{"id":76079,"date":"2023-02-03T07:56:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T07:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/?p=76079"},"modified":"2023-02-03T07:56:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T07:56:39","slug":"the-interview-that-answered-no-questions-eight-targets-each-of-them-missed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2023\/02\/03\/the-interview-that-answered-no-questions-eight-targets-each-of-them-missed\/","title":{"rendered":"The interview that answered no questions &#8211; Eight targets, each of them missed."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am sure that it was done with the best of intentions but the promise of difficult questions and challenging the disaster that was the January transfer window was met no more with the Swans Trust ending as a convenient mouthpiece for the ownership group.<\/p>\n<p>After four months of promised plans being developed there was an admission that we went after (and supposedly agreed terms) with our number one right back target and number one striker target but ultimately ended up as the window closed with a bare return in the cupboard.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-76075\" src=\"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/0_wrap.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/0_wrap.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/0_wrap-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/0_wrap-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/0_wrap-640x336.jpg 640w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/0_wrap-150x79.jpg 150w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/0_wrap-696x365.jpg 696w, https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/0_wrap-1068x561.jpg 1068w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/>There was no reasons given, no explanations as to why that went wrong.\u00a0 \u00a0A small veiled dig at West Brom for pulling the plug last minute on Grant but when you take things to the wire then these things easily happen and it throws out all manners of flaws in a strategy.<\/p>\n<p>There were comments made to appease &#8211; &#8220;We have taken no dividends&#8221; declared a proud Silverstein which is no surprise given we aren&#8217;t making profits and he has only been a shareholder since the back end of last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We knew well in advance that we wanted to sign a right wing back with dynamism and altheticism,&#8221; saiod Silverstein when asked what went wrong.\u00a0 &#8220;We wanted another striker option as well and set out to find both of those players.\u00a0 We had a list of targets that we wanted and went after them.\u00a0 There was speculation and leaks as to who those players were &#8211; some of the leaks being accurate &#8211; but we were confident we would deliver the players that we wanted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We agreed terms with the number one striker and right back that we targeted but both of them ended up not being here,&#8221; added Levien with no explanation as to why those agreed terms never meant signatures on a piece of paper.\u00a0 \u00a0Moving goalposts on the deal from one side presumably but which one?\u00a0 \u00a0Our owners are more than capable of moving the goalposts from their side so we cannot always assume the other side is to blame.<\/p>\n<p>The word sorry was used a few times but largely brushed over and the sharing of frustrations came out more than once but the reality is none of that dresses over what was a total shambles of a window and has left us in a weaker position than we went into it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='vLFn3Ca9Su5EBUyWRgEv3Q' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/686430820' 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:'vLFn3Ca9Su5EBUyWRgEv3Q',sig:'23F5jbrEYJDEhEm5XakvuOmr7CJYbqfk0Ta8gRWxxk0=',w:'594px',h:'370px',items:'686430820',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>The main departure of the window was Michael Obafemi to which Levien referred to them as &#8220;reluctant sellers&#8221; of the player and that there were no real plans to sell him at the start of January.\u00a0 \u00a0This is as alarming as everything else given Obafemi&#8217;s continued sulks during his time at Swansea and his obvious disruptive nature on the squad.\u00a0 \u00a0Even more so when you consider that he wasn&#8217;t in contention at the start of the month due to his desire to move away.<\/p>\n<p>The calming measures were meant to be delivered by their changes for the summer that &#8220;hopefully&#8221; will lead to a better window with &#8220;better luck&#8221; but the main change is that they will set their own deadlines in a window.\u00a0 \u00a0Enlightening stuff from an ownership that has seen more than a dozen windows.\u00a0 \u00a0This isn&#8217;t a revealing viewpoint more the resounding sound of a penny dropping as to how these transfer windows work.\u00a0 \u00a0Bit late now though.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;None of the funding was contingent on selling the player.\u00a0 \u00a0We have invested significantly in the club over recent months with over \u00a316m contributed since I joined.\u00a0 We were not dependent on a sale.<\/p>\n<p>They went onto add that they had full faith in Andy Fisher but were looking at the emergency goalkeeper situation and free agents.\u00a0 \u00a0That doesn&#8217;t suggest faith in the keeper to any great extent &#8211; not sure if I was Andy Fisher this morning I would be overly comfortable with the statements made from across the water.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is though Levien &#8220;stays up at night thinking how I can do better&#8221; and they are &#8220;linking arms with the Trust&#8221; to make it all good.<\/p>\n<p>It ended as an interview that was a bizarre as anything.\u00a0 Clearly contrived to not provide answers but to give airspace to pretend that there was a desire to provide information.\u00a0 \u00a0And when the statement was &#8220;We were 0 for 8 on signings&#8221; then that tells you lessons are not being learned and English football remains as mysterious to them today as it has done for many years.<\/p>\n<p>The window remains a shambles and nothing we learned last night tells us why.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='8dAZsyHqRMZKS17IQufQGQ' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1234682278' 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:'8dAZsyHqRMZKS17IQufQGQ',sig:'7VZpRbz0J3tGh8665mX84LLw3S_iBgfQNjUTuSwFxDk=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1234682278',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am sure that it was done with the best of intentions but the promise of difficult questions and challenging the disaster that was the January transfer window was met no more with the Swans Trust ending as a convenient mouthpiece for the ownership group. After four months of promised plans being developed there was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":76082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[293,49,203],"tags":[767,766,665],"class_list":["post-76079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-team","category-news","category-opinion","tag-jake-silverstein","tag-jason-levien","tag-the-2022-23-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76079","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\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}