John Swift
From TheChels.info - The Chelsea Football Club Wiki
| John Swift | |
| |
| Full Name | John David Swift |
| Date of Birth | 23 June 1995 |
| Place of Birth | Portsmouth, England |
| Position | Central Midfielder |
| Chelsea career | 2007 - 2016 |
| Debut | 11 May 2014 |
| Games (goals) | 1 (0) |
| Other clubs | Rotherham United (loan) Swindon Town (loan) Brentford (loan) |
John Swift (born 23 June 1995 in Portsmouth, England) is a midfielder who formerly played for Chelsea.
Contents |
Pre-Chelsea career
John has been at Chelsea since Under-14 level, having previously failed to earn a place in the academy as a 12 year-old.
Chelsea career
John made his debut in the academy team as an Under-15 during the 2009-10 season, making two appearances. He continued to make strides into the squad in 2010-11, whilst also captaining the club's Under-16 ranks, but the second half of his season was heavily interrupted by injury.
However, fully fit for the start of the 2011-12 season, Swift quickly became one of the Under-18 team's best players, weighing in with goals and assists in the first half of the season. His eye-catching style won him many fans during the successful 2011-12 FA Youth Cup campaign and he finished a superb first season as an Under-18 by making his reserve debut in the last fixture of the season against Manchester United.
He spent the 2012-13 season floating between the Under-18 and Under-21 teams, often captaining the former in league action, whilst retaining an important squad role in the FA Youth Cup squad. However, despite some impressive performances in the run to the Final, he was often left on the bench in favour of alternative attacking options by manager Adrian Viveash. He finished the campaign as a regular under Dermot Drummy in the Under-21 ranks.
Towards the end of that campaign, Drummy revealed that as part of John's development, he had spent time with Frank Lampard in developing particular aspects of his game, most notably in the goalscoring department. The approach appeared to have paid major dividends in the first half of the 2013-14 season as eight goals in pre-season were followed by ten before Christmas in competition proper and Swift becoming a considerably more dangerous player with each passing game.
The goals continued right up until the end of the season, when he made his first team debut in the final match of the 2013-14 season, coming on as a substitute for Eden Hazard in the 89th minute of a 2-1 win against Cardiff City. Three days later he was part of the winning Under-21 Premier League team; defeating Manchester United 2-1 at Old Trafford.
On August 1st 2014 he joined Rotherham United on loan for the 2014-15 season but, having not played as much as he would have liked, was recalled in November. A fortnight later he joined Swindon Town in League One until the end of the season and did largely very well; overcoming some early stumbling blocks to prove a useful contributor in their promotion push, but injury forced him out of an appearance in the Playoff Final defeat to Preston North End at Wembley.
A return to Championship football arrived in 2015-16 in the form of a club more aligned with his footballing philosophy in Brentford. Earning the trust of all three managers the club had during an up-and-down season, he scored seven goals - second to only Marco van Ginkel amongst Blues loanees - and progressed into the England Under-21 ranks for the first time. However, he declined the option of extending his contract at Stamford Bridge and on July 14th he departed on a permanent basis to join Reading.
International
John represented England at every age group up to Under-21 whilst at Chelsea.
Career statistics
Youth, Reserve and Under-21 Football
| Season | Under-18 | Euro U19 | Under-21 | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |
| 2009-10 | 2 | 0 | - | - | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2010-11 | 6 | 0 | - | - | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 2011-12 | 28 | 4 | - | - | 1 | 0 | 29 | 4 |
| 2012-13 | 18 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 32 | 4 |
| 2013-14 | - | - | 7 | 6 | 26 | 9 | 33 | 15 |
| 2014-15 | - | - | - | - | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 2015-16 | - | - | - | - | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Total | 54 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 43 | 11 | 109 | 25 |
Senior Club Football
| Season | Club | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| 2014-15 | Rotherham United (loan) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2014-15 | Swindon Town (loan) | 19 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 2 |
| 2015-15 | Brentford (loan) | 27 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 7 |
| Total | 49 | '9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 9 | |
(Statistics accurate as of the end of the 2015-16 season)
Career honours
- 2011 Sky Sports Victory Shield (England Under-16s)
- 2011 FA International Tournament (England Under-17s)
- 2011-12 FA Youth Cup
- 2013-14 Under-21 Premier League
