Phil SumblerAs the Swans head into international break time this week, we do so with the side looking good in 4th place in the table thanks to an unbeaten start to the season and ten points from the twelve available already on the board.
With Reading and Bristol City on maximum points and Bournemouth having matched our tally it’s a strong start to the season from all four sides and one that Steve Cooper will hope will continue when we return in two weeks. That return will signpost the start of five games in a fourteen day spell that will test his squad depth for certain and come the end of this month we will have a much better idea as to whether we are genuine promotion candidates or just a team that has started the season well.
Much of that could depend on the off field activity that will happen between now and the next game against Huddersfield on 17th. There will certainly be some nervousness around the Liberty as to the future of Joe Rodon especially given the way that Premier League teams have been shipping goals this time around and they could be looking to one of the Swans shining lights to make a move.
There have been no moves to date for Joe but both Manchester clubs, West Ham and Leicester have all been linked which makes us nervous although there is a large part of that which will be driven by agent talk as is the norm at this time of year.
Andre Ayew is another one who may attract interest but given his well publicised high wages it seems unlikely that he will make a move out of the Liberty which will definitely be good news for a promotion push but make the accountants trying to balance the books more nervous.
Those are probably the only two high profile potential exits from the club although captain Matt Grimes has also been linked with a move away but speculation on that front seems to have died down in the past few weeks.
On the incoming front we know that Steve Cooper wants to bring in new players and he has achieved that with some very good signings this summer to date. Woodman, Guehi, Smith, Gibbs-White and Gyokeres all appear to add depth to the squad and will feature heavily this season. I don’t think he is finished though – a striker and a defender could well still be on his radar to be bringing in and I am sure that this is what his focus will be over the next couple of weeks.
After the public statements this weekend over Peterson as well where Cooper said he only knew about the sale via a text from Julian Winter then you have to assume that right now the two of them are working in close harmony to make the decisions that could help us push on from this excellent start. We know the club is not flush with money (which club is right now?) but the addition of one or two more players could just give us enough strength in depth to make this a very good season ahead.
We should of course not be blind to the potential of high profile exits but right now that is a part we cannot control we just have to ensure that we have planned for that eventuality just in case it does happen. Never a dull moment ahead and maybe not a quiet international break either.
