The signing of Cameron Burgess has turned plenty of heads this summer(Image: Getty Images)“I think that we need to give ourselves more credit. Swansea has an incredible story that the rest of the world can connect with.
“This is a really, really special place and it’s darn near impossible for anybody not to connect with this place once they spend some time here.”
At the time, Andy Coleman’s comments back in November felt an attempt to play to the gallery. A predictable eye-roll-inducing prologue for the ‘new chapter’ he had promised for the club shortly after the change of majority ownership.
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Before stepping back from his role as chairman, Coleman was always consistent in his disdain for suggestions he didn’t care, and while mis-steps under his watch open the door to cynicism, the sincerity behind those remarks is difficult to disprove.
In a way, the motivations behind his glowing assessment don’t really matter. The point itself increasingly feels like it carries some degree of truth.
Swansea City is, even in these recent years of the mid-table Championship wilderness, a club still capable of turning heads.
“I didn’t know so much about the pull of the club,” director of football Richard Montague said recently. “I didn’t know so much about how important the club is to the community here, which has always been a wonderful thing to experience.
“Talking to players and talking to agents and things like that. The pull that Swansea still has is incredibly powerful, especially in Europe.
“You speak to agents and players across Europe. They all know Swansea and they all associate Swansea as a place where you want to play football, and that’s something that we need to lean into and continue to build upon, because it’s a real selling point.”
Perhaps the latest case in point is the eye-catching capture of Cameron Burgess, who as recently as last season was plying his trade in the Premier League, which both renders him a ‘coup’ and subsequently leaves us all wondering quite how such a move has managed to materialise.
After all, the likes Valencia and Rangers were allegedly among what Montague recently referred to as a ‘considerable number of clubs’ keen on the 29-year-old.
The exact motivations behind his decision to move to south Wales aren’t yet known, but the early indications suggest the opportunity of regular game-time, and indeed a leading role in a side that’s quietly hoping to build towards a top-six challenge, played a significant role in his decision.
But there already feels like there’s a bit more to it. After all, there surely wouldn’t be a shortage of Championship suitors that would jump at the opportunity to make the centre-back a first-team regular in their side, some of which one suspects might be in a position to offer more attractive financial packages.
Head coach Alan Sheehan noted the player’s enthusiasm for the project at Swansea in the wake of the move’s confirmation. “During our conversations Cameron really bought in to what we are trying to do at Swansea,” he said.
It again alludes to the ‘pull’ Montague mentions, and perhaps the allure of Sheehan’s vision, which clearly drove the popularity in the dressing room that ultimately helped him land the job full-time.
But without taking anything away from Sheehan and his method, developments behind the scenes have clearly elevated Swansea’s appeal to another level in recent weeks.
The involvement of Luka Modric as a minority investor in particular, has surely caused many to sit up and take notice of what’s going on in SA1.
Zeidane Inoussa revealed shortly after arriving at the club earlier this summer that he’d spoken to the Croatian, who’s understood to have also held talks with other potential new recruits in a bid to convince them that Swansea is the best place for them to continue their career.
It clearly helped convince the Swedish winger, and it’s entirely plausible Burgess may also have been similarly taken in. One suspects more could easily follow.
Modric’s powers of persuasion do have some limits, mind. His efforts to persuade Harry Darling to stay at the club eventually proved futile. But his presence is still seen as a pretty powerful endorsement, and it’s not difficult to see why a player might be drawn to that. Sign up to our Swansea City newsletter here.
“It’s had a really positive impact,” Montague added when asked about the impact of the Croatian’s involvement. “I think it sets a tone from the new ownership that they’re serious and that they are trying to think strategically about how we best enhance our profile. How we bring new investment to the club that will allow us to put a better outfit on the pitch and allow us to compete.
“I think the Championship is just so incredibly demanding now and the financial realties are such that you need something a bit different, and I think that comes down to how you want to play or how to want to recruit players, how you want to operate or how you want to run your business side, and how you bring extra eyeballs onto your product.
“Again, that name does resonate with people the world over really. He’s a superstar so that’s a really powerful thing to be able to leverage and say ‘look, Luka believes in this project so you should as well’.