Icelandic international looks set to move to SA1 as part of a deal which will also see the Swans receive around £5million
This has threatened to go on and on and on, and to be honest I'm sure I'm similar to most fans in that when transfers develop into a saga I quickly get bored and just want it to be over and done with. After seemingly being put on ice, it appears this was simply a delay caused by the Swans' departure to America for their pre-season expedition
It now seems that for Gylfi Sigurdsson plus £5million Spurs will acquire both Ben Davies and Michel Vorm, and it's hard to argue the deal is better for the Swans than it is the London club. I'd say another two or three million would have been fair cop - Huw seems to have met his match in the bargaining stakes. That being said if Gylfi kicks on and becomes even better than during his loan spell here in 2011/12 we'll have got ourselves a bargain.
I hadn't really given much thought to The Gylf coming back in, but after a quick watch of some videos of his time here I'm thoroughly convinced. I didn't really need persuading, but I was worrying that it would restrict service to Wilf - I'd honestly forgotten about his vision and range of passing. To an extent anyway. If we can get both him and Jonjo pinging passes to Wilf we could score a lot of goals next season.
As for Davies and Vorm departing - I think we're in the very strange position of losing two players who've been nailed on first-teamers for two and three years respectively, but actually improving the team in doing so. I think Taylor is a better defender and has been unlucky not to feature more in the last twelve months, while I've had doubts about Vorm for a while. There's a reported sell-on fee of around 30% to Utrecht but any profit made is still a good effort, and as with Davies I believe the player replacing him (Fabianski) is actually a better option. The proof is in the pudding though, so we'll have to wait and see whether I'm right.
It's anyone's guess when this deal will be completed. There's three medicals to consider, three contracts... it would be understandable if it dragged on and on but it's also possible these are the details that have been thrashed out over the last few weeks. To a point anyway. I would be surprised if, with Pochettino & The Monk both keen to assemble their squads for the coming season, they didn't now want to get this done and dusted as soon as possible. My guess would be that this will be wrapped up by Wednesday or Thursday if not sooner.
We should give thanks to both Vorm & Davies for excellent contributions during their time here. I hope that Ben gets regular first-team football, and it'll be good for Welsh football having another of our players playing at a "big" club. As for Vorm it's difficult to see him getting games. A case of preffering the bench at White Hart Lane, perhaps. Either way they've both been good servants and I'm sure everyone will join me in wishing them well.
All the best, lads!