Swansea City have been linked with Ethan Pye, the twenty three year old Stockport County defender who has gained admirers from a number of Championship clubs over this year.

The issue that Stockport have had is the pricing of the player going back to last summer. We can confirm that Pye was of interest to the Swans back then, however the club chose to pursue and sign Cameron Burgess. Back then the Hatters wanted two million pounds plus for their exciting prospect who joined from Rochdale academy in 2021. They stuck to their guns and Ethan had a very successful season at Edgely Park.

Burgess was free as such, although commanded a large signing on fee and overall with salary was comparable to Swansea taking what they saw as a gamble on Ethan Pye. Hindsight may prove a wonderful thing but that didn’t stop the Swans having talks in January of this year with Stockport County and their prized defender. As we illustrated in our initial report on Pye his worth according to Stockport was now three million pounds. The other issue then was Stockport County were having a fine season and were looking to challenge for promotion as was borne out when they finished third in League One, but stumbling in the play off final at Wembley. (Pye in action below from that game)

Pye is a player that Jamestown Analytics (Swans sports data partner) would pick up on irrespective of the Swans initial interest. There has been interest over the past two weeks or so with both clubs talking but the fee seems to be the stumbling block. Plus what the Hatters want as an up front payment (the rest amortised over his contract in simple terms) is also going to cause problems. His sell on fee is also an area of discussion, the Swans will rarely go above eighteen percent which in this case will see a bigger fee paid. There are of course caveats to that of late. But a succesful signing will take much from the Swans coffers in the long term if sold on.

With Leo Walta, Stephen Welsh, Moussa Yeo, Joseph Opoku and Elijah Just costing millions irrespective of the deal agreed, this will also have an impact on the Swans budget for this summer. Nobody has been sold on for a fee and the squad overload is obvious. Bianchini is clearly out of the picture for now having not attended the Austrian training camp, Ollie Cooper is now ready for the Swans to move on (the amount of Welsh players that could feature this coming season now negates his value as a Welsh player) Eom who hasn’t been seen since the World Cup and could have returned for Austria as per Marko Stamenić which is no different to Cameron Burgess who is in the same boat. Josh Key is a player who was linked with several clubs before the Ethan Galbraith sale but is now talking about the coming season, so there is room for players to leave. Those mentioning Liam Cullen have to realise his commitment to the Swans is such that he would have to be dragged from his boyhood club kicking and screaming.

Some of the academy players who featured in Austria will be loaned out but the likes of Thomas Woodward and Filip Lissah should feature in Vitor Matos squad which will be officially confirmed in the next seven days. Then there is Ronald of course who has had some decent game time this summer, but will he remain is a big question. However, we are told that is down to Matos alone who seems to like the player a lot. You can draw from that as a whole which players the Swans are likely to sell, loan or move on.

Bar Zān Vipotnik who holds a lot of value should a sale be agreed there’s little you can point to, but we do think an eye should be kept on Eom and Burgess. There most certainly has to be more players coming in, the left back position needs backing up, we’ve spoken about a few potentials, one Mfuni from Manchester City but he isn’t fit at the moment. The Swans were in for him last summer but Manchester City preferred Watford. They were right as when Samuels-Smith came in from Chelsea as back up to Josh Tymon he hardly featured.

You can expect more to come as this dreaded and prolonged transfer window progresses, it really should stop when the new season starts, and irrespective of the timing there is genuinely going to be more Vipotnik links. Thanks for supporting the Indy you are not only helping this website to remain the most visited and biggest Swansea City fans website you are ensuring links and clicks that lead to the brain tumour charity. Also a huge thanks to social media who reference our reports weekly, and even though at times not in the most likeable way our stats show you are equally as helpful in driving people to Swansea Independent. Many are joining up because at the end of the day Swansea City supporters like a good honest read and of course they love to find out for themselves.

We are delighted to announce that Swansea city football legend, Roger Freestone has joined us in a writing capacity. Welcome Rog.

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