"He was absolutely fantastic" - Swansea City, Dan James regret voiced after Man Utd move | OneFootball

The Leeds United winger burst onto the scene with the Swans in 2018/19 before joining Manchester United.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Swansea City's relegation to the Championship six years ago saw the South Wales-based club return to the second tier for the first time since 2011.

Under the guidance of Graham Potter in the 2018/19 campaign, the Swans finished 10th in the second tier, nine points off the play-off places. Despite a failure to win themselves a place back in the Premier League, they did get to enjoy the emergence of an unbelievable talent.

Daniel James made his debut for the club the season before, scoring in his only appearance in 2017/18 in an 8-1 FA Cup fourth round replay win over Notts County at the Swansea.com Stadium.

After impressing for the U21s, the Welsh international was handed his league debut for the club in August 2018, playing the final half-hour of Swansea's 0-0 draw with Birmingham City, before going on to play a larger role as the campaign progressed.

However, with his potential so high, it came as no surprise that the current Leeds United was the subject of huge interest throughout the year, making it seemingly impossible for the Jacks to keep hold of the winger.

James' Swansea career was short but sweet

Having burst onto the scene at just 21, the January 2019 transfer window saw James a target for Leeds, and despite the deal being all but complete, a last minute refusal from Swansea to sell their youngster to a rival saw him stay in South Wales.

It allowed the Jack Army to continue to enjoy the winger for another few months, but the 33 Championship appearances he made in black-and-white perhaps never felt enough, especially to Football League World's Swansea Fan Pundit, James Fleming.

When asked by FLW about which player he wished he got to see play more games for his club, James said: "I think the theme is with Swansea players is we tend to get a lot that are unbelievable for us, and then they leave within a season, so there's so many people I could throw into this list.

"But I think for me, it's probably Dan James. Although he’s maybe not had the most amazing, illustrious career, with us, he was absolutely fantastic."

He continued: "It's just that sheer pace which I’ve never seen from a Swansea player, it was so fun to watch him that season we had him. Obviously, he went straight to Man United afterwards, but it seemed the case with people like Flynn Downes, Joe Rodon and Connor Roberts.

"All of these players that we had were so good, but they left too early for us to be able to properly get to love them as much as we would have done if they stayed.

"But I think the one that stands out to me is definitely Dan James. He was so good, and he would probably have had a better career, I think, if he'd stayed with us for longer."

James' Manchester United switch never paid off

Despite coming so close to a move to Elland Road in 2019, it was Manchester United who managed to entice the winger to leave Swansea later that year.

A deal worth £15 million plus an extra £3 million in add-ons, saw James become Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first signing in charge of the Premier League giants, and although he scored on his debut against Frank Lampard's Chelsea in a 4-0 win, he was never able to capture a good run of form.

In just over two years at Old Trafford, the once so-called wonderkid played 74 games in all competitions, scoring just nine goals and picking up only nine assists.

He averaged just 63 minutes per match, and following the return of Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United, he was sold to Leeds for £25 million, where he has made nearly 100 appearances ever since.