The worrying omission of first team players – from MK Dons to Swansea

Russell Martin has been in the Swansea hot seat for pretty much 18 months now and it has been an up and down period both for him and the football club as a whole.

But there’s one worrying trend that seems to follow the former Norwich City defender – fall outs with players which see them dropped from the team. Now it’s important to note the circumstances around each but it can’t be argued that it’s a theme and not just isolated incidents.

We have seen Michael Obafemi, Jamie Paterson, Jay Fulton, Nat Ogbeta, Ryan Bennett and now Morgan Whittaker all disappear from the first team picture for a variety of reasons but the one consistent throughout remains Martin.

It happened at MK Dons too as described below in the Milton Keynes Citizen “The bad and the Ugly

“Fraser, reacting angrily to instructions from the sidelines, gave an expletive response and it saw him hauled off after just 28 minutes, launching his water bottle across an empty stand behind the dugout. Though the ‘air was cleared’ before the Crewe game next up, Dons turned in a lacklustre performance without Fraser on the pitch. If anything, it proved how reliant Dons had become on the Scot. Though they made up, Fraser was sold to Ipswich in the summer.”

This article isn’t designed to be antagonistic but it is only fair to ask the question and look at both angles. The manager has some extremely loyal supporters and also some strong critics to balance out both sides of the arguments.

To briefly look at each individual situation:

Michael Obafemi

The Irish striker has sporadically spent time out of the team with the boss regulsrly reaffirming his good relationship with the player but Obafemi has failed to live up to his expectations both on and off the field.

This one looks to be down to behaviour and judging by the player’s past troubles at Southampton i would suggest the blame lays largely – but probably not entirely – at Obafemi’s door.

Morgan Whittaker

The scorer of the first hat trick since Scott Sinclair in 2011, Whittaker was quickly dispatched on loan firstly to Lincoln in January 2022 before he came of age at League One leaders Plymouth.

Many argue that he should have been given more of an opportunity in the forward positions in the past season and a half and that Martin was hardly pleased – at least in the media – for him to return this month.

Refusing to play is never a good look but undoubtedly there’s more than meets the eye. Perhaps there should be less discussion in the media as it feels like should Whittaker not move to Scotland then it could be anorher Obafemi/Paterson ordeal.

Jamie Paterson

It’s a really bizarre situation with Paterson when he delivered so much in his initial six months at the club but his dispute over a contract renewal was realistically the beginning of the end for him.

Martin supported the player over his mental health but has been vocal about him not meeting expectations, despite offering him numerous opportunities to prove otherwise albeit without a consistent run of first team games.

Mark as per Obafemi, probably more down to his own behaviour than anything Martin has done.

Ryan Bennett

It would be reasonable to say that a player of Bennett’s experience was treated rather shabbily whilst understanding that age had caught up with his abilities as a defender over the past couple of years.

Substituted on in the heavy loss at home to Fulham with thr Swans down to 10 men, it was the last we would see of him with Martin clear that Bennett wouldn’t fit in with his plans any longer.

Could have been handled better.

Jay Fulton

This is one situation where Martin clearly saw the error of his ways and offered him the opportunity this season to play regularly. An opportunity Fulton has seized with both hands.

But it should never have got to that situation where a first team midfielder with plenty to offer spent almost a year out of contention often without even warming the bench. Hopefully the manager has learned his lesson from this mistake; credit must also go to Fulton for his character to fight his way back into the team.

Armstrong Oko-Flex, Nat Ogbeta, Fin Burns and Rhys Williams

All four should be grouped together as disastrous signinfs, three of which were loans and didn’t really get any regular first team football. Understandable with Burns and Williams but Oko-Flex undoubtedly had plenty to offer.

Ogbeta should be a marker for anyone wanting to sign players at the football club without agreement of the manager. It doesn’t benefit the club or player and if Martin has proven anything, it’s that he will only play his players and is happy to dismiss those who don’t ‘fit in.’

Summary

Many of the above have justifiable reasons for their banishment from the first team although some were certainly errors of judgement and demonstrates a weakness in the manager which ultimately weakens Swansea City.

It’s most unusual to see so many players in dispute at a club and that would be a concern but time can only tell if it is little more than a coincidence or a real issue that Martin must address to survive at this level.

For any club, let alone one at our level, it is not feasible to omit upwards of £10m worth of talent at any one time and both the manager and club must work in tandem to ensure it doesn’t happen going forward.