The club have enjoyed a hugely positive start to the summer transfer window
We’re not even at the end of June, and Swansea City have already made a sizeable dent in their transfer to-do list.
Cameron Burgess, in a move that was kept successfully under wraps until it was completed, became the club’s fourth signing of the summer over the weekend, joining fellow new recruits Zeidane Inoussa, Bobby Wales and Ricardo Santos in putting pen to paper in SA1.
Time will tell how good those signings will prove to be, of course, but at the moment it all feels quite sensible and well planned, which isn’t something we’ve been able to say about Swansea’s recruitment for some time.
Time and time again, Swans fans were promised an early flurry of activity would greet the opening of a transfer window. Time and time again, we were told deals were lined up and ready to go.. Time and time again, we were told the club had finally recognised the importance of getting business done early.
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Time and time again, however, those promises ultimately weren’t delivered on.
The relationship between previous chairman Andy Coleman and supporters unsurprisingly strained beyond its elastic limit as a result. Coleman’s problem, many argued, was he was effectively trying to do too much; spreading a thin and grossly inadequate layer of attention over key cogs in the recruitment machine.
Luke Williams hinted as much himself, describing Coleman’s frantic efforts to save another dismal January window as those akin to a ‘madman’.
Transfer windows have often carried similar feelings of chaos for Swansea over the years. But there’s an inescapable sense that things really are different this time, as perhaps evidenced by this encouraging early flurry of business.
“I think it’s helpful certainly [to get business done early],” director of football Richard Montague said recently. “It can give you a feeling of momentum and set an expectation that we are going to attack this window, that we are not going to stand still.
“I have always felt that if you get the majority of what you want done by the start of pre-season, you then have that six-week period to bed in and build a unit together.
“But that’s also with the awareness that you get opportunities later on that might not have been available in June, so there’s always that balance.”
Head coach Alan Sheehan will certainly hope to start the season, his first full campaign in charge, with a more fully formed squad than the one handed to his predecessor last summer.
Indeed, if there was a case to be made for Williams in the end, one could potentially argue he wasn’t helped by the shortcomings in the club’s recruitment efforts.
There were certainly some signs of frustration after that shambolic January window, which was of course conducted without a sporting director following Paul Watson’s departure some months prior.
“I think the structure was not right and some people didn’t have a lot of experience in signing players and getting deals done,” Williams said at the time. “That’s something we need to learn from, and I think already we have an appointment that’s going to be made that will help out considerably.”
That appointment would obviously be his old pal Montague, whom he worked with closely at Notts County. It’s a move many feel has been the catalyst for Swansea’s improvements in the market.
Montague’s predecessor rightly and repeatedly talked up the importance of data in aiding their recruitment efforts, but seemingly struggled to translate it into tangible results. Sign up to our Swansea City newsletter here.
Montague’s eye-catching track record in that area was clearly a big reason for his appointment, but in reality he’s just one part of what now feels like a more defined chain of command.
“Adam Worth is global head of recruitment and analysis,” Montague said, explaining the current structure. “He is responsible for identifying the players.
“He works very closely with James Morgan-Snowley, our head of scouting and they have a team of scouts and data analysts who work beneath them to work within the process identify the players.
“At the end stage of that process, those players are brought to Alan, and I am in on those meetings as well.
“That group with Adam’s leadership, determine which players we are going to go after.
“Then it’s my job to try to do the deals, speak to the players and sell them the project along with Alan.
“All targets go through it. It’s a process Adam has worked on since he arrived last October.
“Every player we have identified so far has gone through that process.”
Under the new regime, head coach Alan Sheehan is still welcome to bring his own suggestions to the table, but they will still have to be assessed by the same means.
“It would still need to tick the various boxes along the way,” Montague added.
“You can’t rule out players that are brought through unconventional means, players who agents throw you, players a guy on the street or on Twitter throws at you.
“You can’t say this won’t have any use. But what you have to do is go through the same process to get to the same end point – treat them fairly alongside the players who have been identified purely through data, as some will.”
More signings could yet follow soon. The club are still keen on signing a central midfielder, ideally someone capable of operating as a six.
Empoli’s Liam Henderson is among the latest names to have been linked, while Italian journalist Matteo Moretto claims Yokohama’s Jean Claude is a target. The club are understood to have effectively moved on from Ethan Galbraith and Ethan Erhahon, both of whom have been the subject of unsuccessful bids from the Swans in the past.
Meanwhile, the tentative interest in Oli McBurnie points to an admission they could also use a little more firepower up front, although the prospect of a reunion with the Las Palmas forward is looking unlikely at this stage. Indeed, the prospect of a new striker coming in at all is likely to depend on the futures of those returning to the club this summer.
Uncertainty still hangs over the futures of Jerry Yates and Mykola Kuharevich, and there’s a feeling that the wages of both players mean that a season of sitting on the bench isn’t really seen as a financially efficient option.
Swansea don’t need to sell in order to buy as such, but the incomings they do now make, even beyond the forward positions, are nevertheless likely to be influenced by departures.
“It depends a bit on the outgoings,” Montague said when asked about how many more players could still come on board. “We had a lot of players out on loan.
“It will be a case of figuring out who is going to be leaving, what offers come in for any of our players.
“I think it’s fluid at this stage.”