Why Swansea City Were Mis-Sold the Idea of Foreign Investment

14 September 2018 03:35

When supporters think of foreign investors in the English game most will think of Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour bankrolling ​Chelsea and ​Manchester City to trophy after trophy. 

​Swansea City fans, however, are unfamiliar with the idea of foreign owners investing heavily in the club.

At the Liberty Stadium, owners Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan have been reluctant to invest significantly in the team. Instead, the Americans and their consortium have simply reinvested money, largely from player sales, as was the same model employed prior to foreign investment. 

Swansea City v West Bromwich Albion - Premier League

The most obvious example of this was during the January window last season. After selling Gylfi Sigudsson to ​Everton and Fernando Llorente to ​Spurs, the Swans ended the summer transfer window with a profit of £20m. However, come the halfway point in the season, the Welsh side faced the possibility of relegation and decided to reinvest last summer's profits on panic buys. 

The handling of the Sigurdsson saga also demonstrated that the club, and its owners by extension, were only willing to sign players once they had sold others.

Huw Jenkins, the club's chairman, has attempted to ease the pressure on the owners by clarifying that their role is to guarantee the financial stability of the club, rather than to invest

Swansea City v West Bromwich Albion - Premier League

Jenkins stated that the Americans were recruited so that the club would avoid being in a position where they had to sell players in order to survive, as was the case when Swansea sold Jonjo Shelvey to Newcastle.


This is a legitimate reason to bring in investors as it should help to prevent Swansea entering another financial crisis and free falling down the divisions. Although, fans would have been more onside with recruiting the Americans if they were made aware of their role from the off.


It is also important to remember that the consortium has not delivered on what Jenkins says that they were brought in to do.

Swansea City v Stoke City - Premier League

Since being relegated from the ​Premier League the Swans have been desperate to offload their highest earners, claiming that this was necessary for the club to survive. Obviously relegation will affect the income of a club, but the reduction in revenue is eased somewhat by parachute payments.


Despite receiving parachute payments, the Welsh outfit were still desperate to sell the majority of their starting lineup from the Premier League. This is a stark contrast to the approaches taken by ​Stoke and ​West ​Brom​, who managed to keep the majority of their star players, such as Jay Rodriguez and Joe Allen, and even recruited several new players to strengthen the squad.


Whilst some supporters accepted the necessity to sell the highest earners as part of the reality of being relegated, Swansea fans have struggled to understand why relatively few replacements were brought in. The failure to sign Ryan Woods, who eventually moved to Stoke, for just £6m became symbolic of the club's struggles during the transfer window.


After the transfer window closed Kaplan and Levien added to supporters' concerns, saying that there was more 'tough medicine' to come and that fans should not expect significant investment in the near future.


These statements make it abundantly clear that the owners will not match the fans' expectations. Not only are the consortium failing to invest significantly in the squad, but the club are still being forced to sell key players in order to survive. The combination of these two factors begs the question, how do the foreign owners and investors help Swansea?

Source: 90min