It’s been a busy week at Swansea City with more business being done both on and off the pitch so let’s condense the latest information, and review some speculation on the swans with forty eight hours to go before the season starts.

The name on everyone’s lips is of course Joel Piroe, linked again with another club. Brighton cropped up this week. The twitterati reported that the seagulls were closely watching the swans prized asset. And then of course then came the denials, journalists stating there was nothing in it, despite others saying it was firm interest. We spoke to a source yesterday that clearly stated no approach had been made, which is good news for swans fans. However, for those who claim that there is ‘no interest’ is a little bit odd. Brighton amongst five other clubs (we are told) had analysts and scouts at the Charlton game last weekend.

Russell Martin has commented today "You never know what's going to happen in football so I've never come out and promised that but I also know that Joel is very happy," he said. "I speak to Joel, I speak to his representatives as well, as does Josh Marsh, and they're really happy. They're happy with Joel's development. They're happy that this is a really good club for him at this moment in time. The style of play really suits him, and I think Joel's aware of the big picture as well. He's enjoying his football. I think the sale of Flynn Downes helps strengthen our position with Joel a little bit as well. So while you never want to promise because the transfer window goes on for a month while the season's going on, so who knows what's going to happen between now and then, but at this moment in time, both players are very happy, and we're very happy to have them."

No smoke then.

Goalkeeper Lewis Webb has joined Aberystwyth on loan for what seems to be the whole of the coming season. On the verge of becoming swans number two if the Steven Benda transfer rumours are confirmed ( and they surely will be ) It still seems odd to us a competent keeper such as Benda can’t just battle it out with Andy Fisher for the number one spot. He was thrown a real curved ball at the start of last season, you really had to feel for him. It was as big an ask as any player had to deal with when Russell Martin took over, in fact for a keeper it was nigh on impossible.

We still can’t get our heads round the Nathanael Ogbeta situation, but surely the signing of him on the last day of the January transfer window wasn’t endorsed by the swans manager. And the fee of three hundred thousand pounds plus has turned in to a complete waste of money. Ogbeta has already turned down two opportunities to move on, and nobody can blame him for that. He is in exactly the same situation as Jay Fulton with time on his contract and nobody in a position to force him out. The club maybe should qualify the situation with Ogbeta, it will prevent the Mark Allen situation (who was behind the signing and then moved on from the club) being explored continuously. But then without any firm notice from the club, the speculation will increase. Finley Burns was another Allen signing, as was Ntcham.

Joe Allen we are told is not fit for Saturday, which is a blow for sure. We can’t expect to see him at Rotherham despite his hard work to be fit. "I don't think he'll be ready to start this weekend, no," the Martin said. "I think there's a thing around Joe where some expect him to be injured a bit, but not at all. I think he played fifty three games last season, which is more than Flynn Downes did for us. He played brilliantly for Wales. He played a lot of games for Stoke, so we've got no worries really. It was an injury that happened at the end of the season. They'd been celebrating qualifying for the World Cup, which anyone would. He then picked up the virus and tried to play 45 minutes and unfortunately picked up an injury during that. So he's fine, he's in a really good place. He's really happy to be back. We don't want to rush him. We maybe could have rushed him to start this weekend, but then you run the risk of losing him further forward. It's a really, really long season, so we'd rather he maybe miss this one, so that he's available for a later one."

Russell Martin is getting fairly well known for his tactical misinformation when he speaks to the press, he did it a few times last season, giving little away and then surprising us. However, we have to take this at this at face value.

Jacob Rasmussen, the twenty five year old Florentine defender has been linked to the swans. Our inquiries were met with shrugged shoulders. Again let’s be clear it isn’t just clubs that approach other clubs regards their players. Maybe it’s about time we republished our agents feature ?
Rasmussen is primarily a centre back, but has played out wide, but surely that’s another square pegs situation if there is anything in this.

The season is so close, the rumours increase and you can expect opinion, news and reports on everything that is Swansea City on Swansea Independent.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

ReslovenSwan1 added 13:49 - Jul 28 Any sale of Piroe must be given a deadline. No offers considered after August x. Swansea s 22-23 season is number one priority.
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