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.

Artwork by Swansea Independent

ReslovenSwan1 added 20:32 - Dec 18 Cardiff city a comparable team were reportedly losing £2m a month and funded by Vincent Tan. I imagine Swansea would be losing at least one million a month on running costs. Five and a half years that is £66m. (£132m at £2m a month) Footballers bought have to be better than those sold in the medium term for the team to advance. Loans are a waste of time and stop development. US shareholders have invested. Welsh shareholder have lost their wallet.

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Bluswan added 21:42 - Dec 18 These Americans are a lesson for us in here in little Wales of how to take an attractive PL club, League Cup winners just 10yrs ago, wiping the floor with Valencia in the Mestalla, to quite probably League 1 for next season. The insular and distant decision-making of the owners continues after 6/7yrs to reek of greed and arrogance, incompetence and continued failure, and a lack of transparency with the occasional touch of PR thrown in (and even getting that wrong at times!). A lesson for us all - of how not to run a football club. Levien and Co OUT.

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ReslovenSwan1 added 22:57 - Dec 18 We in Wales had the best owners run by the best Chairman in the clubs history. He was seriously outperforming. He had recovered from an admittedly bad season hit by bad signings and injuries to appoint Graham Potter. No one has a good word to say about him. He created the great nights and the useless fans group wanted him out. No one criticizes them even after wasting £400,000k on a weak legal case. Coleman has only just arrived and needs time. There is transparency in the accounts. The LLP, what do you want to know?. what use is it to you?

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Bluswan added 00:18 - Dec 19 We are staring at relegation to League 1. What more is there to know? My first match was at the Vetch in 1963. Seen the good times underTosh and then Laudrup, and the bad times under …..oh that’s right I’m seeing the bad times again under the current owners. Dont hide behind pseudo-accountancy - maybe though you consider our current position to be a sign of success (and lets give poor Andrew more time) but maybe the reality is that your loyalty is more to American owners than to our club. These Americans don’t fool me or many others for a moment - they are here for one thing only and it’s certainly not sporting ambition. Their reign has been characterised by sustained incompetency and failure. The Crown Jewels have all be sold. We don’t have Siggi’s, Bony’s, James, Rodon’s we can sell anymore. The cupboard is getting bare and when there’s no profit to be made - these owners will be off elsewhere and not give a stuff about us and our beloved SCFC. Americans OUT NOW!

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ncswan added 15:44 - Dec 19 Let me be clear here, I am definitely not a Levien fan! However, to castigate all Americans is too much! If you don't like what's going on, then do something about it. Form a group and buy the club. I think ReslovenSwan is correct in that we need to give Coleman time, Watson time.
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Bluswan added 20:21 - Dec 19 I’m a fan (in my case of over 60yrs). Entitled to express my view - which is shared by an ever increasing amount of people (including it appears Swans Independent) that this American ownership is dismantling the club for their own financial benefit. It’s not unusual in British football for American owners to do this of course as it seems to be the American business model (with the exception of Wrexham where philanthropy in part operates). The facts as far as SCFC is concerned speak for themselves. Under American ownership the fortunes of SCFC have progressively declined in terms of performance on the pitch, lower attendances, considerably lower squad value, reputational damage to the extent that we can’t attract decent managers, and consistently poor decision-making. It can be seen as incompetence but cynically it can also be seen as ruthless business practice designed to take as much out of the club as possible, then getting out when there is nothing left to take. So whatever the personal views people hold about the American ownership of SCFC - the facts remain the same - we have gone under their ownership from being a good PL to looking to avoid relegation to League 1. It’s sporting failure. To support the American ownership and to also claim support for SCFC is rapidly becoming incompatible.

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