The slow drip, drip feed of discontent was again evident last night after the defeat to Bristol City in the FA Cup. Having declared his frustration at the way the swans are doing business after the Sunderland game it became clearer last night.
Post Sunderland Martin reiterated that business for one player was ‘further away’ than it had been, so make of that what you will. That player is believed to be Chiedozie Ogbene at Rotherham with his club holding out for sums that no club will stretch to this January. Now we will give the manager and the club some grace here, it could well be that Rotherham United are moving the goal posts and increasing what they want after interest from other championship clubs has been reported including a top flight Belgian side. However, as we have stated already this week, and has been reported elsewhere Swansea now have a history of pulling out of deals or reducing their offers for players in recent times. Even their slowness to react to player availability has cost the club.
Last night Martin went a step further pointing the finger at the club for recruiting players who are of little use to the first eleven and merely bolstering the club with squad players. Some will have sympathy with this, but he has had his wish to sign Harry Darling, Nathan Wood and Andy Fisher in the last year, the latter somewhat naive on reflection but a half decent back up to Steven Benda. The players he is referencing are the likes of Finley Burns, Rhys Williams and Fin Stevens, and no doubt Armstrong Oko-Flex, all players who have failed completely under Martin’s guidance. He can’t be referencing Joel Latibeaudiere surely, although Martin seems to be in a minority on the qualities of the player, and Olivier Ntcham does have his moments.
Clearly Nathanael Ogbeta is where Martin is heading with his current comments. "Since I’ve been here, we’ve done a lot of deals late on in transfer windows, but we have to avoid some of the deals we’ve done previously. We have to be really careful about that,” he said. We’ve ended up making signings that bolster the squad but don’t impact the starting eleven. I don’t think it reflects very well on us or the player. I think we’ve done too many of them. If we’re going to sign people, they need to really make an impact and really change the dynamic of the squad.”
Jamie Paterson who doesn’t like playing in December or January had a brief impact, and Russell Martin will be happy to take the credit for his signing, but he has found his attitude and behaviour difficult to manage. He is of course correct, players brought in to develop for other clubs hasn’t gone well, but was Cyrus Christie a mistake ? He seemed to fit in very well to Martin’s wing back desires and Hannes Wolf too wasn’t a failure by any means. So, it’s okay bemoaning your position but really that’s a fifty fifty shout. We also believe he is suffering from the frustrations of a limited budget, and with Michael Obafemi wanting to leave the club he is going to have to wait for money to come in despite him stating a few weeks ago he didn’t. That’s possibly down to the Ogbene deal looking okay back then, but now it isn’t.
For whatever reason, but we can guess.
If the swans go shopping for more bit part players the season will most certainly end in mid table again, regardless of where the team are at present. Russell Martin wants a dynamic signing or two, the sad thing is he won’t get them with his current budget, even if the Flynn Downes money is propping up the club in reserve. The owners will say he has had a chunk of that when Harry Darling was signed, or indeed Joe Allen joined, albeit on a free he needs paying, and there’s the signing on fee.
You can understand the frustration as Russell Martin continues to drip feed his discontent this January, he’s on a huge learning curve as a young manager and no doubt in years to come will reflect on his mistakes when at Swansea City, as well as his positive moments. That’s all about learning but it seems at this point the real learning needs to be done by the clubs majority ownership, because their management of transfers and players hasn’t changed. They withdraw offers, reduce bids and generally dilly dally away with their objective to save a few quid in every transfer dealing. As we have said before that’s to be congratulated, but not in the way that is now being reported. There’s a huge difference in a professional ability to manage transfers like Daniel Levy at Spurs compared to pulling the rug and undermining agreements already made.
That’s just getting the club a bad name, and makes managers like Russell Martin extremely frustrated. As is clearly evident today.
What’s your view on the current situation this transfer window ?
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