Paul Clement Denies Struggling Renato Sanches Set for Early Bayern Return

Swansea manager Paul Clement has denied all speculation linking the struggling Renato Sanches with an early return from his loan spell from Bayern Munich.

The 20-year-old has found life in the Premier League increasingly difficult, and after a series of poor performances the Swans had been understood to be considering cutting his loan spell short. A move which would leave Sanches in limbo as Bayern boss Jupp Heynckes does not want the midfielder back at the club, as per reporter Ezequiel Daray. 

Despite featuring for Swansea ten times so far this season, Sanches has failed to live up to expectations as he has completed just two full 90 minute league games. 

Although reports in Portugal suggest Sanches will return to Bayern much earlier than expected due to his poor form Clement insists that no such discussions have taken place, he told the BBC: "There is no news.

"I haven't had any specific communication with Bayern regarding Renato's current situation, it's just speculation.

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"Contractually, I believe he's signed for us for the season, and there were no stipulations in there that he has to play this amount of games for him to stay for the full term. As far as I know he's a player here for us for the season."

Despite Swansea cemented at the bottom of the table and the midfielder omitted from the last two games, Clement is optimistic that Sanches can return to the form which saw him described as one of the best young players in Europe by Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola. 

He added: "He's been out of the last two squads, he's not very happy.

"Renato is a very good player and I do believe that he can make a contribution for us. But for him to do that he needs to start playing up to his potential. When he does that he'll feature a lot more.

"[We've got to] show him that you have belief in him and the obvious answer would be that you have to keep him involved in the squads, but I'm more believing that behind the scenes you've got to work with him.

"Clearly his confidence is low, but it was low when he came here. You would have hoped that he would have gone back up to a good level, but it's taken more time than we all would have hoped."

Sanches will be desperately hoping for a quick resurgence in form as if his loan spell is cut short and Heynckes sees no way for the 20-year-old to force his way into the Bayern side he could be left to sit on the sidelines for the remainder of the season as he is only able to play for two clubs in one campaign.