WHY SWANS ARE IN NO MOOD FOR HAMMERING ON TRANSFER DEALS
FOR Swansea City fans the news of interest in their best players has become a predictable and common feature of every transfer window, and this summer it was inevitable.
Relegation to the Championship is a heavy blow to bear, a quick look at the difference in guaranteed revenues – even with parachute payments to come – makes that clear enough.
But demotion has also historically tended to lead to a summer exodus.
Keeping hold of the best players has traditionally been hard enough for Swansea, trying to do so now is a seemingly impossible task.
But the club will hope the revelation that they have out-of-hand rejected bids for Alfie Mawson and Lukasz Fabianski from West Ham sends a clear message to potential suitors for the pair and others.
Many of the players will want to leave, they will want Premier League football and few fans would quibble that Mawson and Fabianski, in particular, are more than good enough to be plying their trade at that level. They do not belong in the Championship.
Some may wonder why Swansea are choosing to play hardball. After all, it’s been well documented the club accept the duo will likely move on. Indeed, Fabianski is understood to have told the club outright that he wants a move this summer.
So, why take the tough stance when a move appears a fait accompli? THE CALIBRE OF THE PLAYERS INVOLVED WELL, why wouldn’t you?
If you have an asset that others want, why wouldn’t you want to get the highest amount possible. Swansea have some previous for attempting to hold out when you think back to last summer and Gylfi Sigurdsson’s protracted sale to Everton, although that did end up hindering their business 12 months ago.
It comes down to the calibre of the players involved, and their status.
Mawson and Fabianski have been two of Swansea’s better players in recent seasons.
Indeed, you could make a case that the Poland goalkeeper has been the club’s best player across the course of the four seasons he has been at the Liberty Stadium.
Statistically, he has been one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League over that time, consistently in the top three or four for shots saved, shots- to -saves ratio and aerial claims. His brilliant saves and takes far outrank any errors in that spell.
He may well be 33 and nearer the end of his career than the start, but he is a man many top-flight clubs would – and should – be grateful to have.
Swansea will know there is an element of risk in their stance because they know Fabianski has only a year left on his contract.
They will not want to lose him for nothing next summer, and his value will only decrease from this point as the term of his contract runs down.
Mawson is arguably a more attractive proposition for suitors because of his age and status as one of the rising stars in English football.
His meteoric rise from the lower leagues to the top flight has been eyecatching and, while he still has plenty to learn, the talent is clearly there and he is on the brink of winning a first England cap, having been called up to the squad for the March friendlies.
Swansea will be well aware part of the proceeds from any sale will also include a section siphoned off for Barnsley’s sell-on clause from his 2016 move.
Young, talented English players do not move on the cheap, regardless of whether they are in the top flight of the Championship.
Swansea can be confident that the competition for Mawson’s signature will be stiff, the Hammers are thought to be far from the only club interested and they will want that competition to hot and up and drive the price to a level more in line with what they believe the player is worth.
Some Swans fans will cling to the hope of the pair remaining in South Wales on the back of the offers being rejected, but that is unlikely in the extreme.