Rob Davies
Reports have emerged this morning that the Swans would not sell Joel Piroe without a figure of £20m or more, matching the sale figure of Oli McBurnie to Sheffield United.
McBurnie enjoyed similar success in his first full season at Championship level netting 24 goals – a figure that Piroe could well match or exceed if he continues his form in the final six games.
It hasn’t worked out so well for the Scottish striker since leaving but should Leicester come calling as has been widely reported for Piroe, Wales Online suggest that the figure would need to be of a similar level.
The standard rate of top goalscoring talent in the Championship has been around the £20m mark for several years, looking at the likes of Ollie Watkins (who went for even more), Adam Armstrong, Che Adams (£15m), Neal Maupay and Jarrod Bowen.
Russell Martin has spoken regularly of his desire to keep Dutchman Piroe at the Swansea.com Stadium past the summer as he has built up an increasingly fruitful partnership with Michael Obafemi in a front three.
Whether that will be fantasy or reality will soon be seen although there’s no doubt that there will be targets to improve the squad this summer and players pinpointed to replace any outgoings.
Piroe has also spoken of his happiness at the club in recent days: “Of course I really enjoy my time here.
“Now I have reached 20, I don’t want to stop scoring. I want to win as many games as possible.
“I just try to make the right decision.
“I try to recognise how much space I have before I get the ball. If you know that you have a lot of space, you can just pick a corner.
“If you see the goalkeeper is moving to the short corner, you can try to hit it in the long corner and vice versa.
“I didn’t really know how many games I would play [after signing].
“I was hoping to play at least 20 to 25 games and to develop, to get into the English style of football and to score as many goals as possible.
“Now we hope to finish as strong as possible to show the fans that we are really fighting for them.”
The likes of Flynn Downes and Ben Cabango could both also attract interest although with the club’s recent track record of identifying talent I’m sure that replacements would be of a suitable calibre.
