Swansea City have already put together their retained list for the retention of players for the 2025/26 season. There will be some sad moments for scholars, academy players and indeed from the first team squad to come.

That release of information could come as early as today but the preferred time for the club may well be tomorrow. By Saturday all clubs have to make their retained list known. It’s called a retained list but of course those that do not appear on it will have their professional futures decided elsewhere away from west Wales.

The Swans are already without Joe Allen and Kyle Naughton who retired from the professional game this month. There is also a number of players who we know today that will not be at Swansea City next season. Cyrus Christie, Kristian Pedersen, Nathan Tjoe-A-On and Jon McLaughlin will also see their times at the Swans coming to an end.

People will straight away look for the name of Harry Darling, but he is under contract and the club won’t release him without knowing if he is taking the contract offer from the Swans. That’s still available to him. News on him is his representatives are part way through discussions for him to join Wrexham but other clubs are now looking at him away from the Racecourse ground and much touted Birmingham City. The three clubs relegated from the Premier League, Leicester City, Southampton and Ipswich (exclusive) have all displayed interest in him as have Sheffield United. The latter won’t move until the play off final is decided, and by then Darling’s decision could already be known. However, pending offers can still be made.

The future of players like Josh Thomas, Nathan Broome, Aimar Govea, Cameron Congreve, Joel Cotterill, Ben Lloyd, Kit Margetson, Evan Watts and one or two others from the U21 set up may be a decision for next year with all of them under contract until summer 2026. However, it isn’t unknown for players at that level to be released. Sammy Henia-Kamau and Maliq Cadogan will be looking over their shoulders for sure and Kyrell Wilson has just returned to the Swans after a loan spell at Yeovil. All are not certain of their futures but in Wilson’s case he did have a decent loan spell at Yeovil despite tailing off towards the end of the season. His contract runs until 2027. Maliq Cadogan could well leave the Swans.

It isn’t a good time for younger players. But an exciting one for those retained.

Players with value like Andrew Fisher who had a very good loan spell at St Johnstone can command money in any transfer. His contract runs until 2026. Several clubs are expected to bid for him. However, the Swans do want back up to Lawrence Vigouroux. They either trust Fisher with that role again, something which hasn’t worked that well for him or pending a new signing they entrust a younger less experienced keeper from the U21. The U18 side will also be determined for next season with at least two players expected to be under review.

It’s called a retained list but of course it’s a lot more than that with some clubs having already made it known of their players futures. With so many first team squad players leaving and of course the likes of Jerry Yates and Mykola available for transfer - next season will be a new look Swansea City. If we include Lewis O’Brien, Hannes Delcroix and of course Matt Grimes now at Coventry City there are huge gaps to fill. With that there is no doubt more players will be brought in before the transfer deadline in September.

As it stands here are the summer transfer window dates.

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Artwork by Swansea Independent

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