With the season coming to an end and talk turning to the summer and within a matter of weeks the summer transfer window opening we’ve spent a few days chatting to some friendly supporters of the website, and have a guess what ? Paul Watson, Swans Sporting Director has been relentless in his searches for new talent, and we’ve snagged a name he finds of interest for next season.
We’ve always stated on this website there is a huge difference to a conversation, inquiry, interest, offer and transfer. Most get it. However, we have been burrowing away and chatting to our usual sources and some interesting information was discovered. The power of Paul Watson’s connections have improved greatly, and as you would expect are continuing to do so. The safe bets of last year have let him down, Jerry Yates a prime example, Kristian Pedersen another, others are out on loan and potentially discovering their worth, players like Nathan Tjoe-A-On. Watson is clearly unhappy with some of his progress, and that’s very much documented by him personally.
We do know he has had some unhappy times at the Swans, and numerous heart to heart conversations with Andrew Coleman the club Chairman. Although Watson being picked out as a failure by some fans was a bit leftfield, you would expect the usual scapegoats when things are going wrong, but that was surprising. However, you have to agree to some extent with the business the club did last summer.
We have uncovered two names that have been noted by Swansea City, however they are just two in amongst what is clearly a huge trawl of future talent within the game. The second name we have a bit more work to do on. That will come early next week. We found the first link of interest primarily as this is a player who clearly can score goals. Joe Taylor (21) is currently on loan at Lincoln City having been at Colchester United on loan before that. He is a Welsh Under 21 international, and his parent club is Luton Town. This season he is scoring one goal in two. For both Colchester and Lincoln City he has bagged twenty goals this term. His parent club have big expectations of Joe for the future, however he isn’t Premier League ready. There are two options for the Swans if their interest becomes more solid. The first is to take him on loan for a season from Luton. He can test his credentials at a far higher level with tougher opposition and a far more tactically credible league. The second would be a fair offer. Both are possible, the former more likely, however success at the Swans on loan would elevate his value greatly. That’s a fifty, fifty shout, but the future is unwritten.
His manager at Luton, Rob Edwards is pretty clear on Taylor’s progress though, "He’d done well in League Two, ticked that off, doing well in League One as well, so we’ll have to see what the next thing is for him. It’s too early at the moment, we’ve got a lot of decisions to make between now and the summer, but of course he’s in our thinking for next season as well. I want him to concentrate on what he’s concentrating on at the moment first and foremost and the reason he’s been talked about is because he’s concentrating on what he’s doing right now and that’s performing for Lincoln.”
No solid commitment from Edwards, the key for us is which league Luton are in next season. If it’s in the Championship Luton may well retain him as going on loan to a league rival seems somewhat unlikely. If they stay up then the Swans will find him of interest.
Winning the EFL’s young player of the year award recently has rubber stamped the young man’s credentials this season, on that Taylor himself reacted, "It's been a bit of a whirlwind, (he also picked up League One's Player of the Month award two weeks ago). "To win two awards is a massive achievement. I did really well in my first loan spell at Colchester on a personal level. Obviously we didn't really pick up the results we needed but I got myself a recall and then a loan out here. You almost then have to hit the reset button. It took me a couple of games to get going but once I did, I've been able to pick up where I left off."
Joe is a player who is clearly going places, it’s now a case of what places they are.