That man again...
Jamie Moralee must love his job! The agent of Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor, Jonny Williams and more, we've seen quite a bit of him this summer but I must say that a wry smile crossed my lips when I saw his latest quotes in the South Wales Evening Post - he clearly is quite good at his job despite his infuriating habit of referring to his clients as "his boys".
You almost have to admire his timing in this one; the Swans are off to America on Sunday, Spurs are keen to push the deal for Ben Davies through before then and Moralee has already hinted that Taylor may leave if he's not guaranteed first-team football this season - what do you do? Give an interview where you reinforce Taylor's need for first-team football, and that unless Ben Davies is off it's unlikely Taylor will be here next season.
"Neil Taylor needs to be playing regular football and that would ideally be at Swansea. If Ben Davies goes then Neil will stay and Swansea will have a perfect player to step in, someone just as good, probably better after a run in the side, but if Ben Davies stays, Neil will have to move on because he can't spend another season on the bench.
"Hopefully Neil can stay because my boys like it at Swansea, they like the club and the environment." Taylor's agent, Jamie Moralee
It seems this one is likely to go through imminently, though thankfully any talk of the Bony deal now seems to have cooled off. I'm sure we'll have to fend off interest from other interested parties before the summer's end, but as long as we stick to our twenty-five million guns we should be fine on that front.
Back to Davies, and I would be genuinely surprised if we let him go for less than £10million. Two year's Premier League experience, youth on his side and a decent footballing education mean he's ideally suited to a move to Spurs, and given current market values if he turns out to be anything more than a backup squad player they'll have got themselves a bargain. Perhaps not a bargain by Spurs' standards, but a bargain nonetheless.
I doubt Moralee's comments actually sped things along, as I think it's likely to be all but done and dusted now, but they do obviously serve as a reminder that this needs to be sorted out as soon as possible. It seems like Neil Taylor is to get his wish of regular first-team football, and I for one am very pleased for him - I've stated on numerous occasions that I think he could have played a lot more football last season, and I'm glad he's stuck around long enough to get another bite at the "first choice left back" cherry.
I doubt this is the last we've heard from Jamie Moralee this summer though...