Swans to be priced out of moves for MK Dons duo?

Harry Darling and Matt O’Riley.   Two names heavily linked with the Swans this January window with both of them clearly liked strongly by their former manager in Russell Martin.   A midfielder and a defender, two key positions in which the Swans would like to strengthen but both seemingly now outside of our price range.

We have already managed to capture one of Martin’s former players in Andy Fisher, a player who had to be content to watch on from the bench yesterday as Ben Hamer pulled off some good saves (and delivered some hairy moments!) in the 1-1 draw with Huddersfield.

The Swans boss though is not content in stopping there – he would like to add both Darling and O’Riley but it is speculated/reported/rumoured (delete as appropriate) that both would command a seven figure fee – money that the Swans simply would not have without the injection of cash from either player sales or more convertible loans into the club.

The one thing we can say largely about Russell Martin transfers is they make us look a better side.   The debut of Cyrus Christie yesterday had many positives and certainly he appeared to add another dimension to our game at right wing back and one that I hope we can benefit from in the weeks to come.    Add in Jamie Paterson and Olivier Ntcham to his purchases and there are good buys there and even in Michael Obafemi yesterday there looked hope that he could turn into someone worth the fee that we paid for him.

There are endless rumours that float around in any transfer window and the Swans have been heavily linked with a host of players in the last week alone but the interest in O’Riley and Darling is clear and probably natural given the manager’s links and not ignoring the fact that both of them are clearly talented players.

The problems come when you look at the fees.   To secure Fisher would take around £1.5m and Darling a little less than this but still in the region of £1m.  Whether these are MK Dons valuations or minimum fee release clauses I honestly have no idea on but they are the figures that would make the Dons wonder about selling.   £2.5m for two players for a Championship club that we know is not awash with cash seems simply unlikely to me as it does to you.

We know there was a loan against the remaining monies from the Joe Rodon sale but much of this goes against natural running costs and there has been no noises of any convertible loan into the club from the ownership despite a call from Julian Winter pre Christmas for them to fund some spending.

Russell Martin will have been aware of our budgetary constraints (you assume) when he joined the club back at the start of the season and nothing really has changed there.  He will also be aware of the values that MK Dons will put on these players although there could be an element of hope that Championship interest may turn the players heads but even if that is the case MK Dons hold the contracts and can still refuse the bids.

So what will happen next ?  At a guess you can expect more speculation about both players and the Swans.  It is difficult to see us making a move but if we did then you would have to assume it would have to be this week.   As much as last minute moves are common place in the January window any sale by MK Dons will see them needing to move to replace the players and that doesn’t happen overnight (unless Marvin Emnes is available anyway!)

For me as much as I like the idea of both players at the Swans I cannot help but feel that if we had £2.5m to spend it could be spent better elsewhere but I cannot get away from the fact that I don’t believe we have it and without it, MK Dons will not be willing to do business with us.

Future developments awaited!