Swansea City continue to be linked with players, one at Birmingham City who it is suggested to us they can’t afford, let alone match his wage demands. As we move towards another away game against Watford this coming Saturday (3pm) at Vicarage Road there is still plenty of time though to get another player in. You can be sure about that.

First off we have to realise that teams have to register their twenty five man squad by February 2nd, the end of the winter transfer window. This is interesting because in the case of Burnley loanee Manuel Benson the Swans could submit their squad without him registered to play for the club. This is an option for Swansea City. It would of course effect any relationship with Burnley but through our inquiries we have been told that the Clarets wouldn’t be surprised if that became a fact. In fact that is an option for Portsmouth with Bianchini (below). The Swans would have Bianchini back and could lose Benson, it really is a six and two three’s situation.

Bianchini hasn’t had the best of times on loan at Fratton Park and hasn’t played since being named in the squad at the end of November. He is currently out in any event with a knee injury.

The ruling is that all clubs have to register their twenty five players, be they loan or permanent by February 2nd in their twenty five man squad. Any player born after January 1st 2004 have a different criteria applied if they are permanent Swansea players or homegrown. They can be selected for a match day squad due to their age as they are considered U21 players. They can be named in addition to the squad of twenty five.

Loan players at the disposal of head coach Vitor Matos are Malick Yalcouyé, Ishé Samuels-Smith Manuel Benson and new boy Gustavo Nunes. They have to be included in the twenty five. That leaves a comfortable slot for another loan player but we can assure people that there is cash in the transfer fund for the right player. That player has to be very right though. That’s the politics out of the way but it is worth remembering.

We can now tackle the Birmingham City player, Kyogo Furuhashi who joined the Blues from Celtic in the summer. There’s been much written about this player. He is currently out of favour at Birmingham as his goal return is one in twenty six league games. A club who make a lot of goalscoring opportunities have seemingly given up on him. There is some interest in the player from the Swans but it is minimal. In any event no transfer fee will be paid unless it is so low it would be considered a token amount. His salary is above what the Swans pay and he is also thirty one. We have been told ‘If you look at his numbers, his age and salary most people will become aware that he isn’t an option at the finances referred to’ We have also been advised that if anything a loan would be an option but again there’s some big choices to be made on how much the Swans would pay. Unless Swansea have made great strides over the last twenty four hours this isn’t a player the club will go all out for at this moment in time.

It seems a loan is the best option. That will be explored.

These things change by the hour especially with players coming in, there are numerous options the Swans are pursuing, we won’t go shouting that from the roof tops, people who read our reports regularly are fully aware how we operate. It’s easy to speculate but you have to have the facts to do so which from where we are standing there’s very few about from other outlets.

Photograph : Swansea City AFC