The world’s worst kept secret for some, but the Swans were never going to let Joe Allen retire without some form of recognition and an offer to continue his playing career at Swansea City.
It may have been going through the motions, but it was what he deserved.
There will be news coming on Kyle Naughton very shortly too, we will leave that to the club to announce in their own time. But it’s pretty obvious to many what that news will contain playing wise. We have been doing some work on Joe and Kyle this week, both players are at a crossroads where they need to feel confident in their ability on the pitch. Recent data supplied to both players has had a big impact on both of their careers. (external sources) Both needed to consider that plus pre match conditioning and post match recovery was having a big impact on their confidence as well. A player without confidence is a sure way to getting injured or to make the wrong decision within a game.
However, hasn’t Joe been excellent these past few months ?
Joe’s contracts at Swansea have never been as much as people have bandied about on the internet, please - capology isn’t a clever tool to believe in. Joe was on around four thousand pounds a week plus bonuses this season. And his new contract offer was less. That of course isn’t the reason why he is retiring, it’s just that Joe feels it’s as far as he could go. He is deserving of a feature on the Indy and this will come around Sunday evening.
Kyle (below) has played over five hundred games in his career and some three hundred for the Swans, he has been a delight to watch at times but at thirty six we believe it is time for him to make a big decision on his future. He is most certainly keen to carry on in football off the pitch.
Sadly today we have received some exact and exclusive information on Josh Ginnelly, another player who is struggling a lot this season. For Josh it is also about conditioning and ability to maintain a standard at Championship level. This season he has completed around forty minutes of football over four games. That includes his cameo at Southampton in the FA Cup. As it stands Josh isn’t reaching a standard for him to be included in every match day squad or feature on the pitch. We all know that is down to his horrendous injury when he joined the club, the setbacks over the past two years have been wholly disheartening. He has another year on his contract but the likelihood of any extension is a far off hope. Head coach, Alan Sheehan wants players able to come in to his squad with the tenacity to turn games and make a major impact on the first eleven. Sadly for Josh this isn't happening at the moment. Even as a reliable squad player he is a long way off.
We will have a Swans v U’s pre match later. It looks like tomorrow will be an emotional day for a number of the Swans squad. We will carry updates on Harry Darling’s new contract offer and of course a plan the Swans have hatched to get Lewis O’Brien.
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Read our Bobby Wales feature below.