Michael Obafemi who had a strong finish to the second half of the championship season has been mentioned alongside Joel Piroe and Flynn Downes as a potential departure from the swans this summer. As it stands this afternoon after a discussion with someone extremely knowledgable and close to the club any transfer, as it stands is just not on the agenda.

Others will know this as well, it isn’t a secret but Michael Obafemi hasn’t seen as much success as he has since he knuckled down and fell in with Russell Martin’s football philosophy. He struggled immensely at the start and our early reports suggested a real issue with his overall mindset and attitude.

Even Russell Martin disclosed this, and Michael felt the wrath of supporters as well. We featured this at the start of last season, it was obviously hard for him to adjust and take on board such a change in the demands made upon him.

Click here –> Michael Obafemi warned by Russell Martin

Reading that now it feels like we are talking about a different player, it’s almost as if that was another dimension, almost another world. And it was, something obviously clicked with Michael and the management of him through these stages of his early weeks at Swansea seems now to have been extremely well judged. He took time but as soon as he applied himself we saw a very capable goalscorer, he was listening to the swans medical staff, training as was being suggested, and most importantly was listening to the man who could turn his career around.

Russell Martin.

Since then Michael has rewarded the club with twelve goals, his attitude seems spot on and he is taking his time keeping and overall attitude extremely professionally. We of course expect that, he is well paid for his efforts, but it has to be hats off to Russell Martin for ‘managing’ Michael’s differences and difficulties when he first arrives at Swansea. Being recognised by the Republic of Ireland now as a very much a fixture in their selection process, plus settled and focussed on his club, the only way is up for Michael surely ?

We have been told that Swansea have no plans to get rid of him, obviously we all know how quickly things change but at no point has his leaving even been mentioned. He is a player who only saw vast improvements in his attitude over the final five months of the season. The swans would not reach his full financial capacity if a transfer was mooted. And clubs out there maybe haven’t got the time or managerial experience to guide him in the same way Russell Martin has. That makes a lot of sense.

There’s no reason why Obafemi would want to leave the club, everything he wants out of football is beginning to click, albeit over a short period of time, he is exceptionally happy in Swansea. His international career has never been better and his goalscoring record has never been better at any level. That’s a huge nod in the direction of Russell Martin and his team, and even the bosses dissenters would have to agree, Obafemi has improved immensely.

As it stands there have been no bids or inquiries for Michael, bar a tentative call regards a loan in January, and anyway he isn’t in the frame of mind to leave, and he is loving his life at the swans. Surely his agent see’s the positives in this, an unhappy Michael back at square one elsewhere could well be as negative for him as it is positive for him to stay.

We have to take this information at face value, apart from the fact it makes complete sense. Michael has come a long way since his early days at Chelsea, and the reward for his hard work is where he is today. He is at a club that has elevated him to the best level he has ever been at, it isn’t a marriage of convenience either. He wants to give as much as he can for the swans cause, and already we have all seen the benefits.

Any move now or this summer for him could potentially be disastrous.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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