Phil Sumbler
The future of Joel Piroe will be one that is up for much speculation this summer with interest already seemingly confirmed from Leicester City who are one of several sides already rumoured to be watching the striker who has scored more than twenty league goals this season.
Piroe’s double on Tuesday night against Bournemouth will only have served to increase any interest in the striker this summer and the Swans will be braced for much interest in the player who they signed last summer for what could seem to be a snip when the figures start getting banded about.
A glance at the Championship top scorers this season tell you that twenty goal strikers at this level are not plentiful and that could mean that the Swans face bids this summer that they find hard to turn down which could mean that the stay for Piroe in SA1 is relatively short and sweet if we do decide to cash in.
Russell Martin was clearly not ruling out a move for Joel yesterday but was clear in the view that the club have a valuation on the player and it is not one they plan from – a clear message that we will not deal on the cheap should we decide to sell and use the money to strengthen the overall feel of the squad.
“If anyone scores that many goals, whether that interest goes into an actual offer, people will be aware itโs his first season at this level,” said the head coach when addressing the press yesterday.
“Thereโs a lot of players who do it for one season and then struggle to maintain that. Thatโs going to be his next challenge for us. But weโre very comfortable.
“We have a valuation for Joel and I don’t think thatโs going to be flexible really. We canโt say weโre definitely not going to sell him, I canโt say that about any player because any player outside the top four in the Premier League is for sale at the right price.
“But itโll take a huge sum of money to take him away from us. Joelโs not in a desperate rush to leave. I spoke to Joelโs agent after Tuesday night, heโs so happy here and loves his team mates and what weโre doing. That makes a big difference about how the boys feel about being here.
“The rumours are going to go crazy but my job is not to pay too much attention to that. I think heโs a young man who possesses brilliant technical ability. We have a really clear plan for the summer.
“We also know there needs to be some finance brought into the club. We have a lot of players out on loan and some guys here who have not played as much as they would have liked. We have to assess every option, try and help the ownership and Julian [Winter] utilise our money in the best way possible.”
itโs hard not to believe that Piroe will not be sold in the summer .That is worry number one .Losing 20 plus goals is a massive hit and will take some replacing .Worry number two is that the Americans see pound signs before their eyes and settle for way under the potential asking price . The biggest worry is that theyโll come out with the usual story of us desperately needing the money to stay out of debt and hand Russell Martin a tiny proportion of transfer fee .All this while having slashed our wage bill.
He can’t “rule it out”. If a club offers ‘fair value’ for Piroe’s contract and Piroe wants to go, employment law says that Swansea have to let him go. His contract is an employment contract and anything else would take it dangerously close to indenture, which no Court is going to accept.
This has never been tested in Court because no club wants to be on the receiving end of a ‘fair value’ verdict, which woud almost certainly value player’s contracts at far less than is currently paid. But one day it will happen, and it will be Bosman 2.
The only moot point is whether the same applies to the January window. There is an argument that it wouldn’t and clubs should be able to refuse to allow players to leave at that time, but any Judge will simply ask “Why is it there then?”, and rule against.