike. 

The 24-year-old, who rose to prominence with Mudgareeba and Merrimac in his homeland, initially toured Scotland to visit the hometown of his parents, Dumfries, where he had a trial with second-tier outfit Queen of the South and impressed with a staggering 22 goals in 14 competitive matches before returning to Australia. 

Short stints at Redlands United and Gold Coast City followed before he returned to Queen of the South in the summer of 2016 and made his professional debut for the Queen’s in a 2-0 Scottish League Cup victory over Queen’s Park. 

Dykes went on to establish himself as a useful all-round centre-forward in the Scottish Championship over the course of his two-and-a-half-year stay at Palmerston Park, racking up an impressive tally of 23 goals and 34 assists in 136 appearances for Queen of the South in all competitions. 

Those handy returns paved the way for a move to the top-flight with Livingston in January 2019 and Lyndon Dykes was sent back on loan to the Queen’s for the remainder of the campaign. 

The 24-year-old, though, has adapted seamlessly to the top-flight on his return from loan and has been a real revelation for the Lions, with manager Gary Holt showing plenty of confidence in his abilities. 

Dykes has already netted 5 times and assisted twice in 14 appearances for Livingston across all competitions, with his superb display of grit and pure quality arguably the highlight of his abrupt emergence in the top-flight north of the border. 

And the Australian’s rise to fame in the Scottish Premiership hasn’t eluded the eyes of some of the Championship sides, including high-flying Swansea City, who have found goals difficult to come by, despite their stellar start to the campaign under the stewardship of new manager Steve Cooper. 

The Swans, who had won 8 and drawn 5 of their first 16 games in the Championship so far, currently sit 4th in the standings with 29 points, just a couple of points adrift of the second-place Leeds United and four behind pace-setter West Brom. 

Indeed, things are currently looking bright enough for Swansea City and the promotion noise at the Liberty Stadium is only going to get louder if the Swans continue to rack up the points in the coming months.

A promising start led certain sections of the fans and media labelling them as ‘promotion dark horses’ but Swansea are definitely a lot more than that now.  

To that end, however, returns of 22 goals in 16 games might just give Cooper some food for thought, given that his team has been comfortably outscored by several other oppositions in the top-ten, including automatic promotion-hopefuls Preston and West Brom. 

Borja Baston, who had been reinstated by Cooper in the playing eleven prior to the start of the campaign after spending back-to-back seasons on loan at Malaga and Alaves, grabbed all the attention with 5 goals in his first 5 Championship outings to mark an incredible resurgence at the Liberty Stadium.

However, the Spaniard’s resurgence proved to be short-lived and the 27-year-old has once again faded away with a tally of just 1 goal in his last eight league appearances, so much so that Cooper seems to have lost trust in his abilities. 

The manager has used the versatility on offer on his ranks to deploy Andre Ayew in a more advanced centre-forward role to spearhead the attack, with Nathan Dyer getting the nod in a wide right role in his 4-2-3-1 system in recent weeks. 

Verdict

The gamble to use Ayew in an unfamiliar role up top has paid off handsomely for Cooper till now, with the Ghanaian finding the net against Cardiff City and Sheffield Wednesday in recent fixtures, however, one does get the feeling that the Swans cannot afford to rely on makeshift players in key positions of the pitch if they are to push on for automatic promotion. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Bournemouth loanee Sam Surridge has shown some signs of promise as an impact player from the bench, it is pretty obvious that the Swans still need some additional firepower to enhance their chances of promotion and Lyndon Dykes could be a handsome low-cost addition to the club’s attacking ranks. 

Dykes, of course, has only just started to deliver the goods in the Scottish top-flight, having spent most of his career in the second-tier north of the border so far, meaning that the Swans would be better of keeping tabs on his performances between now and January before making an official approach for his services. 

However, he does look like a useful player in the right age bracket and it is worth pointing out from his numbers that he is not only capable of scoring goals but he is also more than handy when it comes to setting up goals for his teammates.

That kind of dynamism is a boon for any team to have and it is easy to see that the arrival of Lyndon Dykes could possibly add another dimension to Swansea’s attack.  

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All in all, Lyndon Dykes is certainly worth a punt for Swansea City and the Swans’ recruitment team would a lot to rave about if the Australian hitman manages to translate his form south of the border.