Phil SumblerMichael Duff joined the Swans from Barnsley last week and is currently in Spain with his players but the small matter of closing off the compensation claims with Southampton for his predecessor are very much alive with a potential legal claim in the offing.
The whole sorry saga was laid bare in the Athletic yesterday and shows just why the departure of the want away Swans boss took more than a month to be confirmed and could have gone on much longer had either club had the desire to make it so.
We know though that having it drag on would not have done any side any favours given that the Swans returned to pre-season training on Friday and Southampton are set to do the same next week. For either club to have returned with the matter unresolved would have done much damage to their plans ahead of the new season and so it progressed last week that Southampton could proclaim Martin as their man in charge. And, of course, the Swans could do similar with Michael Duff.
The matter though, it seems, is far from over and Duff is also slightly hampered at the moment by the fact that he has been unable to appoint backroom staff until the ones that Martin wants to take with him have been officially appointed at St Mary’s themselves. Neither side appears to be coming out of this matter with any credit when you read it in detail.
The club statement following the departure of Martin last week referenced some of the issue when it said “The club also stands firm in our belief that we are owed full compensation for Russell and we will continue working diligently and strategically to protect the best interests of the club.”
That tells you that the owners are prepared to take this all the way to a courtroom if necessary to get the money that they believe they are owned. As the Athletic article states “Martin’s Swansea contract contained fixed buyout clauses that allowed clubs, dependent on what division they were in, to extract him from it. Swansea felt entitled to the stipulated compensation figure from a Premier League side, which Southampton were last season, which worked out at £1.25million”
Southampton’s counter argument is that they had already been relegated from the Premier League which would have changed the clause to be £750,000 so the general gist of this situation is you have two clubs arguing the semantics of a deal that sees a difference of £500,000. A matter of principle to both I guess is clear to understand although the damage done in a close season could have been much more?
£400,000 is the amount quoted for the backroom team of Matt Gill, Dean Thornton, Matt Willmott and Ben Parker which is another part of the deal that still remains unresolved leaving our new manager slightly in the dark as to when that will be resolved.
The irony that Martin was not first choice should not go unnoticed either but with Saints’ ideal man in Enzo Maresca turning them down before joining Leicester City, Martin was the man that they turned to and the one they believe could spearhead their return to the Premier League.
With Paul Watson leading the negotiations for the Swans matters never got to a stage that they should have done and this week’s announcement added some levels of certainty although there were still many more questions then there were answers as to how the matter will close.
Legal teams on both sides are involved and discussions remain ongoing despite the bad feeling that is now between the parties on both sides and the Swans belief that Southampton should pay up as a Premier Club which officially they were at the time of their first unofficial approach. And that should be the case irrespective of whether they had mathematically been relegated or not. Relegation is not confirmed until the Premier League AGM and that, Swansea believe, is something that will stand up in court.
A sorry tale no matter which one of the two clubs you support and one that it appears set to rumble on for some time yet. Hopefully in the background without any impact on Michael Duff and his own pre-season plans.
Just pay the money Saints and stop embarrassing your fans. We have had enough of your erroneous decisions this past year.
From a Saints supporter.
Yet another mess from the Saints Board. If you didn’t want to pay the full compensation, you should have waited until the formal relegation. But you knew that would probably mean losing your man and potentially eating into pre season. Martin needs this put to bed and his staff. Sort it out and do the right thing. Saints fan 60 years.
Another Saints fan here. Wish we had agreed a deal to take Martin, his team plus any players he wants to bring well before now.
This has left a bad taste in the mouth and now court action. Swansea won’t accept our bids for players under contract. Although I believe we were effectively a Championship club when the approach went in, it’s a moot point, and a price for all whom we wanted could have been agreed, surely. If we couldn’t agree, then move on to another target. We were foolhardy over Nathan Jones, and here we go again.
We wouldn’t have been in this mess if the Saints Board had selected the right man for the job back in Nov/Dec last year. If Martin is the right man for the Job then pay the money. Will any other Club want to do business with us in the future, if this is the way the board negotiate deals ?
To mess about on such a trifling amount is an embarrassment! Trifling compared to the waste of transfer money during a minimum of the last 2 seasons.
A typically stupid situation which makes being a loyal Saints supporter more difficult than ever!
In good faith , I have renewed my season ticket already so can Saints just get this crazy example of boardroom testosterone out of the way.
Supporters of Saints & Swansea deserve better from their managements.
Russell Martin needs to hit the ground running & needs his backroom in place by the end of this week, we have players that will go & new ones that will arrive, all a complete drama for the new manager to cope with. Once the new management are able to work together with all the new personnel it will surely work through but no more delays please.
How about a compromise: £300,000? Move on.