In three weeks time clubs will be able to negotiate and accept offers for players, that’s how short the closed season is. One club expecting a number of offers are Swansea City. And manager Russell Martin has spoken of the inevitable fact players will leave.
It does sort of fly in the face of the ‘process’ approach of Swansea City when having got to a situation things are looking better that they could sell their best players. That isn’t ideal but the club has to be sustainable, and that’s a word we will hear a lot over the coming eleven weeks before the new season starts again.
Martin is quite open on the matter as well. "Yes. I don’t think there’s ever been a question about that. The club has to find a way to be sustainable, a club at this level with the size of club we are, everything we have, the only way to do it is to be supported by someone who wants to put their own money in and to do that”
With the full support of the majority owners Martin is obviously comfortable alerting fans of the coming weeks and the serious interest clubs will have in the likes of Michael Obafemi, Joel Piroe and of course Flynn Downes. However to lose any of them will be very hard to deal with for followers of the swans.
"Traditionally that has been the way it is done and also causes a huge amount of problems when that person decides they no longer want to put money in” the swans boasts added. "We were aware of that when we were brought in. It’s probably the reason we were brought in, to improve players. We’re well aware of that, every club outside the top four in the Premier League is a selling club. We don’t know how much we have yet, we know how much we need to try and bring in to the club. I don’t control that, there’s absolutely no point in me worrying about it. What will be will be. The ideal scenario is we don’t need to sell anyone and we can keep growing together, but I can't lie to you, you’ve seen it in the accounts, we’ll have to sell someone, or a number of people to get to the financial figure the owners want."
Succession planning very much underway
"We’ll be ready for whatever happens," he added. "If players leave, we are ready. We have a succession plan for every position and every single player and that’s why we can stay calm amidst the noise and drama of the transfer window. If we are going to be a player trading club, let’s get it right, we spent not much money on Joel and Flynn and now they’re worth a lot. For the owners, it makes financial sense to allow us to have a little bit of money to try and do the same again."
The openness of the manager will disappoint to some extent, but then a silent ownership and manager as players leave would be far more impacting on the clubs followers. It could cause unrest very quickly. For some fans today will be the last time they see certain players as the swans take on QPR at the swansea.com stadium. It’s a huge shame when the positives from the season are reviewed, but as we all know this has to happen, and happen it will.
Swansea City take on QPR with a 12.30pm kick off today.