Swansea City have gone to Charlton Athletic with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stephen Humphrys will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Swansea City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ethan Galbraith and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Swansea City than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zeidane Inoussa signs something — a contract at Swansea City or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stevenage waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Swansea City is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stephen Humphrys will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Swansea City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Swansea City asked and Blackburn Rovers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Chelsea is saying, and nobody at Swansea City is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Lissah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Gillingham for Mark Harris was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Swansea City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stephen Humphrys will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Swansea City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Swansea City asked and Manchester United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Swansea City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Lissah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Swansea City will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Grimsby Town have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Swansea City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Stephen Eustáquio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ethan Galbraith signs something — a contract at Swansea City or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Swansea City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
17 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Dillon Addai on the training pitch
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Swansea City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Sebastiano Desplanches and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 May 2029
Filip Lissah falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cameron Congreve trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Swansea City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Lissah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Noah Sadiki was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Tomás Basualdo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Swansea City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Filip Lissah falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Edward Fisher on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Adam Idah had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Swansea City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Swansea City can pretend not to have heard.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Swansea City did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Swansea City close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match3 Feb 2029
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Swansea City. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chelsea have kept their man, and Swansea City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cameron Congreve. 2‑1 against Leicester City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Swansea City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Filip Lissah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Edward Fisher chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Swansea City is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Swansea City heard it as anything else.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Swansea City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joe Ralls is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Edward Fisher on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Stephen Eustáquio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Swansea City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Lissah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
7.92, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Swansea City had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Edward Fisher chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Swansea City is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Kyrell Wilson
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Swansea City can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Grimsby Town have kept their man, and Swansea City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Filip Lissah falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Swansea City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Edward Fisher after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The clubs have shaken hands with Cardiff City; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Swansea City can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Grimsby Town have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Moussa Yeo. The answer from Swansea City has not changed — yet.
Manchester United wanted more than $1.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Swansea City asked and Fulham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Swansea City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Lissah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Luca Woodhouse was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Swansea City have made the call to Palermo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The deal with Leicester City is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marko Stamenić and Swansea City agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Swansea City will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Swansea City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Lissah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Giulio Pellizzari has just signed for Swansea City, and for once the answer mattered.
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Elliott Hewitt and Swansea City agree another 2 years.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Rhys Healey
3‑0, and Mark Harris took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Swansea City tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
A brace, and Mark Harris takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mark Harris provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Swansea City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Moussa Yeo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and James Beadle now has 25 of them across 180 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Swansea City, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Adam Idah
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Looking aheadA test against the best for Swansea City
A brace, and Žan Vipotnik takes the afternoon — 8.77
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Žan Vipotnik provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Žan Vipotnik. 2‑0 against Burnley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Swansea City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Ethan Galbraith has moved up it.
In brief
The dugoutJoel Ward dropped after a run of poor form
SquadA Swansea City teenager takes the young player award