He wanted to quit reveals Clement
all offers before Sigurdsson made clear he was keen on Everton, a club who had seen £25m interest seen off during the previous campaign.
Everton were revealed to have made an offer of a package totalling £40m on the morning of the club’s scheduled departure for America, though it was promptly dismissed.
“I said to Gylfi my opinion was he should still come,” said Clement on Sigurdsson’s decision not to travel to the States. “It could have potentially fallen through. He was confident it wouldn’t and he decided to stay. We know what happened then, it didn’t go through. It has now.
“It was a surprise. We were en route to the US. We were in London on our way. I believed he was coming.
“I don’t know why he came up with that. Clearly he was speaking to his representatives who were confident it would happen then, but it didn’t.”
Clement said decisions were taken between all parties to then not involve the former Tottenham man in the friendlies that followed Swansea’s return as the two clubs attempted to reach an agreement, one that was finally thrashed out earlier this week.
“It was probably more awkward for him than me,” Clement said of the situation of Sigurdsson still being at the club upon the side’s return from the States. “I was never going to say, you’ve said your goodbyes now go and train over there. He continued to train with us and he was one of the hardest-working players in the group, even during this period.
“But I was clear in my mind that this would happen eventually. I made up my mind I had to plan for life without him and that is what I did.
“It has gone on longer than we would have liked, but sometimes these deals are complicated. I just concentrated on our performance against Southampton and will do same this weekend.
“But it’s good for everybody that it’s been done. I said it wouldn’t go to the end of the window and it didn’t, it was finished two weeks before. Now we’ve got a reasonable amount of time to look at other players.”
Clement says he is in constant communication with the club’s hierarchy over the next steps, saying the two to three ‘ideal scenario’ additions could make the side stronger even without their leading assistmaker on board.
He added: “I’m in no doubt that we have to strengthen. There are good players here, but you saw the game against Southampton and we found it hard. There was no Gylfi or Fernando Llorente there and they were instrumental for us at the end of last season, and there was no Ki Sung-Yueng who was playing weekin, week-out when we picked up a huge amount of points last season. That’s three of your best players. For a club like ours, that’s a lot.
“It’s really important we get goodquality players in in the next few weeks. We need to strengthen, we do and potentially, all being well, there can be an excitement about what we do.
“You can’t say for sure because there is uncertainty. The players you want might be contracted elsewhere and there is a lot of unknowns. This is the nature of the negotiation process.
“It’s asked different questions of me as a manager but, while that is going on, you’re really trying to focus on training. Those are the conversations I’ve had with the club about this situation.
“One thing that’s not going to wait is the start of the season. I had to manage that uncertainty, but one certainty is you have to plan and prepare for games.”