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Wales Online
Sport
Ian Mitchelmore

The glut of contract worries facing Swansea City amid fears same old mistakes are being made

The 2022/23 Championship regular season ends in just shy of a fortnight.

Swansea City still hold faint hopes of extending their campaign into the play-offs, although it's blindingly clear the club has a huge amount of work to do this summer.

Several players are expected to leave the Swansea.com Stadium in the coming months while a number of others are at risk of going on the cheap given their contract situations.

READ MORE: What Swansea City need to reach Championship play-offs as Sunderland, West Brom, Norwich City and others still in the race

Russell Martin's recent admission that the club are not being proactive enough is more than understandable given his frustrations following the January transfer window.

Lessons needed to be learnt from that shambolic month, although, the signs since then suggest it's been the same old story, which has resulted in the following concerns:

Matty Sorinola and Luke Cundle see their loan deals with Swansea expire soon, with the former due to return to Union SG and the latter set to head back to Wolves.

Sorinola's loan quite simply hasn't worked out. The 22-year-old chipped in with vital goals against West Brom and Blackpool while he's also contributed three league assists. However, Sorinola has started just 19 times in the Championship while he has played just one minute across the last eight games.

As for Cundle, his loan has been far more productive. The versatile midfielder once again impressed at Norwich on Saturday, a game that saw him register his fourth assist of the season. He is undoubtedly the greatest loan success of the season, and the Swans certainly need to make better use of the loan market in the upcoming window.

As for the rest of the squad, we're going to start with Ryan Manning, for good reason.

All suggestions have been for some time, and continue to be, that the Republic of Ireland international will leave the club this summer when his deal expires. Given Swansea's budget, Manning will be nigh-on impossible to replace.

His versatility has been huge for Russell Martin, and he is a certainty to be mentioned in the reckoning when the club determine the player of the season.

Indeed, the 26-year-old has scored five league goals while he now has nine assists in the Championship, the joint-third most in the division.

"Ryan Manning has so much quality, assists, goals, wherever he's played," Martin said of Manning after the 3-0 thrashing of Norwich City. "He's been so good.

"I just don't think we can get to a financial position that will keep Ryan here." Martin has regularly highlighted his frustration that the club allowed themselves to reach this situation with Manning in the first place and stressed the Swans cannot afford to allow others to follow suit.

So, remember we said there's a reason for starting with Manning on this list? Take a read through the remaining contract concerns and determine whether or not you think the Swans are learning from past mistakes...

Kyle Naughton has been a tremendous servant to the club and was a pivotal figure in the opening half of the current season, although his influence has massively dwindled since Christmas.

Having played in 21 of the first 24 Championship fixtures of the 2022/23 campaign, Naughton has made just three appearances in the 20 league matches since.

He is one of three first team players who is out of contract in June, and Martin's recent comments suggest Naughton could extend his stay with the club, although the exact nature of his potential role is yet to be defined.

"With Naughts, we just need to assess what goes on between now and the end of the season and see where he's at," Martin said prior to the 3-2 triumph over Cardiff City.

"We're always in touch and we'll have some really honest conversations come the end of the season. There'll always be a role for him here, but whether it's the role he wants or not, at some point will be his decision really. I think there should always be a role for him, I don't control that, but there should be because of what he does and what he's given the club over a certain number of years. I think it's so important that you recognise that."

And so, to the final man out of contract this summer. Joel Latibeaudiere.

"It's a source of frustration for me at the moment that we haven't got that done. If I was in charge of it, he would have that," Martin said of Latibeaudiere's contract situation at the weekend.

"I implore us to do that, and we need to do that because you can't let someone like that go out of the building. We have to get that done."

Martin's stance has been more than clear. Get it done. The impending investment into the club may well be holding up this situation, and potentially others, although the lack of conviction in matters such as this is once again alarming given that Jason Levien openly stated "an inability on the execution side" proved costly when it came to pursuing transfer targets in January. What's changed?

To the biggest concern of the lot. Scorer of 43 goals in 90 appearances since joining the club from PSV Eindhoven, the signing of Joel Piroe for around £1.5m was nothing short of a masterstroke.

In allowing the Dutchman to approach the final year of his deal, the 23-year-old's transfer value will undoubtedly have decreased, even after his remarkable form in front of goal again this term.

"I'm sure there will be (eyes on him). Well, I know there is. If it was down to me he would have been sorted a long time ago, but it's not," Martin said of Piroe last week.

The frustrating theme continues.

On the topic of assets, Nathan Wood's situation could also become precarious, particularly if the 12-month extension option in his deal is not triggered, although Martin would rather bypass that and go all out by rewarding the defender with fresh terms.

"When we have really talented and promising young players, when they play really well you have to reward them otherwise you run the risk of losing them sooner than you should," explained Martin.

"You run the risk of not getting as much money as you should for them if they end up getting sold. Once things become clearer in the next few weeks, Woody is someone we need to have a look at, for sure.

"I'm not convinced that it's just taking his option up. If we're going to be really top in the way we operate, then it's about rewarding players like we did with Ollie Cooper and Jay Fulton who have done really well and trying to tie them down to the big picture and the long-term project.

"Woody has everything, and you can see that in the way he's grown. I absolutely love the boy as a player and as a person. He's amazing."

Other key first team players such as Liam Cullen, Olivier Ntcham, Joe Allen, Liam Walsh, Jamie Paterson and Steven Benda are on the brink of entering the final year of their current deals with Swansea.

Lewis Webb, Brandon Cooper and Nathanael Ogbeta find themselves in the same situation while Dan Williams will be released this summer if his one-year contract extension option is not triggered.

Oh, did we mention the coaching staff? They're about to enter the final year of their deals too.

The uncertainty won't do the club any favours when it comes to pursuing transfer targets this summer, and with just days of the campaign remaining, the focus is not far away from fully shifting to the summer window.

A major amount of work needs to be done.

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