Yahoo News Swansea City's transfer state of play as priorities now urgently clear
The importance of the upcoming transfer window has not escaped the attention of Swansea City fans.
Once again, the club are facing a summer of huge upheaval, although the signs of positivity under Luke Williams have at least created a somewhat steady base on which to build upon.
For Williams, this is a chance to really mould a squad in his image, although he admittedly won't be the only voice inside the recruitment meetings that are likely to bubble away over the coming weeks.
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Nevertheless, a summer holiday appears to be off the table for the Swans boss.
“I don’t feel I quite deserve a holiday, so I am going to continue to work,” he said. “The work changes because I don’t have the guys out there on the grass, or in the type of meetings we would have every day, trying to get things in place to improve at the training ground and the processes we go through with training, conditioning and recovery.
“There is going to be some work going on to make sure we are in a good place, and plenty of work going on looking at potential targets coming to the club, and that’s probably the most time-consuming part at this point.
“But I think being present, first and foremost, and not missing an opportunity, not missing a moment…I am going to try and cover as many bases as possible over the summer so we can come back in the best place we can be.”
Swansea will certainly need to get creative this summer, particularly given they are unlikely to match the spending power of some of the division's big boys.
“I am aware that we are not a superpower in the Championship,” he told the BBC recently.
“We are going to have to be a good team rather than relying on one or two individuals, and certainly we have a way to go before we can be considered a really good team.
“But that’s encouraging because in the last third of the season, I think we were in the top six in terms of points and crucial data.”
Incomings
Williams isn't wrong in pointing to the stats. Indeed, the numbers over his 13 games in charge are genuinely encouraging.
Since he took over, Swansea recorded the highest number of crosses (15.8) per game in the Championship, and were the third highest for passes into the box (31.8).
Their xG of 1.39 per game also placed them sixth in the league and Williams will subsequently argue that the fundamentals of a top-six side (in the final third of the pitch at least) are starting to form.
There is, however, an obvious point to be made - how can Williams turn these numbers into goals? A new striker feels the most obvious remedy. Sign up to our Swansea City newsletter here.
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After all, Joel Piroe's 23 goals last season was more than joint top scorers Jerry Yates and Jamal Lowe combined, with no one in the current Swans squad managing to break double figures.
Incidentally, Piroe's departure may yet have an impact on what Swansea are able to do this summer. Should Leeds United seal promotion back to the Premier League in the Championship play-off final later this month, it could net the Swans a tidy bonus of around £3m.
There's also the legal case against Russell Martin to contend with, which if successful could further top up the transfer kitty. In any case, more firepower is clearly the top priority, with the club looking both at home and abroad in a bid to find an uncut gem.
Names have already been linked. Arsenal youngster Nathan Butler-Oyedeji is the latest to have been mentioned, while there are still some flickering embers of interest in Excelsior winger Couhaib Driouech, who turned down the club in January and is now of interest to Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven.
Elsewhere, the club would clearly like to bring Brighton and Hove Albion's Carl Rushworth back for a second loan spell, but Williams has already indicated that a return for the young goalkeeper is unlikely - and that was before Roberto De Zerbi announced he was leaving the Seagulls.
Rushworth's future is likely to be put on hold until the club name a successor to the Italian.
Elsewhere, there's interest in Aberdeen midfielder Connor Barron, who was the subject of a failed bid in January and is approaching the end of his contract with the Dons. He is, however, believed to be on the radar of several other clubs, including Cagliari and Sassuolo.
Who could leave?
Swansea have seldom manged to make their way through a transfer window without moving at least one player on for a big sum.
Last summer it was Piroe. The summer before that was Flynn Downes.
This time around, it could well be the turn of Nathan Wood. The centre-back was previously the subject of a failed pursuit from Russell Martin and Southampton, and while a contract extension has tied him down to another 12 months, there's an expectation that interest in the former Middlesbrough man is likely to come back round again over the coming weeks. Indeed, the club are bracing themselves for a bid before the summer is out, although there hasn't yet been any concrete move from anyone at this stage.
Meanwhile, it seems likely that the club will listen to offers for Mykola Kuharevich, and perhaps even Jerry Yates as they look to remould their attacking options for the new campaign.
Jamie Paterson's future, meanwhile, seemingly remains up in the air.
The forward is keen to stay in south Wales, and has been offered a new deal, but there hasn't yet been a breakthrough in negotiations at this stage.
His future may well have an impact on transfer plans, with Williams, who having already tied down Joe Allen and Kyle Naughton down to fresh one-year deals, clearly values Paterson's experience.
Paterson himself was snapped enjoying his post-season holidays, which points to a relaxed mood around the whole situation.
Both parties certainly appear keen on extending the 32-year-old's stay, but it remains to be seen whether a solution can be found.
