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| Swansea Bay captured at sunrise. |
"Where's the sun come from!!!"
This was Swansea winger Wayne Routledge tweeting, of course, about the extended sunny spell we're currently enjoying in South Wales. I could be talking metaphorically, but I'm not - I've lost count of the amount of days we've had where no rain fell - it seems even the weather is smiling kindly on Swansea at present.
Ashley Williams to Arsenal?
One news item unlikely to make people smile, however, is the constant, and renewed, rumours of bids for Ashley Williams. Many national papers, including the Guardian and The Independent, both ran with the story that Arsene Wenger has picked Williams as the man to shore up the Gunners leaky defence, and all season Williams had been linked with a switch to Liverpool, to link up with former manager Brendan Rodgers and ex-Swan Joey Allen...and Colin Pascoe. Sorry Colin, almost forgot about you there. Williams is contracted until the summer of 2015, but the press seem to think £8million would be enough to secure his signature.
I'm not so sure. The Swans have European football next season so the disparity in terms of what the Swans can offer, and what the "big clubs" can offer, is lessening. Swansea sold Allen for a very good price indeed, and Huw showed he's no pushover with the Scott Sinclair deal. The Danny Graham deal - while not ideally timed - is a good bit of business too, with a £1.5million profit on a player we purchased barely 18 months ago, and who clearly wanted out. I think to prise a centre-back away from the club that he's captain of, a club he's played through the divisions with and who he now has the possibility of leading out in Europe, will be a big ask. If it's Manchester United, Manchester City... ok, fair enough, but anyone else? There isn't one team below those two for me who I'd say are guaranteed Champions League football next year, and until a team can offer that they aren't offering anything, except a fatter contract, that the Swans couldn't also offer.
It remains to be seen if any concrete offers arrive in the summer, but I'd be very surprised to see Ashley Williams leave the Liberty stadium for less than £10million. Captain, leader, cup winner and club favourite, he would leave an enormous gap which would instantly need filling - let's imagine he does depart this summer, who would we sign? Do we promote from within? Darnel Situ came with rave reviews when we signed him but the limited reports I've heard about him playing for our development side don't indicate he's the answer (at least any time soon), but there is one other option in the form of switching Ben Davies to centre-back to accommodate the returning Neil Taylor. Davies has shown he's good in the air, has good composure for a man his age and isn't afraid of a tackle (averaging 2.3 completed tackles, 1.5 interceptions and 4.9 clearances per match) however his lack of experience, when coupled with the loss of Williams', could mean the Swans end up looking very shaky at the back. I'm sure however that if Ash does depart, he'll do so with a successor lined up, and with the full blessing of everyone at Swansea City.
"Swansea City signed Beckham"
| Ki Sung-Yeung. More gifts than a baby Jesus. |
Now there's a headline we haven't seen before. Ok, so I'm paraphrasing a tad - this is the news that Ki Sung-Yeung has been likened (by his Korean fans) to David Beckham. Some fans have taken to following him around the country to watch him play, such is the adulation lavished on him by fans. It's long been professed that South Korea, amongst other Asian countries, are football mad, but to see it displayed in such an unlikely place as Swansea really drives the point home. In the pitcture to the right you can see Ki standing beside just some of the gifts he receives from Korean fans, and it's now at the point where he's had to employ a press secretary. I don't even think the club had a press secretary back in the day - it was probably just whoever drew the short straw!
One of the fans who tries to get to see Ki as much as possible is masters graduate Rachel Hur, who lives in London:
"He is such a big star we follow him around the country and watch his games. I have followed him since he was playing for Seoul and first got into the national team and was hailed a bright new star.
"I think that people had huge aspirations for him and I'm delighted that he has succeeded them. At the moment Park Ji-Sung is a legend but Ki is the rising young star, he's going to be the new Korean David Beckham.
"His popularity is absolutely nationwide and he has a bright future ahead. It's exciting to meet him and get his autograph, he's such a super star in Korea. In Korea he would get absolutely mobbed in the street."
As I mentioned in a previous blog - the marketing opportunities offered by having a player of Ki's standing playing for the club are massive. If the club aren't already looking at organising a tour, or at the very least a promotional exercise, then they're missing a trick. In Ki Sung-Yeung, and especially given our European qualification, Swansea have an opportunity to massively expand our commercial operations, and with the Swans' track record in learning as they go improving by the day, there's no reason to think there aren't already talks afoot to maximise this opportunity. My father and brother now live in Thailand, and a quick check of Google Maps tells me (I did this with a string held beside the "scale" part of the map - it wouldn't let me check the miles - I assume something to do with China being in the way, and them being scared about people calculating distances near their territory) it's about 2000 miles from Pattaya to Korea. Swans on tour? That could be an interesting experience...