Martinez’ Dutch Pledge To Ferrie

Yesterday’s papers claimed interest from West Bromwich Albion amongst others but the Swans manager believes that Ferrie will fulfil all his football ambitions in a Swansea City shirt.

Ferrie has been on top form this season and last weekend he was given praise by Southampton boss Jan Poortvliet who said “I heard stories about other teams looking at him in the summer and now I can see why. You never know, he could play for Holland — but not in the Championship. He would have to be playing in the Premier League.”

And Poortvliet’s words were echoed by Swans boss Martinez who made a solemn pledge to the man from the Hague.

“Ferrie signed a long-term contract with us in July and I know that if he doesn’t play for Holland, it will be a failure from our side,” Martinez told the Evening Post.

“Ferrie will not have developed the way I know he can and I will take responsibility for that.

“At the moment we are in a position where every Premier League club would be delighted to have Ferrie.

“We are not going to stop speculation about him, but he’s enjoying his life, he’s enjoying his football and he knows he is progressing with every game.

“We should welcome attention from other clubs because it shows we are doing well.

“We have four or five players who are ready to play at the top level and another six or seven who are developing towards that, but we don’t have to sell and that’s a great position to be in.

“Ferrie has mentioned a few times that he would love to sign an even longer Swansea contract and it’s great when players are enjoying their daily work.

“We will get bids because we’re getting a lot of compliments for the way we play and that’s down to the players.

“There are four or five players who might be attracting a lot of interest, and that’s good, but our concentration right now is on trying to beat Doncaster.

“There will be lots of talk and rumours in the paper, but when you look for a player you have to look at the club.

“Anyone looking at us will know it will be very difficult to take one of our players away.