Everyone wants to get their players in as quick as possible in the closed season. This one in particular has three months for clubs to get the work done they need to. And there’s still two whole months plus a few days to go.
However, most clubs with a little cash to spend will go all out for the players they want so they can gel and get in to the mentality of the squad they are joining. Last weeks announcements of new players at the swans was refreshing with three of them most certainly going to be involved next season.
The news of Joe Allen turning down a new Stoke City contract was good to hear for swans fans. However, he will not be short on offers this and next week. Clubs want to get their players in quickly and with the majority waiting until July 1st to avoid paying June salaries the next two weeks will be busy. It’s clear Russell Martin has a handle on almost every inquiry the swans are making, even when he is away like last week at Pennyhill Park. Since Mark Allen left he has been pretty much in the driving seat when it comes to player preference, and this was signified in his talks with Peterborough United over Steven Benda. The only reference of those talks is Barry Fry talking to the swans manager, nothing more.
The big desire for swans fans is to secure Joe Allen, but with Jay Fulton dragging his feet on a move ( he is contracted so there’s no reason why he shouldn’t ) and Ryan Bennett’s salary beyond anything most of the championship can afford Swansea are between a rock and a hard place. If these two can be ‘moved on’ a number of opportunities will present themselves. Not least Joe Allen. With investment already made in four new players the cash is now tight at Swansea City. Allen is still holding out for a Swansea move, and the Huddersfield Town interest was nothing more than filler, they never had any interest in him.
In fact on signings coming in some will be surprised that four new signings are already done.
Pending deals, and Ryan Bennett is keen to leave Swansea could present the club with an opportunity to secure funding whilst potential moves go through, that’s been done before. And the swans will look at loan moves for both Fulton and Bennett, but it’s clear the club will have to pay some of the salary for Bennett to go anywhere on loan. And even with Fulton’s salary of around ten thousand pounds a week there’s only a limited number of championship clubs who can accommodate him.
But not on those figures.
These two players will feature on here many times unless they leave the swans, it’s a huge amount of money to pay out for two players who won’t be getting a look in next season if Russell Martin is to be believed. And there’s no reason why not. Reading have indicated interest in Bennett but can’t pay for players, and Portsmouth have now stated they haven’t got any money for Morgan Whittaker, Kyle Jospeh or Liam Cullen. So the only hope is a player swap for Marcus Harness as an example. For us, the only player worth swapping is Liam Cullen, Whittaker and Joseph are of far more value at the swans.
It is a crucial time for clubs, there has to be some leeway for them to recruit and sell to fund new players, but it’s helter skelter stuff. The good news will be that this is the same for all clubs, so any firm interest in the more valuable Swansea assets will surely come to light over this busy time ? Swans fans seem resigned to losing at least one of their stars of last season, but the knock on effect if more went would be detrimental to the club achieving anything next season. The double edged sword of sustainability and progress remains.
We will keep you up to date as the week progresses.