FanView: Why Does Swansea Boss Paul Clement Refuse to Play £11m Signing Roque Mesa?

News this week has emerged of Roque Mesa's apparent frustration in South Wales due to a lack of game time since his arrival in the summer. 

In an interview with Estadio Deportivo, the midfielder has admitted that if he continues in the same fashion from now until January, he'll be looking to leave Swansea. Of course, Swans boss Paul Clement has poured water over the subject, saying that Mesa still has a strong role to play, he's still adapting, so on and so forth - the usual stuff.

But Mesa's omission from the last two match-day squads shows that the £11m signing has a valid point. A point which leaves Swansea fans baffled - especially seeing as one of the two games that he's started and finished, he won the man of the match award.

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Clement has openly said that the 28-year-old needs to speed up his tempo on the ball, which is understandable. Mesa seems to slow the game down to his own pace when in possession, and in the holding role of midfield, he's in possession a lot (when he actually features).

This invariably results in a major halt in the team's build up play. When the likes of Renato Sanches, Leroy Fer and Tom Carroll are on the pitch, the transition from defence into attack is rapid. Clement wants to catch teams on the back foot on the counter, and punish them - with Roque on the pitch, that doesn't happen.

It very much seems as though Mesa was a signing made by the club rather than the manager. The Spaniard boasts the qualities that Roberto Martinez and Brendan Rodgers would've wanted. Slow, possession based football. Tire the opposition, and work a small opening - that seems to be Mesa's bread and butter.

He did it against MK Dons and Reading in the Carabao Cup (granted, that's not against Premier League opposition) to great effect, and seems a genuine talent that could anchor the midfield well.

There have also been murmurs of Clement's preference of Renato Sanches being a contributing factor. People have claimed that their Bayern Munich connection has cost Mesa an opportunity, despite the Spaniard impressing more than Sanches in the chances he's received.

In ways that's true - Clement has persisted with Sanches even though he hasn't been the spark everyone had hoped. But the Portuguese youngster is everything that the Swans manager is after. Pace, the desire to drive forward; Renato wants to attack and catch the opposition off guard. Clement needs that in his players - regardless of how successful they are in their efforts.

In a season where the South Wales outfit have failed to dominate matches, where opportunities have been few and far between, Clement knows his players need to be efficient. 

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A prime example of Mesa's inability to show this was against Watford. With the score tied at 1-1, Mesa came on in the 67th minute, and played relatively well - didn't shine, but wasn't poor. That is, until, the last minute. 

Swans had built in confidence towards the back end of that match, and were pushing for a late winner at the death. 

The ball falls to Mesa in a counter attack; instead of ploughing forward like anyone else would do, he slows the game down. Rather than bombing up the pitch, he takes his time to pick out a 40-yard diagonal pass...which is intercepted.

Watford went on to score the winner in that same move and since then it seems Clement has made his mind up about Mesa. In the three games following the Watford loss, the midfielder has been used as a sub once, and hasn't been included in the match-day squad for the last two weeks.

It appears Mesa fits into the 'out of favour' bracket at the Liberty, and while he won't like it, and the fans will complain; until he shows Clement that he can play the way that is expected, he'll stay there.