COOPER CAN’T RULE OUT DEPARTURES

Speculation over Rodon mounts as transfer window draws to a close

SWANSEA City boss Steve Cooper admits he cannot rule out an exit for wanted stars like Joe Rodon before the close of the transfer window.

Cooper maintains there has not been a move yet from West Ham for the 22-year-old Wales defender, with Manchester United having previously been interested.

Wales boss Ryan Giggs has admitted that Rodon is destined for a career in the Premier League – an assessment Cooper agrees with.

Asked if Rodon was on course for the top flight, Cooper said: “Yeah definitely. But I still think he is on that journey. He has only played just over 50 games - it might even be 50.

“We say every week, let’s hope he has better luck with injuries, he can get a good season under his belt and we can take it from there.

“But he is a player with high potential. I think he can get to the Premier League, hopefully will get to the Premier League, but that will down to him.”

Swansea will be hoping that Rodon fulfils his career ambitions at the Liberty Stadium, but questions over his future are likely to rumble on further over the coming days.

However, Cooper insists he and the player are currently paying little attention to speculation.

He added: “I don’t need to worry about that because I think that anything that has been mentioned is speculation, along with loads of other players that is nowhere near being the truth.

“I don’t think it affects anybody, especially not him.”

But while Cooper remains relaxed on Rodon’s future, he has stopped short of ruling out an exit before next week’s closure of the transfer window.

“It’s not impossible that any player can go,” he continued. “Joe is a good young player and I am sure there will be and has been people looking at him.

“But I can only go off official information from the club and that is that there is nothing.

“You do tend to get a tip-off, through maybe agents or even people at interested clubs, that something might happen, but there hasn’t been anything for anybody.”

That would appear to rule out an imminent departure for Andre Ayew, who given his substantial wages has also been tipped for an exit.

“We always plan for players to stay while there’s no information. There’s no information on Andre,” Cooper said.

“What I see every day with Andre is a motivated player that’s contributed hugely through his own performances and also to the players around him. He has played well and given more than 100 per cent.

“I speak to Andre regularly and I am fairly sure if something was happening he would be honest with me. We just carry on as normal.”