Russell Martin responded today on the situation regarding Matt O’Riley when interviewed this afternoon pre this weekend Preston North End game. After the interview we were left scratching our heads to be honest. Especially when it came to the signing of Matt O’Riley.
Martin was asked about the money available to sign O’Riley and we thought he was extremely clear in his response. He said "I’ve been aware all of the way through, we have to raise money to make signings. It’s been clear since the summer. We’re not swimming in the same pond that we were, parachute payments have gone”
Okay we all knew that, and he went on.
"Someone’s been able to raise the finance. He was a target for us, of course. He fits the profile and a player we’ve worked with. But there were other clubs looking at him as well” Does that sound like the club didn’t have the money to sign him ? It was confirmed today his terms were agreed, as we reported at the start of January. And then negotiations started. Now if the money was raised by ‘Someone’ then doesn’t that indicate the money was there, and obviously Celtic proved to be more of a draw ?
We read on those lovely social media platforms that Swansea City are ‘Skint’ ? Okay, then the club bring in Hannes Wolf from Borussia Mönchengladbach, and that’s not a cheap deal, so was the money ring fenced for O’Riley utilised for Wolf because then Martin says this about more signings over the next few weeks. "Yeah there will be. I’m sure of that. We’ve been really clear in what we want. We’re slowly getting it ticked off and I think that’ll be the same until the end of the window. We’ll just wait and see what happens”
In reality then the club aren’t skint, and they did have the money for O’Riley and there’s more for other players coming to Swansea in this transfer window.
Or is Russell Martin a liar ?
Well, of course he isn’t he is a cleverly versed talker in public, he has shown that over the months he has been at Swansea City. Surely certain people, and let’s be honest have more than our fair sure of the most dullest and negative supporters I think any club wouldn’t wish for. Is it more about them, and associated journalists who didn’t understand what Martin was saying ? Surely not, yes, there are far too many supporters who look at the world like it’s their last day on earth. The energy you have when you engage with some of these ‘Supporters’ is quickly sapped from you within seconds. It’s soul destroying.
There are comments all over the Internet fuelled by this negativity and then expanded upon. Even the more controlled on Twitter said the club are "Skint” Did they mean ‘ Not as rich as they would like ? ‘ Because if the swans are skint they can’t pay their bills, they can’t bring in players of the calibre of Hannes Wolf - and they can’t spend 400k on Andrew Fisher or have sufficient money for Chris Christie whose loan will run in to a few hundred grand.
Utter nonsense, skint.
And we get flak at times, maybe we should just report ‘Oh woe is me’ articles to suit the ne'er-do-wells that populate our lives with their blank stares and ridiculous negative statements ? We would have thousands of people then saying ‘Ooooh look, they are good, they say things I like - ’ Skint, can’t win, managers rubbish, Americans are clueless, that player is useless and etc ...
And earlier on whilst researching this we counted over forty people who within an hour of Hannes Wolf being talked about commented similar to " Ah look, we’ve signed a crock, no wonder we didn’t sign O’Riley” one poster stated "This means relegation now, let’s accept it”
Unbelievable nonsense.
On the O’Riley matter Martin ended by saying "I don’t feel let down or angry, it’s where we are at. I’m comfortable with that. The business we’ve done I think is fantastic. Cyrus is going to help us, you saw that on Saturday. Ben Hamer’s performance was raised with Fish in the building. And now you have Hannes who came because of the way we played and what we’ve discussed. Whatever happens, I think we’re going to end up stronger”
But please, have a think about Russell Martin’s responses to Matt O’Riley, because what has been written since that interview for us is just people wanting to see the club on its backside. Or have they always been that negative it makes them feel better ?
There’s some bizarre folk out there.