Swansea City as a football club has been carefully stripped of its best assets over the past five years. The prime example the sale of Joel Piroe this summer, and then the money in for Olivier Ntcham and Joel Latibeaudiere, which massively increased the coffers. We are not going to go in to exact figures but suffice to say another big profit on sales and incomings was made.
The are several other examples to add to the overall figures as well. However, the profits made in sales is the real issue. Let’s have a look at 2021/22 season. Players loaned in or purchased fell to under six million pounds. Players out was around the five million mark, so that fits in with a credible sourcing of players and selective sales for the likes of Jamal Lowe and Connor Roberts. The players sold added value to Russell Martin’s squad for his first season at the club.
The following season when Martin got his team playing really well for the last third of the season saw just over two million was spent. That’s set against just under eleven million pounds made in sales. A nice profit there of around nine million pounds. The current season, with Andrew Coleman in charge and a new Sporting Director in Paul Watson sees a real concerning change to the detriment of the playing staff. Even with a number of loan players coming in, some decent, but not long term - the Swans spent seven million pounds. We will leave you to ponder the worth of Josh Tymon, brought in for just over two million and Jerry Yates for just under three million pounds. Mykola coming in from Troyes cost two million pounds, we have to question that figure, but we will go with it for now. In any event the outgoings, which is the concern came in at over twenty million pounds. Around a thirteen million profit on the figures. Remember these are on the figures, nothing else.
We’ve heard all the usual stuff on player trading models, which basically confirms the players at their disposal ensure the club make money. We can go back to the Joe Rodon season now. 2020/21 saw the profiteering model increase notably. This was the season where believe it or not the Swans recruited in eight loan players. The likes of Freddie Woodman and Morgan Gibbs-White, and of course the January madness of Paul Arriola and Jordan Morris. Gyokeres came in from Brighton as did Ben Wilmot from Watford, who made quite an impact. The figures here are again of concern. The Swans spent just under two million pounds on the likes of Jamal Lowe, Morgan Whittaker and Ryan Manning and reaped the rewards on sales such as Joe Rodon. In fact a fourteen million pounds profit was made.
Jumping back further, the season when the Swans met with the Championship again many players left, and of course this was the first season of parachute payments at forty three million pounds ) Now the new owners, as they were at the time (ish), were losing their premier league money but still had nigh on £84,000,000 to get the club back in to the Premier League. The following season, nearly £50,000,000 and the final season of parachute payments £17,000,000.
2019/20 : £39,000,000 profit plus £43,000,000 parachute payments
2020/21 : £14,000,000 profit plus £35,000,000 parachute payments
2021/22 : £1,000,000 profit plus £16,000,000 parachute payments
2022/23 : £9,000,000 profit
2023/24 : £13,000,000 profit. To date.
* (This includes players sold and purchased)
We could go back further, but we said at the start of all this the last five years have been an exposure in to the clubs financial mindset. This should also give any Swans fan a clue in to the current mindset of the Swans. Sacking managers like Steve Cooper and Russell Martin ( or in both cases falling out with them when they seemed to be on the cusp of getting it right ) was an issue. In Steve Cooper’s case his time at the Swans was not supported, regardless of what people think. Look at the figures, the parachute payments alone would have given him a far better chance of success.
This of course doesn’t include sponsorship, gate revenue, season ticket sales and the grab back for Graham Potter leaving the Swans for Brighton. There’s loads of other areas we have yet to cover. As a basic assessment - and for some this may well be a club not falling foul of spending too much and playing it safe, and that’s their choice to make. However, it also displays the profiteering model in place by selling the best players the club has. And this season the tree looks a bit bare. Certainly stripped of its finest produce.
And people think the Swans will spend big on a proper football manager ? We have our doubts, we doubt the club, its hierarchy and their special banking strategy in the USA where our new Chairman’s Swansea investments ( not his private ones ) aren’t known. Or indeed how much is in the pot, or who is involved in an overseas account we will never see sight of. Nigel Morris openly invested his money in to Swansea City in the UK. The US fund will never be disclosed, and this is the fund Andrew Coleman has put his money in to, as we have stated to become Chairman. And still there’s a decreasing minority who think this is all okay and above board.
When you make millions of pounds and don’t invest it in to the areas that could return top flight football to Swansea, or you hide the key factors of your LLC in the USA - fans sort of become suspicious. And before you know it, the owners find themselves in an untenable situation. Brought about by their own incompetence, lack of football business acumen and compete disregard for the community they say they care about. This is because what they are really doing is hoovering up as much money as they can.
Right under your noses.