NEW DEAL FOR RODON

DEFENDER SIGNS... AND HE COULD BE FIRST OF MANY

GRAHAM Potter hopes Joe Rodon will be the first of a number of Swansea City players to pen new deals, revealing the club are in talks with a further quintet of first-team squad members.

Defender Rodon, 20, has signed an improved contract extension through to the summer of 2022 after bursting on to the scene with a series of highly-impressive displays at the heart of the Swansea defence.

Connor Roberts and Matt Grimes are also thought to be nearing new deals after their fine form in the Championship.

Roberts and Grimes, as was the case with Rodon, are due to be out of contract at the end of the current campaign.

There are a number of others in a similar position, including Leroy Fer, Mike van der Hoorn and Martin Olsson.

While it is not desirable to allow so many players to enter the final year of their contracts with their futures not secure, the manager admits he and his staff needed the time to properly assess their squad before any decisions over the future could be taken.

Potter is reluctant to name the individuals Swansea have held talks with, but hopes Rodon, while being the first, will be far from the last to sign on for the longer term.

“It is ongoing with four or five players, and it will move on from there,” he said.

“Things can change quite a lot and we are still trying to find out as much as we can about everybody.

“It will always be ongoing and we will announce when we can, because we have to be fair to the individuals.

“There is an element added to that where we are a new management team, we have been outside the country for a number of years, so you don’t want to make a judgment on what has gone before.

“You have to see the player, the personality and how we move forward. But we are very happy with this first step.”

Rodon had previously been linked with Manchester City, Bournemouth and Southampton, while Roberts has also reportedly been attracting interest from top-flight clubs ahead of the January transfer window.

And Potter believes it is a an important step for Swansea to start to lock down some of the club’s bright young talents and signal their intent for the years ahead.

“I think it’s a bit of a statement and a nice start. We want to build something here,” he said.

“Joe is clearly an important part of the present, but he is part of the future.

“He has great attributes as a player and a person. He can pass, can defend and is big and fast, he can be very exciting for us.

“But he has his feet on the ground, he is a top lad. He just needed to be in an environment he felt part of and we have been able to do that.

“He’s a credit to him and his family.

“He knows he’s at the start, he wants to improve and he is thinking about a career over 300 games and not just 12.” ■ Ordinary Joe is on the up . . . with his feet on the ground - pages 62&63