The month of January for followers of all football teams brings with it confusion, disorientation or even signs of a change of character, especially online, the angry monster from behind a computer raises its ugly head.

It’s an odd one.

There are reasons for this, most people don’t read an actual feature online or don’t understand it, we’ve had admissions from people who have commented negatively on one of our features and then openly admitted they didn’t read it. Yes, of course we are dealing with the cesspit that is Twitter (X) in the main. People who see no wrong in abusing people from the safety of that particular medium, and who in no way have the wherewithal to do it in a more personal situation.

That’s our brief insight in to the damaged mind of social media. It does require repeating at times.

Of course we need to again look at the principles of how clubs and agents, along with agencies and representatives work in the January window, in fact in any window. Quite simply a transfer is the buying and selling of a product. An expensive one granted, but it is no different in principle to what we all do every day. Of course there’s all the rambling that goes on to get to a position where an agent can bring their player to notice. When links are read on social media there’s very little thought put in to ‘thinking’ about how a certain stage or these conclusions have been reached.

What this website has never done is attempt to predict the future, we lay the information before you, and the facts as they are known and the rest is down to you. Our Will Evans report a point in case, completely misinterpreted by a few on Twitter who cannot go behind 240 characters which explains what we are dealing with. The same for Chris Conn-Clarke and Corey Blackett-Taylor, the information really does need to be read. Any website or account will happily discuss any clarity you need if they are approached and spoken to correctly.

Straight forward contact with the clubs who have players of interest has been the way forwards for Swans Sporting Director Paul Watson this past few months. The club have an extensive list of players of general interest.

The original reports on Will Evans surfaced last October, and from several websites. Looking back now on the information at the time you can see how the reports surfaced from the detail from registered agents above. Telephone calls, a few chats off the record - and a genuine club like Newport will advise the player of the potential interest. In some players this doesn’t unsettle them at all. This actually spurs them on to play better and become more prominent. Will Evans didn’t score for five games after the original news dropped. Since then he has got back on trackscoring five goals in the next seven games. For that speculation to come to a head again this January shouldn’t come as a surprise. His managers response was fair. He stated the club had no intention of getting rid of Will Evans, he admitted contact from clubs though. Very clever work there by Graham Coughlan and for Wales On Line to then report negatively on those comments displayed a lack of awareness as to what was going on. The club could have said nothing, they didn’t, they said there was interest, they left the door cleverly open there. It really does need some thought as to the games that are being played by all sides at this time.

We referenced Hannes Wolf coming to Swansea earlier. As people know there will be all manner of questions on ‘how do you know that’ or continually prevaricating and asking questions. Some got abusive, others tried to undermine the information. And then when he signed they stated he wasn’t from France, hilarious, you see, you can only lead these blind horses to some form of water. If they can’t think for themselves that’s not the problem for any website. Same for Andy Fisher, we got the right information on his transfer two weeks before it was known. That was quite simply as accurate as information as you could get. Matt O’Riley was another example. Everyone with half a nugget available knew he was being pursued by Swansea. The club held out too long around January 5th, much the same as they are doing now and lost the player. And what a signing he turned out to be.

Nothing can be accurate all the time, and of course things go wrong. We are dealing with humans here, and as we have always said, ‘there’s no more free radical as folk’ It is a fact this evening that there will be news on new Swansea players this month. Who they are and at what the deal is will be determined by how effective and quick the club wants to be about getting their player.There is a high priority need for a wide player with pace. There are numerous players with those traits that have been linked, we recommend that people start looking here, just as Paul Watson has.

And as we have always said, look deep for the context.

Artwork by Swansea Independent

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