It has to be said, and we have already indicated it this morning that certain Swansea City players will depart the club if Russell Martin signs on at Southampton. There’s nothing to indicate they will, but of course it’s very obvious that with Russell Martin will go a few others.
The saleable assets are Matt Grimes, a player who fits in to everything that Russell Martin wants from his players. In Martin’s belief he is the model professional, totally honest and plays to his strategy and mindset perfectly. The only issue Martin will have is getting him to agree to join his new club for the next season. It’s without doubt if Martin was to be challenged on who he wants out of all his players currently at the Swans then Grimes would be his man. Currently contracted until 2025 at Swansea, and having spent most of his formative professional years at the club he is settled in the city with his young family.
That is the real issue for Grimes ( below )
He is believed to be on a salary of around £18,500 a week, potentially a bit more, and when added up he is on around eighty thousand pounds a month, an big outlay for the club. That’s nigh on a million a year. Good pickings for the twenty seven year old fast approaching his twenty eighth birthday in July. If he is interested in a move he could easily add fifteen thousand pounds a week to his salary. Over time Matt has picked up over four million pounds from his career at Swansea, so in financial terms he is living very well on championship wages.
Swansea City will happily move him on and will see a transfer fee of around four million pounds as good business. This falls well within their expectations of reaching a multi million pound figure for players leaving with Martin, or shortly afterwards. Grimes is crucial to Martin being a success at Southampton, not least when his training methods start to affect those who haven’t experienced his methodology before. For any Southampton fans reading this Grimes is a class act, he is more of a defensive minded midfielder but his passing accuracy is astonishing. And he influences many attacking moves through the middle of the pitch. He is marmite to Swans fans though. For us he would walk in to any Championship side next season comfortably.
Joel Piroe ( below ) is another that any championship club would jump at the chance of signing. Piroe does have aspirations of moving into the premier league and has already turned down a new Swans contract as he moves in to his final year next season. Anybody who doesn’t know of Joel or his ability to score special goals has been asleep for the last two years. The Swans snapped him up from PSV Eindhoven for around 1.5 million pounds and he hasn’t disappointed since. His forty goals in two seasons, all of which are well crafted as opposed to full on British striker type efforts have been a joy to watch. He isn’t a brave player, his heading ability is awful but what he lacks in that department he more than makes up in front of goal. Joel is believed to be on around twelve grand a week and the Swans upped that by a few thousand a week but he has no aspirations to sign a new deal. He would most certainly jump at the chance to sign for Southampton who would have to more than double his salary.
His price ? Anyone who thinks the Swans will sell Piroe for a few million pounds is completely misinformed. The Swans will ask for a heady twelve million pounds and do their dealing and negotiations from there. As Russell Martin wants certain players signed when he becomes Saints manager, the south coast club will have to meet an over valuation of the player by Swansea. As Russell Martin stated recently ‘ Any transfer fee for Joel would have to be life changing for him and the club’ He sort of set his own price target there. We aren’t saying twelve million is his price but that’s where Southampton will have to start. At twenty four in August this would be a key move for Piroe, and one of the Saints do get promoted will match his premier league ambitions.
We can really leave aside Ryan Manning and Joel Latibeaudiere for now. Both are out of contract at Swansea in a few weeks and Manning has numerous options. He is a quality utility player but possibly wouldn’t fit the mould at Southampton. On the other hand Latibeaudiere could be a surprise free signing for the Saints. Martin absolutely loves him as a person and a player and on his words has never met or seen a player so dedicated and inspirational in his football career. Lati turned down a seven thousand pounds a week contract renewal and wants more to stay at Swansea. What he offers on the pitch is often missed, but away from the field of play he is an immense club player by all accounts.
Finally we go to Nathan Wood, he actually came for free to Swansea, the four hundred thousand price tag a mixture of fee’s and signing on allowances. However, that aside he is now an England U21 international and reports are raving about his calmness and ability as a defender. Wood puts this down to Russell Martin and his training style, the way he utilises ‘affective’ learning in training and man management. Nathan (below ) is young and if he is on more than four thousand pounds a week we would be surprised. He is twenty one next week and is a very competent defender who oozes class at times but is still learning. Swansea would let him go for three million pounds plus.
All these players are good fits for Southampton. Our price estimates are based on the Saints desire to sign them as a part of any agreements they have with Russell Martin. This means their prices are going to be at the higher margin. For the Swans this is a sellers market and as Southampton will find out it won’t be easy.