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Wales Online
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Mathew Davies

Swansea City transfer headlines as summer plans plunged into uncertainty and loan man admits to 'shame' over deal ending

These are your Swansea City transfer headlines on Sunday, April 24.

Summer plans in disarray

The shock news that Swansea have parted company with sporting director Mark Allen which emerged on Saturday night is set to knock this summer's recruitment plans considerably.

Allen and head coach Russell Martin had appeared to be forming an effective partnership in terms of signing players, with Allen revealing just last month the club's new recruitment strategy and the 'next batch of players' they were looking at.

Indeed, Martin stated just last weekend that Allen had been in conversations with a number of agents regarding potential signings. When asked if Hannes Wolf, on loan from Borussia Mönchengladbach, could return to SA1 next season, Martin said: “I honestly don’t know at the minute. "Mark [Allen] is in conversation with loads of different agents. It’s definitely something we are going to explore and we’ll ask but there’s so much involved – his parent club, the finance, how much they paid for him. We’ll have to wait and see."

READ MORE: Swansea City part company with sporting director Mark Allen in shock move

Club sources suggest chief executive Julian Winter - who brought Allen to Swansea - has been unimpressed with Allen’s performance in the role. Winter is expected to publicly address the situation in due course.

With Allen set to depart, a replacement is likely to be sought and with a great deal to sort this summer, plans are set to be impacted. Recruitment work under Martin has been impressive thus far but with a goalkeeper, defender, wingback, midfielder and attacker needed, a key figure will need to be drafted in as soon as possible to help Martin and Swansea achieve their goals.

Whittaker disappointed to see stay end soon

Swansea loan man Morgan Whittaker says it's a "shame" that his loan with League One side Lincoln City is coming to an end soon.

The striker has had an up and down time with the Imps, with his stay described as "underwhelming to say the least" by our colleagues at LincolnshireLive. But a brace on Easter Monday against Cheltenham and a threatening display in Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Accrington Stanley has seen his stay finishing strongly.

He said: “I thought for my career, it would be best to have a run of games and when you do that you realise the mix of emotions that come with playing every week. You have to learn to deal with that and understand every game is not going to go your way and that’s fine because I know I’m developing as a player and learning how to be better in games so it’s all been a positive.

“Coming back from Charlton, my aim was to try and get a goal a game and I had a good start last weekend, so I just want to finish the season as strongly as possible for myself and for the team. I came here to score goals and I have five now which I am happy with. It’s been a perfect response since the Charlton match and I feel like I’m learning League One, it’s just a shame it’s coming to an end soon.”

Oba sees the positives

Swansea striker Michael Obafemi says he has set himself a new target after notching up his 11th goal of the campaign so far. Since the turn of the year, Obafemi has really started to hit his straps in SA1 after a slow start to life in south Wales.

Niggling injuries and a few question marks over application now appear to be distant memories for the ex-Southampton man, who saw positive signs in Swansea's 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough on Saturday. He has now set 15 strikes as his aim, with three games still to play.

“The boys played well, but I think 1-1 was a fair result. They had a lot of chances but so did we,” Obafemi said.

“I feel like it was a sloppy goal to concede, but Joel (Piroe) did really well to get me the assist. We just thought 'we’re 1-0 down so let's get back into it', which is what we did. My target at the beginning of the season was to score 10 and obviously I’m past that now so my next target is 15 so I need what, four in three? It’s possible. We are also eight games unbeaten, and the aim for the rest of the season is to keep that going.

“We’ve come a long way since the start of the season, we’re eight games unbeaten and we’re showing the fans that we can do it against play-off contenders, so the only way is up for us."

Bony wants to extend stay

Wilfried Bony says he wants to extend his stay with Dutch side Nijmegen next season - after picking up yet another injury.

The former Swansea striker signed a deal until the end of the season with the Netherlands outfit and it was a controversial move at the time, signing for the rivals of his former team Vitesse. He suffered an injury on his debut and was out for five weeks. He made a comeback but on Friday he suffered another hamstring complaint in training.

"I signed here for six months," he said. "We look further, at the end of this season. I would like to stay. But it's not me who decides, it's the management of the club who decides. And of course it also depends on my performance on the pitch."

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