A report late last night from an undisclosed Swansea source referenced the club interested in signing goalkeeper Andrew Fisher and centre back Harry Darling from MK Dons. Both are highly thought of at MK but figures of four million pounds plus are absolutely ridiculous.

The headline from Football Insider ...

Irrespective of what cash comes in from the sales of Jay Fulton and potentially Yan Dhanda in January Swansea City would not even consider paying out the sums mentioned exclusively by Football Insider. Okay, this is news from a credible swans source, however whoever that is their credibility has taken a dive this morning. Fisher does figure in Swansea City’s plans if they can secure a deal for him, but that won’t be any more than two hundred thousand pounds. Yes,there could be add ons of course. In Darling’s case he is on an upward trajectory as a professional footballer, and will almost certainly play at a higher level.

Football Insider reported -
However, the Welsh side have conceded the seventh-most goals in the second tier this season. As such, Martin is desperate to bolster his rearguard in order to boost Swansea’s chances of promotion to the Premier League. Goalkeeper Fisher has kept 16 clean sheets in 57 games since joining MK Dons from Blackburn Rovers last year. Meanwhile, centre-back Darling has been an almost ever-present for the League One side since his move from Cambridge United earlier this year. Together, the pair have contributed excellently to an impressive start for MK Dons, which sees them sitting sixth in the third tier and in contention for a play-off place come the end of the season.

Football Insider are a credible football reporting website, it’s not knocking them at all, however more research was required with this news story.

Their assessment on both players are perfectly correct, it’s the four million pound tag on both players that unfortunately leads us to question the source of the information. Swans CEO Julian Winter has already stated this week that the club need more investment from the American majority owners. If the players swans boss Russell Martin wants to leave do so, the club won’t touch north of five hundred thousand, if the swans are very lucky.

The interest from the swans is correct, but the amount of value placed on these two players is way off the mark. Darling is valued at around five hundred thousand tops, and that’s being kind. The twenty two year old has limited experience in League one and two. And spent a lot of loan time in non league until he started to feature in MK’s starting eleven. This year he has been seen as a positive for the club but only featured in his hundredth game as a professional in August. Fifty five of those appearances have been at Cambridge United in League two.

Fisher we have featured before, he has kept sixteen clean sheets out of fifty seven MK appearances. But he too is inexperienced. Both would be ‘risk’ signings for the swans. Neither player as it stands match up to what the club has at its disposal. The swans have Ben Cabango, Brandon Cooper and Ryan Bennett as far better options than Darling. The first two are streets ahead in development and ability compared with Darling. Of course he would certainly improve under Russell Martin’s ‘Swansea Way’ but if investment is to be made its going to be a little bit more positive than these two players. Yes, they could easily join Swansea City, but at a combined fee of six hundred thousand is far more realistic.

And as Winter has pointed out, more investment is needed next month from the USA.

You can take those millions of pounds figures with a pinch of salt, it won’t happen, not a chance. Swansea City are one of only a few debt free clubs in the football league, and we won’t go in to loan notes etc. And to stay that way the club wont be gambling on high risk signings at those figures. Rest assured. It just won’t happen.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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