Paul Arriola stance revealed and George Byers exit explained as Swansea City chief opens up on transfer plans
Julian Winter has confirmed Paul Arriola features on Swansea City's transfer wish list.
However, the Swans' chief executive admits the club are not actively pursuing a deal for the versatile American at present.
Reports across the Atlantic recently suggested that Arriola would follow Seattle Sounders loanee Jordan Morris in making the move to the Liberty Stadium this month.
Club sources played down talk of a move for the 25-year-old to WalesOnline earlier in January.
And while Winter admits the DC United man has been mentioned as a potential recruit, he confirmed they are not in talks with the Major League Soccer outfit - who are co-owned by Swansea's co-owner Jason Levien - at present when it comes to a possible move for Arriola.
“He is a name on a list but we are not talking," told BBC Radio Wales.
Arriola has largely operated as a winger, although he can cover the right-back and right wing-back positions.
It comes after Swansea completed loan deals to bring Morris and Conor Hourihane to south Wales following the arrival of goalkeeper Ben Hamer from Huddersfield Town earlier this month.
And Winter admits it was vital that Swansea strengthened their squad this month following the departures of Morgan Gibbs-White, Kasey Palmer and Viktor Gyokeres.
“We had the three loan players that we lost. That’s always a risk when you loan players," he added.
“When the Jordan thing came up, similar to Conor, these things come up and you pursue them to the nth degree to make that happen and that’s what we have done.
“We are excited by both the loan players.”
Meanwhile, George Byers became the fourth player to leave Swansea this month as he joined Portsmouth on loan for the rest of the season.
The central midfielder's sole appearance this term came in the 2-0 FA Cup third round win over Stevenage after he missed the opening half of the campaign with a groin injury.
And Cooper felt Byers - whose Swansea contract runs through until the summer of 2022 - would benefit from getting regular minutes under his belt with the League One club.
"I think George needs games," said the Swans head coach.
"He's had a long time out with injury and he's finding it difficult to get minutes with us.
"He's one of our players, and it's important we don't lose a player for the future and I think, although it's always good to have George around, in the end, he needs to play games and we need him to play games.
"Hopefully he'll get that at Portsmouth. It won't be easy, they're doing well in the league, and we know Kenny Jackett, an experienced manager, will be demanding of George.
"Hopefully the loan works for him and he comes back in the summer having had a good number of games under his belt."
