Joel Piroe was first on Everton’s radar back in 2019 when they were apparently up against Juventus for the Dutchman’s signature. The connection back then was director of football Marcel Brands who had moved from PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands to Everton. This started a number of Joel Piroe rumours connecting him to the Merseyside club.

Unfortunately for Joel Piroe the move didn’t come off, it would have been at the time due to him being seen as a gamble despite Piroe being available on a potential free transfer. That’s the Everton link and despite reports over the past seven days of further interest, again unfortunately for Piroe that has been refuted by our sources. There was no official dialogue on Joel Piroe between Swansea City and Everton regards a potential transfer in January according to two sources we speak to regularly. At no point was Piroe discussed regards a move away from Swansea either then or before.

In any event Marcel Brand has since left Everton and returned to PSV.

The only Premier League club that has tracked Piroe’s career are Leicester City. And we were the first publication to report that interest in 2021.

That’s here –> Joel Piroe Foxes link

Fortunately a business transaction was going through between the Swans and Nottingham Forest at the time and this news literally ‘fell in to our hands’ The Leicester Mercury were the first mainstream publication to credit this website with the link despite then attempting to muddy the waters by asking Joel Piroe about the Foxes interest. They confused Leicester tracking the player with a transfer bid. The words used in our article pretty much lost on them. This at the time was what we were up against with the slower thinking twitterati, other websites, and even professional journalists. Of course since then those links have remained within many sports pages nationally.

And that is the only premier league club to genuinely track and trace Piroe’s fortunes over time.The Crystal Palace link has also been met with a shrug of the shoulders, and pretty much dismissed. We revert back of course to ‘use of language’ in these reports and how they can become confusing. Tracking a player is something many clubs do, they may secretly or openly observe the player over a period of time as the Swans did with Luke Cundle.

That report is here –> Luke Cundle to Swansea

Within days of this report Swansea signed Cundle after a Wolves midweek home game.

Recent reports regards Middlesbrough, Rangers, Burnley wanting to sign Piroe are all wide of the mark and of no significance whatsoever. This is speculation, and no conversations have taken place. That is at this time, the future is unwritten.

Contact between clubs happen via chats through managers who know each other, telephone inquiries ( remember Russell Martin disclosing the Steven Benda conversation with Barry Fry ? ) general conversation, or talking to agents who specialise in transfers when employed by a club to scout for them. The ‘use of language’ when reporting is key. There are many different ways a ‘connection’ can be made between clubs and players, and most of them are not official. You have to look at the wording. However, every contact leaves a trace, and every Premier League club we are confidently told has hundreds of players within its sights each year. And not just professionals at other clubs. The age group players at Chelsea for example start at six years.

We can expect of course interest in Piroe this summer, as well as Morgan Whittaker. They are prized assets. The recruitment of players by the Swans ? Well, that’s another story completely, and one which won’t be easy for the club or fans to swallow this coming summer. More on that once we conclude our look in to Swansea City’s agent rating for their young players to join the west Wales club. We can point to Luke Cundle as a success, but there are others out there who disprove this particular claim.

That’s to come.

Photograph licensed from Reuters

Swansea City Polls