Swansea City are set to sign their second player of the week later today after Exeter City defender Josh Key completes his medical at the club. Josh is a free agent but as he is under twenty four and an academy product he will command a fee. That’s now set to be fixed by a tribunal. In fact two Josh’s are coming, and there’s a third Josh in the mix as well.

This particular transfer tribunal will be adjudicated by The Professional Football Compensation Committee (PFCC) It is not a standing, permanent body, but an ad hoc group of four or five people formed as and when is necessary. There are certain organisations that have to be represented each time, but the specific identity of the individuals involved changes according to the clubs involved to prevent conflicts of interest. Once assembled, the PFCC has a set list of factors to consider, mostly involving costs. First of all the status of the two clubs (transferor and transferee) is taken into account, then the age of the player. The terms on which the player was engaged by the transferor are examined, as is the amount of any fee paid upon registration, and the length of time the player was at the club. The terms of the new contracts offered to the player by each club are considered, then the player’s playing record is looked at, in terms of first-team appearances and international call-ups. Finally, interest shown by any other clubs is taken into account. Source Guardian

That’s the process Swansea and Exeter will go through and the final decision is non negotiable, it can’t be appealed and is payable immediately. We expect the Swans to unveil Key today or early tomorrow.

The other Josh is one Josh Ginnelly who we reported on last week. The ex Hearts man, now twenty six was also out of contract but able to move to the Swans without the process Key will be subjected to. Our report on Ginnelly from last week with facts and stats is here -

Click –> ⚽️ Ginnelly to sign for Swansea City

Both players are encouraging signings for the Swans. Ginnelly comes from Michael Duff’s knowledge of the player, and Josh Key was a target of Swansea Head of Football Operarions Josh Marsh ( it’s getting silly this ) Paul Watson oversaw the transfers, and to our knowledge he has never been called Josh.

Josh Key is twenty three and already has notched up in excess of two hundred professional appearances. He is an accomplished defender preferring to play on the right side of the pitch. We reported on Josh Key in January and followed that up with another report nine days ago.

That’s here –> ⚽️ Key offer rejected

Then, as mentioned in January we reported the first bid for Key getting a knock back.

That’s here –> ⚽️ Swans fail in bid for Exeter defender

With these two players ‘in the building’ as is often said these days the Swans do have replacements ( of sorts ) for the loss of Ryan Manning and Joel Latibeaudiere who both refused to sign new Swansea contracts before the season ended. We do expect more signings this window and of course we do expect players to leave. As it stands this morning there are no actual bids in for any Swansea player, but we are sure they are not too far away.

Photographs licensed from Reuters or with permission Swansea City AFC

Swansea City Polls