{"id":63592,"date":"2022-05-07T21:06:17","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T20:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/?p=63592"},"modified":"2022-05-07T21:06:17","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T20:06:17","slug":"joe-allen-back-to-swansea-martin-hopes-so-but-would-it-be-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2022\/05\/07\/joe-allen-back-to-swansea-martin-hopes-so-but-would-it-be-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Allen back to Swansea? Martin hopes so but would it be right?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Russell Martin has spoken positively about the possibility of signing Stoke midfielder Joe Allen on a free transfer this summer.<\/p>\n<p>The return of Allen has been speculated for a few weeks with the Welshman wanting to return closer to home as he comes towards the end of his career.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s no doubt about the 32 year old&#8217;s quality and he would undoubtedly offer a better option than the outgoing Korey Smith, but is this a positive move?<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='H-9lil2FRFddr9jiVPdEuw' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1240346904' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'H-9lil2FRFddr9jiVPdEuw',sig:'QHGe-F2HM8ee84hM9Aw0juwSOccNX8tnqa51N3wZk00=',w:'594px',h:'426px',items:'1240346904',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>They always say &#8220;never go back&#8221; and Allen most certainly is not the same full of energy midfielder that left for the bright lights of Liverpool in 2012 &#8211; he also suffered a lengthy spell on the sidelines last season.<\/p>\n<p>But maybe, just maybe, he might be the focal point of a Swans midfield that has been lacking in guile this season. He may also have the potential to take the captaincy from Matt Grimes and free him from some of those shackles.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve all seen his performances for Wales and in particular his display against Austria in the recent World Cup qualification semi-final was terrific and his experience is worth its weight in gold.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not a done deal yet either way although with the comments from Martin this afternoon one would suspect that talks are quite far down the road.<\/p>\n<p>Many questions to answer but what do you think? Should the Welsh Pirlo return home?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBrilliant player, brilliant character. I watched him (Allen) for Wales recently,&#8221; explained Martin. &#8220;He was excellent, the way he spoke to other players as well.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe loves this club, I love him as a player. I will say it. I would love to [sign him]. We\u2019ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will depend on a lot of things. We have a lot of midfielders at the club. We have some midfielders that haven\u2019t played very much.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are going to have to leave for people to come in. But Joe is someone who would fit here perfectly. He knows the club, the club knows him.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am sure he has got plenty of offers and I am sure at some point we will sit down and have a chat about him.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russell Martin has spoken positively about the possibility of signing Stoke midfielder Joe Allen on a free transfer this summer. The return of Allen has been speculated for a few weeks with the Welshman wanting to return closer to home as he comes towards the end of his career. There&#8217;s no doubt about the 32 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":63138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[293,49,203,295],"tags":[515,552,608],"class_list":["post-63592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-team","category-news","category-opinion","category-transfer-rumours","tag-joe-allen","tag-stoke-city","tag-the-2021-22-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}