Swansea City rejecting bids from West Ham United for Alfie Mawson and Lukasz Fabianski brings up memories of Gylfi Sigurdsson signing for Everton late in last summer’s transfer window.
Rejecting bids for their top players can’t help but stir up memories of last summer, when a protracted transfer sage resulted in star man Gylfi Sigurdsson eventually being sold to Everton for an initial £40 million.
That was an awful lot of money for a player at the lower end of the Premier League – and you could understand why Swansea took the money in the end – but Sigurdsson wasn’t sold until after the Premier League season had kicked off, and Swansea struggled to replace him. It would, in fact, take until January 31st and the signing of Andre Ayew before a replacement was found. Given that Swansea ended up only four points from Premier League safety last season, the delay in signing up Sigurdsson’s replacement could be viewed as a somewhat expensive mistake.
From that perspective, holding onto Mawson and Fabianski looks like an ideal way to halt a further slide – but it’s not that simple.
Both Swansea players actually have a lot more to gain from leaving the club than Sigurdsson did a year ago. Mawson is on the brink of the England squad and will feel that top-flight football is a necessity. Fabianski, on the other hand, knows that plenty of teams will be interested in him given that quality goalkeepers seem few and far between in the top European leagues at the moment.
Mawson and Fabianski both know that they further their careers by moving from Swansea. And if it’s going to be difficult to hold onto the two men, Swansea must learn the most important lesson from last year – get the business done early and bring in replacements as soon as possible.
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