Swansea City have four front players who could all easily start for the first team this Saturday at Sunderland. That’s a fact, but the clubs pursuit of a fifth surely now means there is going to be movement out of the club in the near future ?
Liam Cullen has enjoyed a brief resurgence and Joel Piroe is back in the goals but hardly convincingly, and there are still two more players to account for. Obviously Michael Obafemi is currently out of favour, but on his day as good a striker as the club has had in recent years. His continued omission from the match day squad understandable as his agent and the club look for a way out for him. And then the recall of Morgan Whittaker from Plymouth Argyle is another quandary. You get the impression that was more of a club recall than a request from the manager, Russell Martin, so really what was the point ?
We are sticking to Russell Martin’s story he wasn’t brought back to sell, and will also keep an eye on the fact if the pursuit of more assistance up front is a success then Morgan could easily be moved on, why ? I’m not too sure, he’s as good as a new signing so rumours, and that’s all they are of Scott Twine and the free scoring Macaulay Langstaff being linked seem pointless when you have a player like Morgan available.
What we do know now is that Swansea City are still keen to sign Chiedozie Ogbene from Rotherham United, a club with numerous players not signing contracts at present. The swans want him this month, and the fee which is the issue currently isn’t agreed as yet. We have been told that just over a million pounds would secure his services, unfortunately for the player as it stands Swansea won’t pay that for him. His market value bears no resemblance to the fee which will almost certainly be paid for him this month, his contract concludes at the end of June and even now he could agree his own move to any club in a pre agreement.
Swansea should be careful there, Ogbene would make himself a richer man if he sold himself to the best bidder. Our view is that Ogbene will push harder to leave as the days go by, however, and as Russell Martin has already confirmed, players coming in doesn’t rely totally on players going out. Where Ogbene will play is anyones guess. If the move is realised.
Trying to find the detail on the loan player Martin wants in to cover his defensive flaws remains a mystery, even if the name was known it would be counter productive to mention anything at this point. The pending losses of Ryan Manning and or Joel Latibeaudiere will almost certainly dictate how that goes, and by that we mean the quality of the player (s) the swans want to come in. On the surface it looks like not a lot is happening but it most certainly is. There’s so much to tie up within the current personnel it is hampering to some extent the players Martin wants in, only because managing the demands of Obafemi, Jamie Paterson, Latibeaudiere and Manning is hardly easy. And not only that their salaries, minus Latibeaudiere will give the club a lot of financial flexibility if all three go. That could mean a far more competent player coming in with extra cash available.
As it stands there’s an impasse, it’s not affecting anything too any extent at the moment. But business is business and no matter the players name, they only care about the windfall and the benefit to them. And please don’t think it’s any other way. It rarely has been any different.