Like a breath of fresh air – Swansea City show a completely different side

Yesterday’s capture of Cameron Burgess from Ipswich was the latest in what are some good moves into the transfer market already this summer and shows that the club has moved on markedly from the recent transfer windows that have been nothing short of disastrous.

Even if the signings don’t work out you have to give credit to those involved in the club these days for their early moved into the market especially when you consider that we are only just halfway through June and this is a club where we have all become used to transfers being made in the last few days of the window and only then after long protracted delays in getting deals over the line.

We should not talk down yesterday’s deal that came against the backdrop of interest from Rangers and Valencia as well as a new deal on the table from Ipswich who, of course, spent last season in the top flight and will have ambitions of their own to return this time around.   These deals certainly won’t happen because financially we are always the best (we all know and accept the limitations of our budgets) but they happen because we actually have a plan and have individuals employed within the club who, for now at least, seem to have the ability to execute that plan with the minimal of fuss.

Long gone are the days where the likes of Jason Levien believed that our place in the Premier League meant that our negotiation rights were the same as those with multiple league titles behind them.   Long gone are the days of him joining forces with Steve Kaplan to allow Daniel Levy and Trevor Birch to walk all over them in a transfer deal that Birch himself said afterwards that there was more money on the table.

Even in the recent past we had the work of Andy Coleman which was so bad he was removed from his position and shipped back to America, a decision that from which we do not appear to have looked back at all since it was taken.  The new ownership have stepped in and started to deliver on the promises that they made to those who they chose to make them to.   They haven’t done it with the empty promises made by Kaplan and Levien and they haven’t done it on the back of the sympathy vote of moving their families to SA1 as if that means that mistakes can be brushed under the carpet.

They have done it by doing the basics right.   Work early, identify your targets, move in quietly and deliver against them.  You know, the basics on which many of us our judged in our daily lives.   They have worked hard to reduce (you will never completely stop) the leaks that come from the club and this means that they can act on a transfer and make the announcements in many cases before the word is out there on the street.  It makes places such as Twitter (Sorry, I mean X) amusing to read on a Saturday afternoon but most importantly it makes the club look professional and adds to a belief that maybe the next twelve months ahead could be good ones.

Already ahead of the new season, the name of Burgess is added to that of Ricardo Santos, Melker Widell, Zeidane Inoussa and Bobby Wales – all of whom will line up in the white shirt next season as the summer of activity goes ahead.   Of course none of us know how they will settle into live here in South West Wales but all the “noise” that surrounds their arrival feels positive and makes us start to look forward to the fixtures coming out which is now just a little over a week away.

There are many cynics out there (you are reading words from one of them) in terms of what the new owners were going to bring to the club.   After all, the new owners followed to an extend some similar paths to the old ones but ever since Coleman departed (officially at the end of the season but it was long before that in reality) the club has moved forward.  Not just on the pitch but even off it with the arrival this week of Darren O’Dea to work with Alan Sheehan and we have some positive steps forward that go way beyond just a statement of “The Swansea Way” that seemed to accompany almost every appointment in the past few years.

I know that some of these words are well rehearsed and versed from many football appointments but you get the feeling when O’Dea spoke i the week that there is something good happening here “I had a good understanding of the club anyway,” he said upon his appointment.  “But it’s a really exciting project, one I wanted to be a part of and I am delighted it is done now.

“I would not have left Celtic unless it was for something I felt very strongly about. Of course, the club and its prestige and the intensity of it is something I am used to, and I wanted to work with and for Alan.

“You combine those two things, and the conversations I have had with other people at the club who will be working with us, and it just fits. It’s something I am really happy to be part of.

“I think Alan and I are similar in terms of how we work and how we see things. He will be the one making the decisions, but I was clear I did not want to work in a way where I would sacrifice principles that I have got, and the conversations I had mean I know we are not going to be doing that.”

We also have to remember that in the background here as well is Luka Modric.   He may not be buying a house in Swansea (personally I always thought he was more likely to live in Carmarthen anyway!) but with a stake in the club and a clear input into some of our transfer strategy it makes Swansea easier to sell when someone of his reputation in the game is batting in your corner.

We know as well that there are more signings to come.   There are increasingly strong rumours of a “blow your mind” signing that is believed to be a striker but the club keeps their cards close to their chest on that one (rightfully so) and Modric will be involved in the middle of that particular discussion so we await with interest what comes from that and to see if it really will “blow our minds”

The departure of Harry Darling is as imminent now as it has ever been.   For me, this is a simple “thanks for the past few years Harry but the club will always be bigger than one man” and when he moves he will be forgotten just as quick as most of the players who have departed the four walls of the dot com Stadium in the past twenty years.

It is also known that the Swans are still keen on a move for Lewis O’Brien.   A few people have suggested here that some recent captures and changes around the club have now increased the chances of him turning his loan move that worked so well last season into a more permanent move in SA1.   For me the signing of Burgess should not be underestimated in increasing these chances and he would certainly be a welcome holder of a midfield berth for next season if that were the case.

This does though all come back to where we started this opinion piece.  We are in the middle of June, we are talking about a handful of signings, we are talking about one of the world’s best ever midfielders enhancing our transfer strategy and, whilst it is too early to mention it really, the “P” word is starting to emanate from some quarters.

For the first time in many years can we actually say “roll on the new season?”