Zan Vipotnik: Too early to discuss future, says Swansea City striker

“Last year was the season of learning, I’ll say,” Vipotnik says.

“I scored my first goal early. I thought it will be easier [after that]. But at the end I saw how tough the league is.

“I’m thankful for the first season because I learned a lot. I think I grew a little bit, also in life – how you how you manage the falls when you fell down a little bit.”

There was further trouble ahead.

This season began with Liam Cullen as Swansea’s first-choice striker and Vipotnik on the bench.

When Adam Idah joined in a big-money deal from Celtic on deadline day last September, the idea was that he would be the club’s frontline number nine.

But by then Vipotnik had made his mark, initially as a substitute and then after forcing his way into Alan Sheehan’s starting side at the end of August.

Vipotnik’s three goals in the first five games of the season convinced Swansea they must abandon plans to sell the Slovenia international before last summer’s window closed.

Vipotnik acknowledges that the possibility of a transfer “was the talk” in the early weeks of the campaign.

“I won’t say it was close, but we were finding the solutions because of what we heard from the people in the club,” he adds.

“But at the end we said that we were going to try our luck to survive here.

“It was tough. I was at one point third choice, but they gave me the chance in the next one or two games and I scored in the first one, scored in the second one, scored in the third one. I stayed here and at the end of the season it was magical for me.”