Andre Ayew
Andre Ayew

Ghana star, Andre Ayew has opened up on why he turned down offers to stay at English Skybet Championship side Swansea City.

The FIFA U-20 World Cup winner was expected to leave the Wales side this summer but stayed at the club.

Premier League and Asian clubs cued for the services of Andre Ayew.

But the experienced attacker said the offers made were not right for him.

“I want to be somewhere I can express myself and where I can play the best football. It’s true that sometimes there’s a lot of speculation. Some are true, some are not true,” he said.

“But when you’re playing well and you have the quality, it’s normal that you always have demands.

“I feel that I’m very happy here, I’m playing well, the team is playing well. You don’t know the future, but what you do know is that I’m happy here. That’s why I’m still here.”

And when asked if he’s received offers from elsewhere, Ayew responded: “Yeah, a few. Not one, not two, but I felt like maybe it wasn’t the right club. Maybe I didn’t feel everything was made for me to leave.

“If I didn’t feel it in me, I would not leave where I feel good and where I’m happy and the players, staff and fans have a lot of confidence in me.

“It has to take something very good for me to just wake up and leave. It would have to be something that would suit everyone in every way.

“It’s true that offers came in for me, but I didn’t feel like they were the right ones.”

Ayew is now in the final year of his contract with Steve Cooper’s side, although he admits he’s planning to be at the club for the duration of the 2020/21 season.

And having missed out on promotion in agonising fashion last term, the 30-year-old is hoping the Swans can go one better this time around.

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“I can’t say what’s going to happen in the future, but if I’m here, it’s because I’m planning to stay for the whole season,” he explained.

“That’s how you start a season. I don’t believe that you start a season thinking you’re going to leave in six months.

“I want to do something with the club. I started this season with the desire and the ambition to try and get Swansea back into the Premier League.

“That would be something I’ve been waiting for. I was very disappointed we couldn’t make it into the play-off final, it’s something that hit me.

“But I think we can be up there this season. We need to try and keep fighting. It’s early, but we need to believe we can get this club back to where it belongs.”

Several opposition managers have praised Ayew this season, with the Ghana international making a real mark in the Championship since the beginning of Cooper’s debut campaign at the club.

And while Ayew has once again started the current season in fine fashion, the Swansea vice-captain admits his all-round game is about benefiting the team as a whole rather than his own goal scoring statistics.

“I always feel like I can do better. I think my style of play, I can’t just look at the numbers because I’m an all-round player,” he said.

“I drop for the ball and try to make the team play better. I look at my whole play, and I think it’s not bad.

“I need to continue doing what I’m doing, helping the team play better football and especially trying to get goals. It’s still early and there’s a lot to play for,” he said.

Andre finished as the club’s top scorer last term and is already leading the charts with seven goals this season.