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Carlos Carvlhal has shed some light on why Swansea City made a move for him just days after being shown the door at Sheffield Wednesday, admitting he first spoke to the club two years before eventually arriving at the Liberty.

Saturday’s FA Cup fifth round clash sees Carvalhal return to Hillsborough for the first time since a mutual agreement to end his 30-month spell as Owls boss with the Yorkshire club in the bottom-half of the Championship.

Having been lauded for his impact since replacing Paul Clement, it has surprised some to see the Portuguese impressing as much as it shocked a section of football that Swansea made the move for a manager experiencing difficulties in the second-tier.

But now Carvalhal has confirmed he had been on Swansea’s managerial wish-list for some time and that “it was not a big surprise” when he was contacted to breathe life into the club following Clement’s struggles.

(Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency)

The 52-year-old former Besiktas boss is thought to have been eyed by Swansea after they sacked Garry Monk in 2015, and again ahead of handing Francesco Guidolin a new contract in May 2016.

And he said: “We spoke. I talked to the chairman at that time.

“I think he liked our talk and my ideas but there was not an opportunity at that time to come. I had the feeling, and I think chairman had the same one, that we could work together in the future.

“As I understand they followed me for a long time. The style of the play and the way that we managed the club, they liked the way that we talked with the press and I know that they were analysing a lot of things.

“I know that because they told me. To me it was not a big surprise when I received an invitation.

“For 48 hours it was crazy because a lot of invitations from clubs in England and different countries came. It was good because it means that the people were followers in what we did in the past and they were waiting for an opportunity to come to me.

“I am happy with that because when people talk to us they are happy.”

Carvalhal achieved two play-off finishes with the Owls, but could not repeat his trick in his third season with many Wednesday fans losing faith in the charismatic coach whose methods and metaphors have since reinvigorated Swansea.

The Swans were five points adrift of safety when he arrived on December 28 but now go into this fifth-round match out of the relegation zone and the chance of a first FA Cup quarter-final in 54 years.

"I agree that when we agreed to leave Sheffield Wednesday it was not the best moment and people might have thought ‘why does this guy deserve to go to the Premier League?’ I understand that,” he said.

"But I had opportunities after the first season and didn’t want to move. We reached the play-off final and the line between a manager good enough for the Championship and good enough for the Premier League cannot be one goal, the line is too thin.

“If I went then it would have been normal, natural – and we had a chance to go but we refused because we were happy at Sheffield Wednesday. It doesn’t make you a better or worse coach to win one game. The people who have looked beyond that and see we got so near thought maybe he has something special, maybe he deserves this. For me it was not so strange.”