Swansea City have waved goodbye to Harry Darling, and said hello to Cameron Burgess, as Alan Sheehan pieces together his Swans team in his image.
Burgess put pen to paper on his move from Ipswich Town last weekend, whilst Darling found a new home in the Championship with Norwich City on Tuesday.
The deal to bring Burgess to the Swansea.com Stadium appears to be quite the coup for the Swans, as La Liga pair Valencia and Girona, as well as Scottish giants Rangers, were all strongly linked with moves for the 29-year-old central defender.
“We’ve upgraded” – Swansea City verdict issued on Cameron Burgess and Harry Darling moves
We asked our Swansea City fan pundit, Will Hughes: ‘Norwich City have secured Harry Darling’s services. Do you think he could be a bit more ambitious and go to a better/bigger club than Norwich?’
Hughes said: “For me, the move that Darling has got is probably about right.
“I think he could maybe have potentially gone somewhere a bit more ambitious, in terms of maybe a higher-end Championship club, maybe. But, I do think his level is where he’s at, like a Norwich or ourselves.
“I don’t think he’s going to be one of the top defenders of this division. I certainly don’t think he would be a Premier League defender, that I can tell you. He has a lot of good moments, but then he has had a couple of bad moments as well.
“I definitely think we’ve upgraded with Cameron Burgess with just the makings of that deal; free agent, a player with bags of experience in the Championship, and playing 18 games in the Premier League last season.
“From what I hear from Ipswich fans, he didn’t look out of place in the Premier League. So to me, it’s a really ambitious, impressive move. The thing I like most about it is we haven’t waited for Darling to leave for us to have taken action like we would’ve done with previous players.
“Waiting until the very last minute in hope that they were going to sign their new deal, which was never going to happen, because there was better deals elsewhere. We’ve taken action, and we’ve said ‘right, we’ve given you a deal, take it or leave it, and whilst you’re thinking about that and looking elsewhere, we’re going to bring in a replacement.
“That’s exactly what we’ve done, so that we aren’t left with egg on our face. So I think it’s a really good move. Very ambitious, and it’s another experienced head in the squad, which is obviously something that we need.”
Swansea City supporters won’t be losing any sleep over Harry Darling exit after Cameron Burgess arrival
The long-running Harry Darling, Swansea City contract saga is finally at an end, and that’s perhaps a relief for all sides involved.
However, the 25-year-old has certainly proven himself to be a quality central defender at Championship level, and as such, there will no doubt have been some Swans fans that were slightly worried about the prospect of having to replace him this summer.
They need worry no longer, as the arrival of Burgess presents as a superb swap for The Jacks.
| Burgess’ Ipswich Town career stats (all comps) – per FotMob | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Appearances | Goals | Assists | Avg. match rating |
| 24/25 | 22 | 0 | 3 | 6.8/10 |
| 23/24 | 40 | 2 | 1 | 7.1/10 |
| 22/23 | 38 | 3 | 1 | 7.4/10 |
| 21/22 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 6.8/10 |
The 29-year-old is a proven, battle-hardened player across numerous EFL levels, and indeed the Premier League, and he also arrives at the Swansea.com Stadium with a World Cup on the horizon next summer too.
As such, the Australian international will no doubt want to ensure he’s part of that Socceroos squad, and so he’ll be set on recording his best individual campaign of his career next term.
To bag his signature on a free transfer looks an excellent and shrewd piece of business by the club, and provides an instant piece of reinforcement to City’s backline.
“Once we’ve got them sorted” – Alan Sheehan told what he still needs to add to Swansea City side
There is certainly a feel-good factor everywhere you look at Swansea City at this moment in time.
New arrivals at boardroom level seem to be making a positive impact, the club are cracking on with their summer of recruitment, and the involvement of Luka Modrić has enthused fans with the confidence that their club is moving in a positive, and highly ambitious direction.
But there is still perhaps work to be done before Swansea are ready to compete for Premier League promotion, and our Swansea City fan pundit, Will Hughes, has identified what Sheehan’s squad still needs this summer.
“In my opinion, I think we are a defensive midfielder and a striker away from having a very good starting XI,” Hughes continued.
“Once we’ve got them sorted, striker and defensive midfielder, it will all be about depth then. If we can get some depth in and keep the likes of Goncalo Franco, then who knows?
“We could be a dark horse. Don’t write us off. For me, I would consider a successful season to be one of the teams that are maybe in the conversation about making the play-offs.
“I’m not saying we are definitely going to be in the play-offs, but if we’re sort of in the mix as one of those teams that people think ‘Swansea could get in the play-offs’, I’ll take that as a success.
“We could’ve had that last year if we were consistent. If Sheehan was in charge sooner, who knows what would’ve happened? But, it’s looking really good at the minute.
“We have had a lot of talk over the last couple of years about actions speaking louder than words. Richard Montague and Tom Gorringe have come in, and haven’t necessarily said ‘judge us on our actions and not our words’, because we’ve heard all that before.
“But I have to say, their actions are speaking a lot louder than anything Andy Coleman and Paul Watson did (inferring player recruitment wasn’t good enough), and it’s looking really good.”
