Two weeks to go – who is coming in? – transfer window latest

It is fair to say that we are only halfway through the transfer window and already we have seen more twists and turns than we anticipated in the whole window and it is normally the second half of the window that provides most of the entertainment.

We have seen Andy Fisher and Cyrus Christie join the club – the latter on loan – whilst we have seen loan exits for Morgan Whittaker and Liam Cullen to Lincoln and yesterday a permanent transfer of Jake Bidwell to Coventry City.

Sunday’s news of course was of the contract “dispute” or should we say the contract that was or maybe wasn’t involving Jamie Paterson and there are not many people out there currently not believing that Pato has played his last game for Swansea City.  But, as of yet, despite speculation there have been no offers for our second leading scorer.

On Saturday we had Russell Martin clearly frustrated that he had hit a stumbling block on one of his transfer targets on Friday – a player rumoured in more than one place to be Harry Darling – “We thought we were really close and then at the last minute it was off,” said Martin after the weekend draw with Huddersfield.

There are plenty of players linked – James Mcatee for one from Manchester City, Matt O’Riley can be added to the list alongside Darling from MK Dons, Ross Stewart at Sunderland.  Haydon Roberts, Tommy Doyle and Craig Halkett are others and that is before we get into any thoughts about the players that we sign who are never really linked in advance.  Cyrus Christie being a classic example here.

The boss himself is clear in what he wants from the window and has called for his plan to be backed by the owners so you wonder slightly where the breakdown is – has the boss asked for a bigger budget, have the owners reduced the budget or is there just a general reluctance to invest currently in the players we want and there is hope that the fees go down later in the window?   It’s a guessing game that’s for sure.

“I think what we have is a really clear strategy of what we want to do, long-term. We’re not asking for the world in January,” added Martin on Saturday.

“We’re really clear in what we want and how we want to do it.

“It’s just hopefully about getting enough support to be able to do that, like we did with Flynn Downes, like in the summer just before we can with Joel Piroe, who is now a huge asset to the club.

“Hopefully we get the support we need and we can really add to it, because the people who have come into it already, Olivier Ntcham, Jamie Paterson, Flynn, Joel Piroe, Ethan Laird before he got called back, have been some of our top performers.”

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What we do know is that we need replacements.   For all Latibeaudiere had a good game Saturday we need a replacement for Bidwell, you cannot help feel that we need an addition in midfield and we do need a reinforcement up front.   Dependent on the final position with Rhys Williams then we probably could do with adding a central defender to the cause as well but if Liverpool elect not to call him back (and there is still a chance they may do this) then we may decide to run with what we have.   Again, the guessing game goes on.

Nobody can guarantee what the next couple of weeks will bring.  Least of all even Russell Martin or Julian Winter.   There are deals out there to be done but it is evident we have a budget and we need to use it wisely.   In relative terms (to Swansea City certainly) we spent well in the summer but we also spent a sizeable amount of what would have been our annual budget.   We did that because we needed to.  The loans against future installments of the Joe Rodon money will help this January but it would be a gamble to spend it all especially as some will be used to balance the running costs of the club in general.

The one thing that is certain is that there are more twists and turns to come.   We will probably sign someone who is not mentioned in this article, someone not previously linked – we do that quite well at times.   And we will end the window with more squad options than we have this morning.

Interesting times ahead.