These are your Swansea City transfer headlines on Saturday, June 18
Tucker signs for MK Dons
Gillingham defender Jack Tucker has signed for MK Dons.
Swansea were among a host of clubs credited with interest in the young centre-back, who leaves the Gills on a free transfer. MK Dons will have to pay a compensation fee, however, due to the fact Tucker is under 24 and was offered fresh terms to stay.
“I’m delighted,” Tucker told iFollow MK Dons. “I definitely feel like MK Dons is the right place for me to develop my career further.
READ MORE: Swansea City have just been presented with transfer dilemma with no easy answer
“I met with the head coach and Liam Sweeting and they sold the club to me, which is impressive in itself. They showed real enthusiasm to bring me here and that, along with the ideas they had for me, made me really want to come here.
“I followed how MK Dons did at the end of last season and the club had an impressive campaign. I have played MK Dons a few times and I know how tough they make it for other teams so I’m looking forward to being on the right side of that from now on.”
Swansea have signed one centre-back already in Nathan Wood but at least one more is on Martin's wishlist. Tucker's signing will raise fresh questions over Harry Darling's future in Milton Keynes - with Swansea a firm admirer of the defender. But with other big-name clubs in the mix, including Chelsea, signing Darling will be a huge challenge.
Middlesbrough want Giles
Swansea's Championship rivals Middlesbrough are keen on taking Ryan Giles on loan.
Football Insider report talks are under way between Boro and Giles' parent club Wolves. Boss Chris Wilder sees Giles as his left-sided wing-back for next season.
Giles spent the first half of last season on loan with Cardiff City, where he put in a number of decent performances on the left. He was recalled to Wolves in January and Swansea made an attempt to sign him on deadline day in January, but the club's owners didn't give the deal the green light - the third move that fell down during that month.
Giles went on to sign for Blackburn Rovers for the second half of the campaign. He is unlikely to break into Bruno Lage's first-team plans at Molineux next season, therefore another loan is now on the cards for the 22-year-old.
Peterborough sign two keepers
Peterborough United manager Grant McCann has signed two goalkeepers in the past 24 hours - all but ending Posh's interest in Steven Benda.
The German stopper spent the second half of last season on loan at London Road and there were hopes a permanent deal could be secured for him, but a difference in pricing became an issue. “We’re still not going there," Posh chief Barry Fry told the Peterborough Telegraph. "It's a lot of money for a League One goalkeeper and there's the issue of wages for a player who still has two years on his Swansea contract to run. He is earning far more than we could pay him.
"We have other targets and we have made very good progress on a couple of players. We could well bring in a couple of players on loan, including a goalkeeper. We are talking to a Premier League club about a loan player, but that deal is taking time."
They have now signed Harvey Cartwright on loan from Hull City and Lucas Bergström from Chelsea. Where now for Benda remains to be seen, with Swansea still keen on cashing in on the 23-year-old. Ben Hamer has already left SA1 this summer, while three keepers from the under-23s - Jamie Searle, Nico Defreitas-Hansen and Josh Gould - have also gone. Youngster Remy Mitchell is expected to join on a free transfer from Arsenal.
Swansea's transfer dilemma
Most of Joel Latibeaudiere’s time at Swansea has been spent on the fringes of the senior team, feeding on scraps of first-team action.
But with Burnley reportedly lining up a £500,000 bid for the 22-year-old centre-back, the club now faces a big choice. Do they stick with the former Manchester City defender and commit to making him an integral part of Russell Martin’s back line, or do they cash in?
You can read fan columnist Guto Llewelyn's full column on the Latibeaudiere situation here.
Pre-season work under way
Swansea players returned to Fairwood yesterday to begin their pre-season schedule.
It's been barely six weeks since the last campaign ended, but getting down to work early will be seen as an opportunity for head coach Russell Martin and his team, especially considering they had no time at all last summer in which to prepare.
Martin was appointed just days before the term kicked off, and head of physical performance Matt Willmott revealed the team want to hit the ground running this time around.
“It’s certainly nice for us to have joined in from the start of pre-season this year, having come in right at the end a year ago,” said Willmott, who previously worked at MK Dons and Leicester City.
“Pre-season gives you a massive foundation to build on for the season. With the way we play, it’s a distinct style that requires a specific physical condition, so a block of five or six weeks to put that work into the players gives us a great base to build on.
“The players do get a bit of a break and rest after the season, but it is far from a holiday as they are still needed to report in good physical condition. Gone are the days when players have five weeks on holiday.
“We wanted them to have good rest and recovery after a busy few years with the fixture congestion the Covid pandemic caused, but we then wanted them to build and work on their aerobic fitness so we can come in and get straight into work on the football side of things.
“Again, gone are the days when you run players until they are sick, or players come in wearing bin bags in order to sweat out amounts of alcohol. It’s a very different approach now. We are scientific in our approach, we monitor the players closely.
“There are some tough runs in there, and obviously football demands that you run a lot without the ball, but we are a football club, not a running club, and we want the players to get down to that technical work and tactical work.”
