Swans owners admit they’ve made mistakes over transfer choices
SWANSEA City’s American owners have admitted to making “poor transfer decisions” during their time at the helm, but have rejected claims they have failed to invest in the club.
In a rare interview with The Guardian, Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien acknowledged the club’s efforts in last summer’s transfer market had not been up to scratch.
The likes of Roque Mesa, Sam Clucas and Wilfried Bony have struggled to make an impact for most of the season, with £11million man Mesa now back in his homeland on loan at Sevilla, while the protracted saga of Gylfi Sigurdsson’s move to Everton set Swansea back in their summer business.
But Levien and Kaplan, who completed their takeover in the summer of 2016, called criticism that they have failed to invest in Swansea City “unfair”.
“We can be criticised,” Kaplan told The Guardian.
“We’ve made some poor transfer decisions, no doubt. Nobody gets it right all the time.
“Our record has been mixed and this past summer wasn’t very good. That’s fair criticism.
“What’s unfair criticism is to say that we haven’t invested everything that the club has generated, and then some, to try to improve the team.”
Levien went on to add that the club’s recruitment process was being evaluated and that changes could be seen in the coming months.
“We’re evaluating how we improve our process and that may be bringing in additional people in roles that could help,” he said.
“The key for us is how do we learn from the mistakes that we’ve made and get better. So, adding additional resources to that is something we’re looking closely at.”
Chairman Huw Jenkins has been the man to bear the brunt of criticism for Swansea’s performance in the transfer market, including the acquisitions of the likes of Mesa and Borja Baston – another player to arrive for a sizeable fee from Spain and make little impact in South Wales.
But the American businessmen praised some of Jenkins’ decisionmaking, pointing out his role in bringing Alfie Mawson to the Liberty Stadium and making clear their desire to ensure the defender remains a Swansea player in the long term.
“We can’t just paper over mistakes with money, you’re right,” Kaplan said of the signings of Baston and Mesa.
“Roque has a lot of value in La Liga, he’s a proven player. He could play in the Premier League in the right system.
“But the way Carlos (Carvalhal) is lining us up, we need a level of athleticism in our midfield.
“Borja came in around the same date we came in – that obviously doesn’t look very good.
“On the other hand, to be fair to Huw, he’s made some really good purchases.
“Alfie Mawson is a kid that our scouting group and Huw pounded the table on.
“We said: ‘We’re going to spend £5m on a player who’s played a total of four matches in the Championship?’ That seemed crazy.
“But there was a lot of conviction about Alfie and he’s worth a lot of money now.
“And I want to be very clear, we have no intention of moving Alfie on. This guy is a stalwart of our club.
“Mike van der Hoorn was also picked up for very little. He’s not fancy, but that guy gets the job done and he’s not afraid to mix it up with anybody. We like that guy a lot.
“So you’ve got your positives and your negatives.
“That being said, it’s fair to say that the summer was very poor.”