Clement: Renato Sanches came to Swansea 'damaged,' low in confidence

Former Swansea City manager Paul Clement says loan acquisition Renato Sanches came to the club low in confidence and fitness and believes the Bayern Munich man struggled to perform during matches as a result.

Clement - who was fired in December - welcomed Sanches to his ranks in a surprise loan deal on deadline day of last summer's transfer window. The 20-year-old arrived with plenty of hype, as he'd played a significant role in Portugal's successes at Euro 2016.

But Sanches failed to live up to the billing, drawing criticism for his poor play and looking a shadow of his former self in midfield - which Clement thinks was born of his physical and mental state at Swansea.

"I thought that was a massive coup for us, to attract a player of that level after what he'd done a summer earlier in the Euros," Clement told the Times' Henry Winter, as quoted by Sky Sports.

"I was with him the first six months at Bayern but he hadn't played regularly. His physical condition was down. His confidence was down.

"He wasn't so keen initially. He thought he was going to go to (Manchester) United, Chelsea, or Paris Saint-Germain. But Bayern were saying, 'You're not going there, you're not going to play.' When he came, he was far more damaged than I thought. It was really sad."

While Sanches struggled to replicate the sort of form that earned him his £50-million move to Bayern Munich, Clement didn't see a lack of talent or ability in training, explaining that the youngster ranked highly among his peers.

"He was a boy who had almost got the weight of the world on his shoulders," Clement said. "In training, when that pressure is not there, he was the best player. He could do things no one else could do. He's got power, can go past people, got a shot on him.

"But in games, I looked at the choices he was making, shooting from 45 yards on the angle, and he kept making those mistakes.

"He had a desire to please and a desire to prove everybody wrong. He got in a vicious cycle of poor choices. It became difficult to pick him."