These are you Swansea City headlines on Saturday, June 4.
Pompey's double swoop hits snag
We start with Portsmouth's longstanding interest in Swansea striking duo Morgan Whittaker and Kyle Joseph. Both players spent chunks of last season on loan away from the Swansea.com Stadium, with Whittaker at Lincoln City and Joseph at Cheltenham.
The youngsters are believed to be surplus to requirements in SA1, with League One side Pompey taking a keen interest in the pair of them.
South coast publication The News state the club are only interested in permanent moves for the duo, but at present they don't have the cash. Marcus Harness, a target of Swansea, of course, would need to be sold before any move could be made for either striker.
Matters, therefore, currently stand at an impasse.
Academy massive for club - Marsh
Swansea's new head of football operations Josh Marsh says the academy system will be integral to the club's structure going forward.
The production line in SA1 has yielded some outstanding talent over the years, with players going on to make big-money moves away from south Wales having learned the ropes in Swansea. The likes of Daniel James, Joe Rodon and Oli McBurnie all went on to Premier League clubs after stellar starts to their careers in Landore.
And Marsh says the academy will have a big part to play in Swansea's future.
“There’s a good history of success from the academy,” he said. “For the model in terms of the make-up of the first-team squad and how that looks, it’s imperative that young players do get through.
“The same principles exist; you’ve got to get the identification and recruitment right but you’ve also got to get the right things in place across all the departments to develop players. Also, in terms of my conversations with Russell [Martin] and Julian [Winter], you’ve also got to provide opportunity for young players.
“You can’t block pathways, so I think it’s just a balance of all those things. But the academy will play a big part in what we do.”
Obafemi thankful for help
Michael Obafemi has thanked those at Swansea who out him "on the straight and narrow" after his slow start to life at the club. Striker Obafemi moved to the club from Southampton last summer after not getting a look in on the south coast.
Things weren't immediately rosy at his new club either, with Russell Martin hinting he needed to knuckle down to force his way into the head coach's first-team plans. He did just that, and the second half of the campaign saw the 21-year-old rack up the goals.
“I believed in myself, that I could show everyone what I could do with the move to Swansea. For the second half of the season I did that and got the call up so I’m thankful for everyone around me that put me on the straight and narrow,” he told The Telegraph.
“It was everything, really. I just really wasn’t settled at the beginning. You could tell. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be there, but it was all so new to me. I got hit with it all at once and it took time to digest it all and once that happened, I was on it.
“Nobody wants to be out of the team. And when it happened it felt similar to being at Southampton when I was out of the team. I wasn’t happy about that. I couldn’t show what I could do to help the team and it was frustrating. The manager had immense faith in me and told me to keep pushing, and I’ve repaid him and he helped me.”
