Matt Grimes will meet with Julian Winter on Tuesday for what is seen as a final attempt to get him to sign on the dotted line for Swansea City before the transfer window ends. You may recall our ‘Steve Cooper’ feature on June 2nd this year and this has a similar ring to it. The club are doing all they can to retain Grimes services.

Matt Grimes does split opinion in the swans fans ranks, some see him as a clever footballer with some of the best ability in the Championship, others as a slow and ponderous player more favoured to pass the ball backwards when it’s more than clear it isn’t needed. Early speculation this summer was that Steve Cooper was leaving the swans and Matt Grimes sale was cited as one of the reasons. It potentially was ‘one’ of the reasons, what club would turn down a decent offer for a player in the last year of his contract ? However it’s extremely noticeable that as soon as Cooper left Grimes became more of a central figure in the teams plans for this season. So was it really Cooper unhappy with Grimes potential sale ? Or Grimes not happy with the way that Cooper’s tactics were heading on the pitch ? Matt Grimes continued presence at the club tells a lot.

A fee in ‘principle’ was agreed after talks with Fulham, but their interest seemed to tail off. Grimes agents ‘ Unique Sports Management’ are one of the top agent brands in the UK, and manage the interests and lives of some of the best players in the game. It will be known exactly what Matt Grimes wants to leave Swansea, no player and club discussion needs to take place, that’s his agents job in the early days of any transfer possibility.

So far Watford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Newcastle, Southampton and Fulham have been linked as clubs of interest in speaking to Grimes who responded on Friday to Sky Sports, “No, it's all just noise around me at the moment," when asked if he could provide any comment on his future. "I'll give everything I can for this club every time I step foot on the pitch, and that's all I can say about it really." For us here that tells us a few things.

1. His agent continues to be that noise around him and are out there still trying to get a deal for Grimes, no problems there, that’s a part of their job.
2. Knowing that Swansea City will give it one more approach and offer him a much improved contract on Tuesday, that noise around him will also get quite louder as the outcome is reflected on by Grimes.
3. The real noise will be that if Grimes doesn’t sign a new swans contract prior to the deadline in eight days time he is clearly intending to see the outcome of the final day transfer nonsense next Monday.

Grimes couldn’t say to Sky Sports, I’m keeping my options open, that would be suicide so the usual mantra was stated. Matt Grimes does have another option and that’s to disregard all ‘noise’ around him and just run his contract down. Again come the end of the transfer window if he is still a swans player, then that will become very evident. The caveat to that of course is he and his agents see him as such a valuable asset that another season will conclude and that’s when he will be at his strongest. In May 2022. As a free agent to talk bigger numbers for his signature or push the swans to enhance what already is a big contract offer.

It’s all about the steadiest hand and who blinks first in Matt Grimes case, he won’t be the one doing too much blinking though, that’s left to the professionals who represent him. Tuesday will see another milestone in the Matt Grimes contract situation, and of course another clue as to what he really thinks about staying at Swansea City.

Time will tell for sure. For us he is steam rolling straight in to a transfer deadline day dust up, looking for the best deal and hoping it pays off. After all if that wasn’t the case he would have signed for Swansea City far sooner than now.

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Photographs licensed from Reuters

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