Phil Sumbler
It’s not been a quiet week again in the world of the Swans transfer window although movement in and out of the Swansea.com stadium suggests otherwise to the outside world.
It has become clear though that there clearly is movement with Russell Martin very clear this week that we had turned down bids from Burnley for Michael Obafemi. We know there were bids in the summer but the two clubs remained some distance apart on agreement and now the Clarets are back despite them being on a clear trajectory to reach the Premier League. Does anyone believe Obafemi is a Premier League striker? No, me neither.
Vincent Kompany though is someone who is preparing for both eventualities when he said “If we do (sign) a player now it will have to be a player that can help us right now and that can be with us in either scenario so the market is not that big for us — a player that can be good enough for the Premier League if that happens but also good enough to help us in the Championship if we stay in the Championship.”
“We’ve also had bids for two of our players in Michael and Morgan. We’ve knocked two bids back for Michael. One for Morgan,” said Martin at his press conference this week.
“That’s where we’re at. But we made the bid for the player we are interested in before those bids came in. It’s all about seeing which one lands first, whether we land our one first or someone leaves here first.”
So then we came onto Morgan Whittaker. Martin’s comments about him not coming back to sell were accompanied back a week or so by an addendum that said unless the deal was right for the club. The dilemma is simple in that if Morgan plays for us this season then he will not be sold in the window. It’s why he won’t feature quite possibly until the window ends.
News reaches us from a variety of sources – some better than others – that Morgan has a preferred destination of West Brom this window. What is unclear is whether the bids that have come through for him that Martin refers to are from the West Midlands. There is suggested interest from the Baggies who have moved themselves very much into promotion contention following a change in management and they are very much aware of the form that Morgan showed when he was at Plymouth.
The recall of Morgan always, on the face of it, seemed an odd one. Martin seemed clear in his comments in the summer and his comments earlier this month suggested that it was a move from above to recall him rather than one of his own choice. That could only be one of two things – he wanted a striker and those above him decided it was Morgan or interest was known and we needed to bring him back within the small window of opportunity that we had. The latter seems the most likely but time will only tell.
If the interest from West Brom (rumoured) is correct then they will be back with more on the table. Whittaker’s League One form has put a good price on his head and the Baggies need reinforcements if they are to push on and turn recent good form into promotion winning form. If Whittaker is their man then they will find a man willing to make the move (allegedly) should the deal be correct.
Finally we turn to Jamie Paterson. Coventry City – his home club – are reported to be interested as are two further clubs. For Paterson it feels that the Swans may be persuaded easier to sell for a cut down price to their initial internal valuations and the interested clubs are aware of that which could see this one drag on for a week or so yet.
Frustratingly the bulk of the discussions seem to be around the players going out rather than in although Martin’s admission this week of two bids turned down for a player tells you there is movement on the inward front but we know we still need departures before the movement on incomings gathers more momentum.
17 days to go.
We are a club run by people who have no interest whatsoever in us as a football club .They have now acquired an Australian basketball team to stand alongside DCUnited and the Swans .None of the three clubs receive wothwhile investment and Dc United and Melbourne basketball are at the bottom of their leagues while we are not much better off .How long will these people stay in charge? I suppose sadly as long as they think they can make money off our back. Itmay take our relegation to league one or simply us running out of saleable assets .Realistically how long can we continue to make huge player profits for very little cost as we have done with Mcburnie ,Dan James ,Joe Rodon and Downes in recent years?
Yawn!
Yes I have allways said them two only bought the club to take money out of it in selling players and RM is not better not strong enough to stick up to them and there is something up between RM and Whitteker when he was brought back only to be sold or is this the orders of Levien and Kaplan who are a few bucks short of investing money into other business the club is justo a milking pot for them two no interest at all of investing one bit into our club.
It’s very simple with Morgan Whittaker. The owners see the opportunity to cash in on a young player who has established a name for himself. It’s just such a shame that Martin had not realised Morgan’s potential with us and it has taken a loan move albeit a division below to bring this to the fore.
To most fans it will seem utter madness to sell Morgan when it seems clear that we will be needing quality up front to give us a shot of making the play-offs. But it’s all about the mentality of the owners in making money at every opportunity rather than the greater good of making us genuinely competitive on the pitch for good of the club, fans and the local community.
Both the owners and Russell Martin are again potentially fouling up in their judgment of players and what is best for the club. We can only hope Whittaker is not sold – but the history of these owners says otherwise.
We need a central defender to take somevof the pressure off Cabango and two wing backs who can cross a ball. Sadly but not surprisingly, no activity to bring any new players in. Whittaker deserves a chance which he has not been given by Martin as he is quality as proven by Plymouth. Yank owners are parasites, only interested in making money on our backs, what a contrast to the two American owners at Wrexham !