Curtis: Rodon is worth more than £11m

WELSH football legend Alan Curtis reckons Joe Rodon is “worth a lot more” than the £11m Jose Mourinho has paid for him.

The Tottenham boss swooped for the gifted Wales defender on the final day of the transfer window in a deal that could be worth up to £15m with extras.

Those kind of extras tend to involve a player making a set number of appearances, or helping a club win trophies, so there are normally no guarantees.

However, Swans honorary club president Curtis feels even that £15m figure falls way below what he thinks is Rodon’s true value.

“He’s certainly worth a lot more money than that,” the BBC reports Curtis as saying.

Curtis is a Swans great who has played, coached and managed at the club before using his expertise to also help the board with the decision to appoint Steve Cooper as boss.

Basically anything Curtis says about Swansea City commands respect, given the iconic stature of the man.

The Swans wanted £20m for Rodon, but in the end accepted the offer from Spurs with the clock ticking down to the closure of the window last Friday.

“Joe deserves that opportunity to go and play in the Premier League at such an iconic club like Tottenham,” said Curtis.

“But it’s obviously a blow when you lose a local player. Maybe the blow would have been softened a little bit if we could have eked out a little more money for him.”

Curtis insisted, however, the Swans are m ore than capable of making their mark this season after reaching the play-offs last time around.

“We just missed out last year but I think the squad, if anything, is probably a little bit stronger this year. I feel confident we can go that little step further this year,” he insisted.

Curtis’s comments about the fee received for Rodon follow a stronglyworded column byevening Post Swans fan columnist Guto Llewelyn who accused the club of “surrender”.

Guto claimed even £20m was a “dangerously low starting point”, arguing that Brighton demanded £30m from Leeds for Ben White and Adam Webster was two years older than Rodon when he joined the Seagulls from Bristol City last summer for £20m.

“Swansea set out their stall badly to begin with. They basically offered their most valuable player to Spurs on a silver platter but Spurs were still nowhere near the asking price,” he wrote.

“It was nothing less than a surrender. Instead of telling Spurs where they could stick their measly offer, they crumbled under pressure and gave in to their demands.”