The chairman of Swansea City, Huw Jenkins has admitted he was piqued at Joe Allen’s decision to decamp from the Liberty Stadium to join Liverpool, but offered the midfielder his best wishes in his future endeavours.
The Merseyside club officially sealed the deal for the 22-year old for an estimated 15 million pounds transfer fee. In addition, the Reds will also pay the midfielder a 2 million pounds signing-on fee.
However, Allen’s move to Anfield cannot be viewed as a smooth one. The Liverpool boss, Brendan Rodgers earlier saw his two reported offers for the player get rejected by the Welsh club, who viewed the Northern Irishman’s proposition as a violation of his
compensatory deal with them. They vowed to put up a fight for retaining him at the Liberty Stadium.
With Liverpool then planning on making the most of the release clause in his contract and Allen himself having expressed his desire to re-unite with Rodgers at Anfield, the Swans finally gave in to the Reds offer.
Nonetheless, Jenkins revealed that he was gutted on losing out the Welsh footballer to one of the top flight teams, as he had been a part of the club’s set up for a very long time.
He expressed his disappointment by saying, “It is with great reluctance that we have agreed to the transfer of Joe to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809. As chairman it is always a bitter disappointment when a young player who has been with us for a length of time decides his future
lies elsewhere.”
The midfielder joined the Swansea youth academy at a tender age of 9. Since then, he went on to secure his place in the professional circuitry, and capped 147 professional appearances for the Welsh outfit.
Despite admitting that his departure came as a huge setback for them, the chairman refused to be downbeat about the strength of his current contingent, and insisted that they still had the potential to make an impression in the Premier League in the coming
season.
“We will re-focus and galvanise ourselves as a football club and make sure we continue to strengthen the squad ready for the start of the new Premier League season,” he added.
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