Josh Kilmister on why, despite the natural clamour for a spending spree, the Swans would be better off playing it cool in the transfer market
With Bony leaving, it was only a matter of time before we would start being linked to every available striker on the planet. “Swans offered Cisse”, “Swans showing interest in Shinji Okazaki”, hell, we’ve even been linked to Mario Gomez! [Yes! - Ed]. This is all well and good, but let’s remember that as things stand, we don’t necessarily need a new striker yet.
I say ‘yet’ because come August, I would be slightly disappointed if there weren’t rumours about us bringing someone in as a long-term replacement for Bony. Gomis will do us for the rest of the season I’m sure, but I don’t think I’m being unfair in saying that we should be looking at someone maybe a few years younger.
The way I look at things, to bring in someone now wouldn’t be smart in terms of business at all. Bony to City is one of the biggest transfers of the month, so don’t think that other clubs won’t be ready to up their prices should we go in for anyone. Even if we hadn’t sold Bony, the best players are usually that little bit more expensive at this time of year anyway, as selling them mid-season could have a huge impact on the club involved.
Of course, I’m not saying that we won’t be dipping into that £25m at all this month; even if Bony had stayed, we were still looking for players to challenge in a couple of positions. I have confidence that a fullback will be brought in at the very minimum, but if things go our way we might even go into February with backup on the wing and maybe even in an attacking midfield role.
The overall fee we’re receiving is said to be £28m, but that last £3m won’t be paid unless certain criteria is met regarding Bony’s performance. Not forgetting that Vitesse Arnhem – who sold us Bony in 2013 – will receive 7% (I believe) of the fee; that’s another £2m that we won’t be seeing. So what was once £30m is now looking likely to be more around the £23m mark, and that’s money that will be invested into the future of the club, and not just the present.
Our club has been through way too much in the last decade to fall at the last hurdle from a few silly decisions. Remember that stadium expansion that was meant to happen this month? Well with the money received from Bony we could almost knock the stadium down and build it again, so I’m sure the expansion will be just one thing we will look to splash the cash on that would benefit us in the long run.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that more seats means more tickets sold, and more tickets sold means more money. It will also allow room for fans who haven’t yet been able to visit the stadium on a regular basis to do just that, and will help encourage younger fans to become more involved with the club.
Just the other day Monk was asked one of many questions about Bony, and one of them was about the spending of the fee we would eventually receive. Since Monk’s time as captain, times have changed drastically both on and especially off the field. Just a few years ago the players had to share changing rooms with the public, now we have a state of the art training ground within walking distance of the stadium. Of course there’s still room for improvement, and that’s exactly what Monk expects.
“There's still a massive amount of work to be done on the training ground and that costs money.” – Garry Monk speaking on January 9th
With money being spent on infrastructure, the benefits of Bony’s departure are unlikely to be seen in their entirety for quite some time. We’ve already seen that the club can recruit talent from a young age, just look at the likes of Joe Allen and Ben Davies who, even though they were sold on, played a huge part in the club’s recent success. Even if it isn’t immediately obvious on the field, off the field we are starting to grow into a true Premier League football side.
Personally, I think Huw Jenkins would be wise to spend on the future rather than the present, but it’s equally important that a perfect balance between the two is found. As well as developing talent the training facilities at a club can play a huge part in making up the minds of any potential signings , and that’s where one of my new favourite Garry Monk quotes fits in perfectly.
“Players come and go, that will leave a legacy — the training ground will be there for ever.”
Thanks to Josh as usual, and I definitely agree with the overall theme of this piece. I expect the Swans to use the majority of this money on infrastructure as opposed to players, and I doubt we'll be seeing any big-money signings this month.