https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/2008124/swansea-city-matt-grimes-coventry-transfer-news He's still got two years left on his contract after this season, but I can see a decent bid tempting a sale in the next few days because he's more replaceable than some of our others.
Good he's been f cuking awful for two years. Worst thing that happened giving him captaincy. Made him undroppable.
I love this place. Proper strange that the only lads who seem to get any interest are those who are ****. Connell, Phillips etc. Maybe worth remembering he's only 23, only had about 100 league games in his career, recovered from what seemed like a pretty serious illness, worked under three different managers during his time here and still very obviously got a good career in front of him. I'd be gutted if he left and we'd find it hard to replace him.
Yep. I feel the same about Benson (although get the fact we can't keep paying him not to play). Both are players who, if they leave us, could really kick on and leave us with regrets
Does anybody else think it would be worth Clarke sitting him down and having a straight talk with him about giving someone else the captaincy? Who knows, it might even be a boost for someone else, because it sure as hell seems to be a hindrance to Connell.
I am not too worried about him going. The article/report that lists him as a target also lists Sheehan from Bolton and Kyprianou from Posh. Of those 3 Luca would command the highest fee I would assume and be the hardest deal to do on short notice. The lad from Posh however is out of contract in summer and would be the easiest to do based on that. But they have also signed some Swedish lad as per Sky Sports who they see as the Grimes replacement and who seems to have cost them a decent fee: Swansea want Widell to replace outgoing Grimes Latest from Sky Sports News' Rob Dorsett: Swansea are close to agreeing a deal with Danish club Aalborg for Sweden midfielder Melker Widell. The two clubs have agreed a fee worth £2.7m (€3.2m) plus bonuses. The 22-year-old has won nine caps for his country at U21 level. Widell is a direct replacement for Matt Grimes, who is expected to be confirmed as Frank Lampard’s first signing as Coventry City manager later today. Grimes is thought to be costing Coventry £3m rising to a possible £4m max, and will immediately become one of the Sky Blues’ biggest earners. Grimes could be in the starting XI against his former club almost immediately - after three straight wins, Coventry travel to South Wales to play Swansea on Saturday.
I think he's one of the players Clarke was on about moving because their careers had stalled and his need to freshen things up. (Paraphrasing).
Right, but if he was an excellent player before we gave him the captaincy, and his career stalled when we did, wouldn't it be worth seeing if he's still an excellent player without it before just moving him on and hoping to find another excellent player that we can afford to replace him?
Yeah course he is. Really classy player, but would demand a smaller fee than Luca due to the fact he is a fair bit older.
I'd not seen a great deal of him til this season. I think there's a player in there, but I don't know if he's been confused by coaching, being asked to do the wrong job or he's trying to do too much and thereby our midfield structure has broken. This is the most we'll get for him, if it's a good bid, I'd certainly entertain it to look at a midfielder who can protect our defence better.
There’s only 3 days left in the window, so unless we have a replacement lined up then I wouldn’t imagine Connell is not going anywhere
He was fantastic under Duff, & I honestly thought he would cut it in the premier league one day, but last seasons illness, & lack of form the 2nd half of last season & this season so far, would make me consider bids. The money could be spent wisely. But then again we thought that about the Kitching & Andersen money. It’s quite late in the window too, so do we hope he starts improving pretty sharpish?
Haven't there been rumours we're after a defensive mid? Would make sense if we've had contact already.