Huw Jenkins has insisted Swansea City have received no contact from any club in relation to signing Wilfried Bony but the chairman has refused to rule out the possibility of the striker being sold in the January transfer window.
Bony, who will finish the year as the Premier League’s top goalscorer in 2014, has been linked with moves to Manchester City and Chelsea. Txiki Begiristain, City’s director of football, was at Anfield on Monday to see Bony play in Swansea’s 4-1 defeat by Liverpool, and Mick Doherty, Chelsea’s chief European scout, is also reported to have watched the game from the directors’ box, fuelling speculation that offers could be tabled in the coming weeks.
Swansea are under no pressure to sell Bony, who has scored 33 goals in 69 appearances since joining from Vitesse Arnhem at the start of last season, and their bargaining positioning has been strengthened significantly by virtue of the deal the player signed in November, in which the 26-year-old’s contract was extended until 2018 and, crucially, a £19m release clause was removed.
Bony will soon leave for the Africa Cup of Nations – something that could weigh heavily on the minds of any club preparing to make a bid for the forward – and Jenkins told the Guardian that Swansea are not aware of any interest before the player’s departure for Equatorial Guinea.
“As things stand we have not had any contact from anyone with respect to Wilfried,” Jenkins said. “It’s just speculation linked to a player who is the top scorer in 2014 in the Premier League – which is perfectly natural.”
Asked whether Swansea would countenance selling Bony in January if an offer was made, Jenkins said: “First and foremost I will consider everything that arises at the time but as of yet we haven’t got anything to consider. Players move around – that’s a fact of life. The one thing I’ve learned over time is never say never in football but officially at the moment we haven’t had any contact from Manchester City or anyone else about Wilfried.”
Bafétimbi Gomis is another Swansea striker linked with a transfer away from the Liberty Stadium, with Crystal Palace among the clubs chasing him. Signed on a free transfer in the summer, Gomis has started only three Premier League games because of the form of Bony and Garry Monk’s preference to play with one striker.
Swansea could make a tidy profit on Gomis in a short space of time but the Frenchman is likely to be given a run in Bony’s absence. Furthermore, Swansea would not want to be left in a position where Nélson Oliveira, who has joined on loan from Benfica, is the only experienced centre-forward at the club.
