These are your Swansea City headlines on Tuesday, May 17.
Swans linked with Austin
Swansea have been linked with a move for free agent Charlie Austin.
Austin has left QPR after his contract ran down in west London. Football League World claim Swansea and south Wales rivals Cardiff City are currently speaking to Austin over moves, but that MLS appears to be his favoured destination.
The 32-year-old has been linked with Swansea in the past, during their Premier League years, but it never got further than paper talk. Russell Martin is likely to be in the market for a striker this summer, with Joel Piroe's future likely to be away from south Wales, with Leicester City interested in the Dutchman.
READ MORE: Piroe rejects transfer distraction as Swansea City star says 'you don't know what will happen
As for Austin, the frontman said he was disappointed with how his Hoops departure was handled. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say ‘yes’, in a way," he told talkSPORT when asked if he felt let down.
“I felt like we had a good enough relationship, and, in a different scenario, it might have been treated a little bit better. I’m not saying the club has to hand out contracts, but I thought I might have had a conversation about next year. It was like they cut ties and that was it. I guess that’s football, it’s a business at the end of the day.
“I left the training ground today, said goodbye to the kitman and the reception lady – I’d known them from the first time. It was quite sad, and people don’t see that side of it.”
Wolf opens the door
Hannes Wolf has opened the door to a Swansea return after thanking the Jack Army for their reception.
The Austrian joined on loan last January, and Martin wants him back next season. It would appear that the winger is open to that possibility.
"Football should always be fun in principle, but the two and a half years in Germany didn’t go quite as I’d hoped,” he told BILD, via SportWitness.
READ MORE: Martin's personal Instagram message to Wolf revealed
“Of course, it’s much more fun when you play and are needed. Like it was the case in the last five months. First of all, this positive feedback from the fans in Swansea makes me very happy, and it also honours me. As things stand, I still have two years left on my contract at Gladbach.
“Now we have a break, and I’ll use it to recharge my batteries and start the new season well prepared. How it continues, the coming weeks will show; I will be well prepared for all possible scenarios.”
Connor's derby love and Swans return
Connor Roberts says he wants to come back to Swansea again one day, lauding his former club's South Wales derby double over Cardiff City as "incredible".
Swansea beat their rivals twice in the same season for the first time in the fixture's history. A 3-0 win in SA1 and a 4-0 hammering at Cardiff City Stadium saw all bragging rights head to west Wales.
One extremely interested bystander was Roberts, who he admits was nervous ahead of the match. Now with Burnley after moving north in January last year, Roberts says it would be his 'dream' to score in the fixture.
"It was incredible I think," he said. "Not to play in the first one, I messaged some of the lads, Jake Bidwell obviously scored. That's something that if I could ever achieve, it would probably be that, scoring in a derby against Cardiff in a derby to win would be unbelievable. I messaged him saying 'you've just achieved my dream'.
"I was nervous going into that game, I don't get nervous when I'm playing myself but Swansea-Cardiff, Swansea's always going to be home, always will, and one day hopefully I'll go back and play for them.
"In the meantime, I am going to support them like I do and that was a massive game. We (Burnley) played so I didn't really know until we came off, but I was just delighted the boys got the job done and it's something that... the first double ever, it's never going to be done again, even if they do it for the next five, 10 years, every time, but they'll never do it for the first time. Well done to the lads, I did message Russell (Martin) to say good luck because I wanted them to do it so much."
Elis James to bring Swans to show reboot
Swans fan Elis James says he will be bringing as many Swansea references as he can to the reboot of Baddiel & Skinner's Fantasy Football.
Sky has announced it will be bringing the popular 1990s show back for 16 episodes, hosted by James and Arsenal fan Matt Lucas.
David Baddiel and Frank Skinner rose to fame fronting the show from 1994 to 2004, and have now handed the baton over. And with James in the chair, expect a fair bit of Swans-related banter.
James said: "I couldn't be more delighted to be bringing back Fantasy Football League, although Matt's Arsenal obsession means writing meetings are often derailed by long, wistful chats about Ray Parlour. To be presenting a show I used to tape off the telly is a dream come true. The ambition is to make a show that's as loved as the original, and fill it with references to Swansea City without making it unwatchable."
The show will kick off this autumn in time for the World Cup.
Piroe honoured by comparisons
Swans striker Joel Piroe says he is honoured to be compared to Dutch legend Ruud van Nistelrooy and Swans favourite Michu.
Piroe hit the ground running in SA1 since arriving from PSV, where he was coached by ex-Manchester United star van Nistelrooy. His calmness in front of goal and decision-making has rubbed off on the 22-year-old, he feels, but he is reluctant to say he's at the level of Michu just yet.
“When being mentioned in the same sentence (as Van Nistelrooy), it’s very nice,” Piroe says.
“It’s an honour to hear yourself compared with him and I hope to be like him one day, to have as many trophies and as many clubs as he had. I learned a lot from him, like decision-making, when he was my coach at PSV.
It’s something he was really good at and he just really helped with small hints. When you are on the pitch there are hundreds of options but if you narrow that down to three options, it is easier to pick the right one. One of three means there is a bigger chance that you make the right choice than one of 100.
“I have a cool head, for sure. Sometimes you are just too eager to shoot directly or make a quick decision. I always try to think, know how much time you have. When you take the most time, you make the best decision. Sometimes there’s a moment when you have to have a snapshot or be quick but normally, you have more time than you think.
“I searched Michu up online after I heard about the comparison. He did an amazing job here and that was at Premier League level, so in that way, I wouldn’t compare myself to him. But he was very composed and had some great finishes as well.”
