Swansea City were proving all the doubters wrong with an eighth place in the Premier League, establishing themselves in the top flight ahead of the 2015/16 campaign.

After an impressive, unprecedented season, Garry Monk was expected to add to his squad to maintain the momentum the Welsh side and build on a sensational year.

Nine new faces arrived at the Liberty Stadium to replace the 14 that departed after their historic season.

It was a summer of rebuilding intended to take the club even further forward and beyond the dizzy heights that they had already hit.

And on June 19, 2015, the latest Swansea arrival was confirmed. 

Franck Tabanou moved to Wales on a three-year deal in the region of £3.5million.

A left-sided defender, who was able to play in the midfield arrived from French Ligue 1 side, Saint-Etienne, much to the approval of plenty of Swansea’s supporters.

Tabanou made his Swans debut on August 25, 2015, in the comfortable League Cup win over York City, paying the full 90 minutes.

His second appearances would not be for another month, and it would again be in the cup, playing 72 minutes in the 1-0 defeat to Hull on September 22, 2015, as the club was eliminated from the competition.

It was a strange start to life at Swansea for the Frenchman, who failed to make a Premier League appearance despite the positive responses to his capture, the fee and contract length that came with his signing.

After the cup exit, Tabanou would not play for the first-team again for five months, when he only played an hour in the 3-2 FA Cup giant-killing by Oxford United in January 2016.

That would be the temporary end to his Swansea career when, six months after leaving Saint-Etienne, he was soon back at the French club, on a six-month loan deal.

The left-sided player would make 13 appearances for the Ligue 1 outfit, getting sent off in his final game on loan for his former side.

His parent club finished 12th in the Premier League before a return to south Wales preceded the end of his temporary stay at his former side.

What was expected to be a second chance and an opportunity in the first-team ended in yet another loan the following season when he joined Spanish side Granada for the entire campaign after just one U23 for his parent club that year.

The reaction to his departure wasn’t received very well with some of the club’s fans who branded it a joke having never been given a chance with the Premier League outfit.

After a forgettable loan in La Liga, he returned to Wales after seven first-team outings for Granada.

On June 5, 2017, with one year remaining on his deal, he was released.

The reaction to his signing was incredibly positive but after just three first-team appearances, all in cup competitions, it was a signing that failed to live up to any hype whatsoever before his inevitable release two years later.