Unlike most of the FA Cup remainers, Bersant Celina is desperate to be drawn against mighty Manchester City.
The Swansea City midfielder is hoping tonight’s draw for the fifth round pairs his current club with his former one – providing a chance to prove how wrong Pep Guardiola was to sell him.
Celina moved to the Swans last summer for £3m, after being told by the club he had been with for six years he was no longer required.
The 22-year-old Kosovan international is now keen to loosen one wheel on City’s quadruple-chasing chariot even though he remains something of a fan.
“I’m a Manchester City supporter and I want them to do well but if they play against us, I’d want to throw them out of the FA Cup,” said Celina.
“It would mean a lot as I was there for six years and I went all the way through the academy to playing first-team games. I want to go and prove to them that I’m very good and that they had made a mistake. I would want to do well against them.”
Celina has been among the Swans’ most influential players this season, bringing a creativity and poise to the midfield as well an eye for a spectacular goal.
He struck one of those in the 4-1 won over Gillingham at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday and would love to do the same against City, even though many of his former friends at the Ethiad Stadium have been closely following his current success .
“Sometimes I get texts from people who work there. They’re watching over me and they’re really happy for me – I appreciate it.
“It would be very good to play against them – home or away. It would be a very tough game, obviously, but we want to play similar football to them so I think we’d go out there to try and play and press them – and they’d do the same.
“We have good players in the team and anything is possible. If we played them, I would want to go and beat them.”
Celina’s goal against the Gills – thundered into the top corner on a heavy surface from 25 yards – was his best, according to the scorer of five goals for the club so far this season.
“That was definitely my best this season,” he admitted.
“Hopefully, I can score even better ones but it doesn’t matter as long as I keep scoring and doing well. I’ve got that strike in my locker, I just need to shoot more.
“It means a lot to go through. We went out there with a strong team as we want to win and do well in this cup. I think we’re good enough but whoever we get next, we’ll do our best to go out there and win to reach the next round.
“I’ve been here since the summer and I can see that the fans, team and club want to get far.
“We especially want to show, as the club went down last season, that we’re still a top club and we can do well. There’s no better way of showing that by performing in a cup like this and beating big teams to prove how good we are.
“Almost every year I used to watch the semi-finals and final. I would love to play at Wembley – you never know I think it’s possible, so we will try our best.”