Swansea nabs Jordan Ayew from Villa; Neil Taylor heads other way

Swansea City quickly followed Tuesday's superb 2-1 dismissal of Southampton with the news that Jordan Ayew will be ushered into Paul Clement's attacking contingent.

Ayew, who's with Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations, joins from Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee on a three-and-a-half-year contract. Left-back Neil Taylor, 27, moves the other way to the Championship club, inking a four-and-a-half-year deal.

Ayew becomes Swansea's fourth signing of the January transfer window after the impressively cheap acquisitions of Martin Olsson, Tom Carroll, and Luciano Narsingh earlier in the month. Collectively, Clement's bid for promotion has cost an affordable £18.5 million, with Ayew costing approximately £5 million.

The 25-year-old forward's pace and industry could complement Fernando Llorente's hold-up play, and also be the beneficiary of service from the superb Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wayne Routledge, and fellow new boy Narsingh.

Taylor, meanwhile, leaves the club he's represented since 2010 after a shift from fellow Welsh side Wrexham. He's a 38-time Wales international and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics.

Swansea has hauled itself out of the relegation zone recently to sit 17th with a two-point cushion over the bottom three. Aston Villa lost 3-0 at Brentford on Tuesday to occupy a poor 14th in the second tier.