Swansea City manager Russell Martin has admitted they may need to sell players in the summer amid reported interest from Leeds United in Flynn Downes. The Whites have reportedly placed Downes on the list of potential midfield targets in the summer after his strong season at the Swans.
The 23-year-old made the move to South Wales from Ipswich Town last summer and has appeared 36 times for the Swans in his first season at the club. In their latest financial accounts, Swansea confirmed a pre-tax loss as a result of their parachute payments coming to an end.
And in order to balance the books, key players will have to move on and Downes is among a crop of players also including top scorer Joel Piroe who has already been linked with other clubs. Speaking to Wales Online ahead of their final Championship game of the season, Martin admitted some will have to be sold in order to meet the owners’ demands.
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He said: "Yes. I don’t think there’s ever been a question about that. The club has to find a way to be sustainable, a club at this level with the size of club we are, everything we have, the only way to do it is to be supported by someone who wants to put their own money in and to do that.
"Traditionally that has been the way it is done and also causes a huge amount of problems when that person decides they no longer want to put money in. We were aware of that when we were brought in. It’s probably the reason we were brought in, to improve players. We’re well aware of that, every club outside the top four in the Premier League is a selling club.
"We don’t know how much we have yet, we know how much we need to try and bring in to the club. I don’t control that, there’s absolutely no point in me worrying about it. What will be will be.
"The ideal scenario is we don’t need to sell anyone and we can keep growing together, but I can't lie to you, you’ve seen it in the accounts, we’ll have to sell someone, or a number of people to get to the financial figure the owners want."
