Following the completion of Oli McBurnie's move to Sheffield United, Swansea City chairman Trevor Birch has provided the following update to supporters. "I can fully appreciate and understand that supporters will be disappointed to see Oli leave the football club. I can assure you, I’m just as disappointed. He’s a great player and a large character who will be sorely missed. "We did not want to lose him and had turned down three previous bids from Sheffield United over the last few weeks, but their fourth and final bid was at a level that we had to seriously consider. “I had mentioned in my communications to our supporters previously that we would only sell if an offer came in that I felt we couldn’t ignore. “I believe the offer for Oli was at that level and we wouldn’t be putting the future of the club and its supporters first if we turned it down, because I have to think about the long-term stability and sustainability of the club. please log in to view this image “As I’ve discussed previously, we still have a substantial financial deficit to overcome following relegation. The transfer of Dan James to Manchester United gave us breathing space, as did Jordan Ayew’s move to Crystal Palace from a wage perspective, but we still have some way to go to get this club back on a sound financial footing. “You only have to look around at clubs like Bolton Wanderers and Bury to see how easy it is to get into financial difficulties and how important it is to run a club on a responsible financial basis. I dread to think what their supporters are feeling at the moment. These clubs could literally go out of business. “That’s why the offer for Oli had to be accepted. We couldn’t afford to take the financial gamble. As I said earlier, I know how disappointed our fans will be, but I can only stress that during our rebuilding process we have to suffer some short-term pain for long-term gain. please log in to view this image “I’m optimistic about the future as we have made some great appointments behind the scenes which I hope will pay long-term dividends in terms of our performance and future recruitment. This football club is too important to the community and our supporters for us to take the wrong decisions at this stage and gamble with its future. “That is the honest position we are in because we have to work within our current financial framework. “We’ve still got the nucleus of a really strong team with huge potential. I can only stress that we will do our utmost to bring in replacements that will further strengthen us and enable us to mount a challenge in the Championship this season – and give you a team and a club to be proud of for many years to come.’’
If the transfer of Dan James gave us “breathing space”, then surely the sale of Oli will give us room to manoeuvre.
Why can't he say the truth that Oli wanted to leave and rightly so, he is offered more money and a chance to play in the premiership ffs...I hate all this pony crap. Birch needs to release Money instead of banking every penny we get. There should be a balance on that too and instead of the club becoming a bank start to invest money in the team......It is the team that generates the money and popularity of the club and if we lose that we are in big trouble....
We will continue to be drip fed scraps from the yanks until they recover their costs when purchasing the Club and imo they're on their way in achieving that , 35 million in sales this window not including the parachute payments so what "debt" is being serviced by this income , of course when the Trust have their day in court there is a good chance that the sellers and buyers will have to offer to buy the 21% Trust shares at he same value as were sold at the time of the sale of the Club to the yanks , wheres that money going to come from I wonder
The sale of James and McBurnie (£40 Million) should now end all deficit, the books as I see it are balanced, I don't want to hear any more Scrooge calls from the Yanks or any other brass at the top of our club, time now to start the investment and rebuild..............
Ash, Gylfi, Dan and Ollie is £100m in transfers there not to mention millions saved each year in wages. They've made their money back.
