Paul Clement has vowed that Swansea City will avoid the chaos of last minute deals that almost sent them down last season.
The Swans boss is bracing himself for the loss of Gylfi Sigurdsson to Everton for £50m, but is determined to avoid the tailspin caused by the departure of Ashley Williams a year ago.
Toffees manager Ronald Koeman has said a deal between the two clubs for the Icelandic star is close, but the saga is already resembling last year’s protracted pursuit of the club’s former skipper that went into the start of the season.
Williams went to Everton on August 10 and with little succession planning the club relied on greenhorn defender Alfie Mawson – an eve of deadline day raw recruit – who struggled under Francesco Guidolin and Bob Bradley.
“Lessons have been learnt from that situation,” insisted Clement.
“We won’t let that happen again. First and foremost, our club and our team are the most important things – not one individual player.
“We have identified quality players and so if the situation arises that Gylfi leaves – and we get the right amount of funds in – then we can bring in really good players.
“We are ready to act on some deals. We don’t just have singular targets.
“We have multiple targets because you have to be prepared that players at other clubs may not want to come, or other clubs may not want to sell them.”
Clement is keen on £20m-rated midfielder Jonathan Viera of Las Palmas, having already snapped up his Spanish clubmate Roque Mesa for £11m.
Last season’s late loss of Williams and the settling in of Mawson from Barnsley left the Swans bottom of the Premier League at the turn of the year with just 12 points when Clement came in.
“We want to make sure that when we go into the start of the season, we are going to be competitive and that our squad is stronger than it was last season.
“We are not going to get into a situation where the player goes, we have funds available, but there is no time to do any deals.
“We would end up weaker and there’s no way that is going to happen.”
Mawson eventually found his feet and the England U21 centre-back thrived after Clement’s arrival in January as the Swans climbed off the bottom of the table.
The former Barnsley player’s transformation in form during that second-half of the season was sufficient for him to make the wanted list of a number of clubs this summer, including Tottenham.
But Clement – who is also keen on Porto striker Adrian Lopez and Nice midfielder Jean Michael Seri – is anxious to avoid another slow start to the season for Swansea who did not manage a victory between opening day and November 26 in last year’s campaign.
“We need to start the season well because the pressure to win games really starts to build and becomes intense if you don’t.
“In my 19 games here last season, I learnt that every game is intensely competitive and there’s a lot of stress, so our preparation has to be spot on.”
