‘SIGNIFICANT’ FEE FOR RODON HELPS SECURE FUTURE
SWANS CHIEF ON JOE SALE: PAGE 54
SWANSEA City chief executive Julian Winter has defended the deadlineday sale of Joe Rodon to Tottenham, claiming the ‘significant’ fee received for the defender will help financially secure the future of the club.
After a summer of speculation that had previously seen Rodon linked with a variety of Premier League clubs, including Manchester United and West Ham, the Welshman was sold to Spurs in the dying hours of the summer transfer window.
The move dismayed Swans fans, many of whom believed Rodon’s departure had taken the gloss off a window that had seen 10 players through the doors at the Liberty Stadium.
And, having come under criticism over his role in the sale, Winter has now broken his silence on the saga.
Explaining their actions towards the end of the summer window, Winter told the club’s official website: “Following my appointment I said there was a plan from a transitional basis of players in and out that I would help and support.
“Things got a little more complicated when the Joe situation arose. There was always speculation, but there was never a genuine offer.
“The transition had gone well prior to my arrival with two loan players returning and more coming in on top of permanent signings.
“It all came to a head on the final few days of the window. The decision on Joe enabled us to do quite a lot for the team in terms of depth, experience, future potential, players who have won promotion like Ryan Bennett, who replaced Joe directly.
“We made a decision on Joe and it went down to the wire. It was a fairly interesting 48 hours.”
Perhaps the biggest bone of contention from fans in regards to Rodon’s sale was the price tag, which was believed to be an initial £11m rising to £15m with add-ons.
Many believed that valuation to be too low, with Steve Cooper himself hinting that Rodon was perhaps in the same price bracket as players invovled other “high-profile moves from the Championship to the Premier League”, such as Ben Godfrey, who moved from Norwich City to Everton for £25m earlier in the window.
“I think Joe is a really good player and if that’s what the going rate is, then Joe, for a young player, will be a top centre-back in the Premier League” he said.
Swansea had previously valued Rodon at around £18m, and questions will surely linger over their apparent willingness to come down on that price tag.
However, while declining to discuss how much Spurs will actually pay, Winter insists that the fee will help to see the club through a difficult financial period, adding that the squad available to Cooper is stronger than at the end of last term.
“I know there are question marks over the fee we got for Joe – even though it was undisclosed – it is still a significant transfer for this club,” Winter added.
“It has enabled the club to be more financially secure in the short to medium term, while it has allowed us to create a much deeper squad in terms of competitiveness for the league we are in.
“It has all sorts of challenges, but we aim to compete in every game and adding the players we have puts us in a stronger position to be able to do that.
“Joe is a great loss, a great guy with great potential and is an academy product. He’s moved to a top-six club – this is not just him moving to another club, it was a huge opportunity for him.
“We had to make a decision where we could be financially secure and develop the squad in the way we have. I think we have a good platform at the moment in what we all know are incredibly challenging times due to Covid.
“The transfer market has been affected by Covid. You can argue at the top level the amount of money that has been spent in the Premier League, but further down the food chain there hasn’t been much activity.
“I think that will get more challenging moving into January. We have to understand the market that is in front of us, and plan accordingly.
“I think we got to a good solution - people can question aspects of how we got to it – but on the whole I think we’re in good shape.”