Things seem to take a while to settle in peoples minds these days. The current issues between Harry Darling, Ben Cabango and Liam Cullen a good example. Even with a statement by Darling that he hasn’t had any discussions on a new deal - that was quickly dismissed by Swans head coach, Luke Williams.
Today, at last a Wales on Line sports report contains more evidence that contract discussions have gone ahead. Not that we didn’t know that already as you can read throughout our timeline in this report. We started reporting on the two main contract contenders on May 6th this year, and followed it up with more reports on Harry Darling and Ben Cabango. These two players as we have stated have been offered very low terms by the Swans, and this goes back to early discussions in May and June this year. We started to tickle the club a bit as the summer progressed.
May 6th report ⚽️ Must retain players for 24/25 season
Then we raised the subject again knowing talks had occurred.
August 20th report ⚽️ Confirmarion of talks, but Rome still burns
Then we gave you an insight into what was going wrong behind the scenes at the end of August. The photograph within the next report lost on many, even then. But it came to pass.
30th August report ⚽️ League one contracts on offer
We started to publish information which led into the fact the two central defenders had talks and Cabango knew what was on offer.
13th Sept report ⚽️ Cabango knows his contract offer
Interestingly, Harry Darling then stated he hadn’t had any contract talks. Didn’t the press lap that one up, and of course a few Twitter accounts on X. Obviously missing the whole point. It needed Luke Williams to explain in very simple terms ‘what’ contract talks actually were. As we have on many many occasions with the help of registered football agents who support this site. It really does leave you exhausted at times to think there are people floating around on social media without a clue of what the big world looks like.
21st Sept report ⚽️ Luke refutes Darling claims
And now after some calls yesterday it seems that our original info from way back is again being confirmed by Luke Williams. Talking away from the edited club interviews of late on the weekend Luke revealed, "I'll be honest, I think that because it went on for so long, there's some bridges to be built to engage with them again, with their agents and that as well " This was in relation to the contracts under discussion with Darling, Cabango and Liam Cullen. We know that Liam has stated ‘I won’t have my pants pulled down’ we reported that two months ago exclusively on this website.
So, as the final two months approach before all three players can look to a future at other clubs we can add this to the Wales on Line report : All three players are disgusted at the new offers, they all now know what they are. We’ve done some digging and have been told ‘ I doubt these contracts are in excess of £8,000 a week, and the majority of the Championship would pay more than that. Basically the players are being disrespected. If that continues they won’t be Swansea players next season’
It’s hard to get any confirmed info on what is on offer, but as stated above it won’t be more than £8,000 a week. Bar Jay Fulton, Matt Grimes and Kristian Pedersen (maybe Vigouroux) the Swans are operating within a structure that enhances the clubs financial profile. Unfortunately that leaves resources pretty low to run a Championship club on the pitch. The take away is obvious, we now have Harry Darling and Ben Cabango not at all happy with their offers. And the Swans bedrock in central defence about to be exposed to offers far and above what the Swans can go to.
When the clubs head coach states, "Imagine when you're a head coach and you've got these two monsters on the pitch. They can tackle, run, head. They can build up. They're a threat from attacking set-pieces” Surely even the most indignant of owners would listen ?
That’s the sad ending as it stands today.