First up, it was announced earlier today by the Evening Post that Swansea City had severed all ties with Bayram Tutumlu, Laudrup's agent and a major player in all the recent unrest at the Liberty. The man himself was quick to respond;
“[Huw] wants to bring in players who do not have the quality for Michael Laudrup .He went on:
"I don’t work for Swansea City. Huw Jenkins has paid me nothing, but I have spent a lot to try to bring players to Swansea. My relationship with Michael Laudrup is excellent, as he has told you himself. Nothing changes between me and Michael. I have known Michael for 25 years.
”Michael Laudrup is the coach of Swansea City and he will stay as the coach of Swansea City. He thinks only about Swansea. He has said many times before that he will stay at Swansea.
“I’ve not spoken to Michael, but I’m very disappointed about the situation. I did a lot of good work for Swansea and I helped to bring players like Chico Flores, Michu, Pablo Hernandez and Jonathan de Guzman to the club.
“Huw forgets everything I have done for the club. I’m afraid and worried of what will happen in the future.” Bayram Tutumlu
Apparently he also told Skysports that he was happy he no longer has to work with Huw over transfers, but I've not been able to find any quotes from an official source which backs up that he called our chairman a liar. It's all over message boards and the like, however if someone can send me an official link to that I'd be most interested in reading it.
Laudrup himself was also quick to respond, speaking directly to the Evening Post. He was keen to state his commitment to the club and despite the temporary uproar caused by this story it seems Swans fans can finally rest easy in the knowledge Laudrup will be the Swansea manager next season.
“Bayram is my agent and that’s not going to change. If the club do not want to work with him or Bayram does not want to work with them, it’s their problem not mine. The only thing I care about is to have the best players possible at Swansea who are within range of the economy of the club.
“Again I must say that my intention is to stay - I have repeated it so many times in the last three months. I have 100 per cent confidence in Bayram, but if the club don’t want to work with him or he doesn’t want to work with them, they have to live with that. It will not change my relationship with Bayram one centimetre.
“The only thing I am interested in is having the best players at Swansea within the budget that is possible. That’s what I have been fighting for every day, last year when I arrived and this year as well. That will always be the most important thing for me wherever I end up in the future.” Michael Laudrup
Seemingly tying the matter up, a cheeky chappy called @Luke_Morgan on Twitter asked Laudrup's daughter to say goodbye (as he thought at that point that it was certain the manager was on his way). She responded by saying "He promised to stay, so he's staying". She went on:
I'll be honest, this latest bout of press-based shenanigans has left me wondering if all along this was simply an issue between Tutumlu and Huw/the board. The quotes which kicked this all off were all along the lines of "if Michael doesn't get the players he wants then who knows" and it was all from the agent. Realistically, if he was involved in the signing of Chico, De Guzman, Michu & Pablo there's no reason to assume he wouldn't have been involved in recent transfer dealings - putting him at loggerheads with Huw.
This clearly isn't an issue that's sparked off overnight; it's been festering for a while but in fairness to Laudrup he's never said anything other than "my intention is to stay". It's possible that Tutumlu simply grew frustrated with the Swans preference for building a solid club as opposed to pumping more money into the transfer kitty, however whatever the issue is the club have put a bold line underneath it by announcing that they will no longer deal with him.
For me, I accept that I will never know the exact ins and outs of the football club I love. There's a lot that I, and most fans don't know and I'm happy with that, as I have faith in the current regime to run the football club in the way that they think is best. Ok, there are going to be occasions whereby naivety and inexperience lead to slight imperfections (ticketing, anyone?) however they move fast to address these problems for one crucial reason; they always have the best interests of the club at heart. Can you say the same for Tutumlu? I doubt it.
The club have come a long way in the last 10 years and I think they've earned our faith. They've admitted that 10 years ago they had to "blag it" to a certain extent until they'd figured out just how to run a football club, however after a rise which wasn't quite meteoric, but spectacularly successful in it's own right they deserve the backing of the fans in situations such as this. They're only human, they'll make mistakes, but the key is learning from them and they've consistently done this in my opinion.
So, issue over? Somehow, I doubt it...