Phil SumblerIt has been reported that both Newcastle United and Southampton are keen to make a move for Swansea captain Matt Grimes and it is now being suggested that Southampton are about to make a first move and could be looking to capitalise on what is becoming an uncertain summer at the Liberty.
We always anticipated that there would be at least one noticeable sale from the club this season given the way that we have to operate within our financial means and the name of Grimes was near the top of a queue that only had a few names on it.
Newcastle and Southampton are not alone in being linked with a move for Grimes but both have one thing in their favour that could swing a deal towards their favour and that is the Swans are interested in taking players from them.
For Newcastle that is, of course, Freddie Woodman, who was reported last week to be nearing in on a potential move back to the Liberty after spending the last two years on loan. For Southampton that is one of our targets from the January transfer window in way of young striker Michael Obafemi.
Obafemi was believed to be on the verge of a move to Swansea last January but injury put pay to that forcing us to look elsewhere and landing on Morgan Whittaker as one of our signings alongside Jordan Morris, neither of which really worked out in the promotion push but for vastly different reasons.
The Saints are now hoping that Obafemi could be the catalyst to land Grimes who has been placed on a list as one of their key targets this summer and it could be that they make a move as early as this week given that the new season is less than six weeks away.
No official contact has yet been made with the Swans but Southampton are believed to be pulling together a player but cash deal that could see the player exchange take place with a reasonable amount of money left in the Swans coffers, of which at least part is being earmarked as part of the transfer kitty for Steve Cooper or whoever would be Swans manager next season as that continues to rumble on.
The Swans requirement of a striker could be determined though by their chase of Thomas Henry and the capture of Joel Piroe and you could easily imagine that our choice of reinforcements up front right now is probably one of Henry or Obafemi and not both which will be one the reasons why Southampton are keen to make a move before their bargaining position is maybe slightly weakened.
