Swansea City find themselves in a situation whereby they can name an outfield starting ten out of those players whose contracts expire in June 2019.
I’m not sure how a football club can run knowing they potentially have an entire outfield team that will be free to speak to other clubs about moves within less than three month’s time.
It’s worth pointing out here that arguably our strongest back four of Martin Olsson, Mike van der Hoorn, Joe Rodon and Connor Roberts are all out of contract in June 2019. A defence – which has seen Olsson play a bit-part role so far – keep 6 clean sheets and concede 9 goals in 13 League games this season.
Joe Rodon has been linked with Manchester City since 2016 at least, Mike van der Hoorn is our vice-captain and deservedly so – playing a key role in our defensive performances this season and Connor Roberts – who must be regarded as one of the best right backs in the Championship.
What’s frustrating here is the fact that this isn’t the first time that this has been allowed to happen – far from it, and it’s not simply down to the American owners now being in charge. It was happening under Huw Jenkins and co too – years ago when the likes of Darren Pratley and Dorus de Vries left on a free after their contracts were allowed to expired – two regular first-team players leaving as we won promotion to the Premier League.
We have less than 3 months to sort it out. Already in January, Rodon, James and Roberts will be able to negotiate with other clubs.
— CroJack (@CroJack2) October 16, 2018
The Starting Line-Up With Players Whose Contracts Expire Next Year (2019)
Update: Dan James’s contract expires in 2020 and should be removed from the image above.
American owners beyond careless here but our former owners started doing it as well. It's a no brainer to get the youngsters nailed to new long term contracts. They want assets so surely best to get young players new deals? https://t.co/KMDYyNJb1B
— Vital Swansea (@VitalSwansea) October 16, 2018
If some our our products are allowed to leave next summer, as a result of poor contract planning, our whole academy investment will be rendered utterly pointless #Swans
— Andy Tidy (@andytidy_80) October 16, 2018
Look out on here next Summer when a good few players' contracts expire. Parachute payments go down and we've tightened things up even more on the spending front.
— Vital Swansea (@VitalSwansea) August 20, 2018
Connor Roberts spoke briefly about his contract situation this week, saying the situation is “not ideal”:
“My contract is up at the end of this season, that is not really ideal for a young lad, you want to have a little bit of security. All I can do is play well and hopefully the contract situation will follow after that.”
Talking about expiring contracts earlier this month, manager Graham Potter also added that negotiations have begun, but you still can’t help but feel that we’re far too slow with this process:
“That’s where we’re at. The talks will be ongoing, pretty much. We’ve held initial discussions (with those two players),”
“You want to be able to secure those guys because they’re the future of the club, essentially. They’ve come through the system.
“At the same time, they’re at the stage in their career where they probably know that they’re in a good place, they’re getting an opportunity to play and get support in their careers, so it’s one of those things we’ll do and as soon as we have news, we can let you guys know.
You would have thought that our American owners would have been keen to secure their biggest assets at the club – ensuring that they can get the most value from the inevitable future sales of the likes of Rodon and Roberts.
Both Rodon and Roberts especially are developing rapidly now and there’s no reason why they can’t develop into quality Premier League players. Young, talented players come at a price these days but they won’t if Swansea City continue to be careless in their approach to player contracts. Players under long-term contracts can fetch a heavy price, but those with a year or less can be bought at a cut-price as clubs avoid the risk of seeing them leave for nothing.
It’s not only about ensuring we avoid losing these players for nothing either but it’s also about keeping these players happy. Roberts above commented about the situation not being ideal and these players would be far happier here with the security of long-term contracts and feeling wanted as a result of a new and improved deal.