Swansea City’s future success relies on the kind of business we saw this week, selling players like Flynn Downes for tidy profits, then finding sensible replacements.
Downes joined the club from Ipswich Town last summer for around £1.5 million and instantly became a fan favourite. His combination of tough tackling, accurate passing and calm footwork under pressure saw him quickly become a major figure in Russell Martin’s side. It also drew the attentions of Premier League scouts and in the end, West Ham United pipped Crystal Palace to secure the 23-year-old’s signature.
The Jack Army will obviously be disappointed to lose such a fantastic young talent but this could be a rare move which suits all parties.
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Downes gets to step up to the Premier League and joins the club he supported as a boy. West Ham get a superb young midfielder who could be a long-term replacement for Declan Rice, without breaking the bank. Swansea make a very healthy profit on a player they bought for a fraction of the price just 12 months ago which, importantly, opens the door for a long overdue homecoming for a much-loved former star.
A decade after leaving for Liverpool, Joe Allen has returned to the club where he first made his name as a pint-sized pass-master.
A lot has changed since Allen last wore the white of Swansea, and I’m not just talking about the messianic hair and beard combo. He has played in the Champions League, Europa League and two European Championships, featuring in the Official Team of the Tournament in Euro 2016. He’s helped his country reach a first World Cup since 1958 and he’s also wasted six years of his club career at Stoke City of all places but we won’t dwell on that.
Allen may not be the same player he was a few years ago. A serious injury in 2020 seemed to leave its mark but he remains an excellent midfielder whose intelligence and reading of the game should see him slot perfectly into Martin’s system.
Although he lacks Downes’ athleticism, his experience will bring a new dimension to Swansea’s midfield and his love for the club will guarantee maximum effort. Lining up free agent Joe Allen as a replacement for Downes may be an obvious move but it’s one that makes perfect sense.
The past week has shown how Swansea, and indeed the vast majority of Championship clubs, need to operate in these tough economic times. Swansea scouted well to find a promising youngster at a reasonable price. They developed him and sold him on for a sizable profit, then replaced him with somebody else who should also suit the manager’s philosophy.
Almost every club in the Championship has to follow this cyclical model of buying low and selling high to survive and thrive at this level. The hope is that the money brought in from deals such as the Downes transfer can cover losses elsewhere in the business and leave enough left over to buy several other players and importantly, keep other top talents at the club.
That’s the only way this model eventually leads to success, by selling one player in order to keep two or three others, thereby gradually improving the team as a whole. We saw this strategy work perfectly at Brentford who continuously sold their top names for big fees but re-invested a chunk of that money in the first team to bring in new gems who they would again develop into fine players before selling on and restarting the cycle once again.
It relies on a sophisticated scouting network and the ability to drive a hard bargain in the transfer market but as Brentford showed, when it works, it gets you to the Premier League. That brings me on to the next all-important question: will the Downes transfer be enough?
It’s estimated the deal will see West Ham pay around £9 million for the midfielder, with possible add-ons taking that price to £14 million. That’s not a bad deal by any means but will it be enough to cover Swansea’s losses in other departments, or will other key players also need to be sold?
Downes was one of a handful of Swansea assets who could potentially be sold for big money. Fans hoped that by selling one of them, enough cash would be generated to keep the rest.
Without having insider knowledge of the current financial state of the club, it’s impossible to know for certain how much needs to be raised to break even this year, but the entire Jack Army will be praying that selling Downes enables the Swans to keep the likes of Joel Piroe and Michael Obafemi for the upcoming season.
If they can hold onto those two they will avoid the kind of enormous and disruptive rebuilds which have been necessary in each of the previous six summers, and that would certainly get Swansea fans excited for the upcoming season.
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