Phil SumblerIt was three weeks ago that it was suggested that there were Premier League clubs chasing Joel Piroe when Sky Sports reported that two clubs at that level were interested in the man who seems destined to leave the Swansea.com stadium this season.
Just twenty four hours after it was reported that Leicester City had made a move for Piroe, Wales Online were reporting Italian interest and tentative enquiries from Everton and Nottingham Forest although there has been no formal bids from either of the Premier League sides.
Both clubs were referenced when we considered where the Premier League interest may come from and you can see why both clubs would be interested in one of the Championship’s leading scorers from the past two seasons.
Everton have been fighting against relegation for the past two seasons and are desperate for some new firepower up front whilst Forest are heading into a second Premier League season and Piroe is known to Steve Cooper who was in SA1 when the Dutchman arrived.
Piroe himself is known to want Premier League football although we are hearing increasing rumours that the move to Leicester is having increasing appeal possible helped by the fact that Leicester’s budget will be as close to a Premier League one as any club at this level next season.
As per yesterday’s article the Swans have to hold out for a good price for their leading scorer especially given our increasing confidence that a very large chunk of the fee will be made available to Michael Duff to become more active in the transfer market.
And that will be why increasing interest in Piroe will be good news for us – the more clubs showing an interest, the more chance of a bidding war coming in to drive the price up.
Interestingly, Coventry seem set to agree a fee for Viktor Gykeres with a fee of €18M + €2M add-ons seemingly agreed which should give some level of figure for the Swans to work on and certainly that figure is significantly higher than the £8m-£10m bracket that has been suggested for Piroe. With both strikers having just twelve months left on their contract it will always be one that generates comparisons as and when deals are confirmed.
What is certain from here will be that there will be more links to be uncovered before Piroe actually leaves SA1. How many of the links lead to actual bids coming in we do not know the answer to at the moment but for the sake of our own bank balance and budget we can hope that there will be more than one.
The summer of change continues…
