Sam Clucas To Complete Move To Swans After £16.5m Fee Agreed

Swansea City’s £16.5m bid for Sam Clucas has been accepted by Hull City and the midfielder is expected to complete his move on Wednesday.

The move represents Swans manager Paul Clement’s first spend to strengthen his squad since the £45m sale of Gylfi Sigurdsson to Everton.

Clucas – a left-sided midfielder – has been a target for both the Swans and Burnley, who had a bid of £10m rejected earlier this month.

His former club Chesterfield are owed five per cent of any excess over £1.3m – the fee they charged for him in 2015 – due to a sell-on clause.

The League Two Spireites stand to earn as much as £760,000 from the new deal, taking their profit on Clucas to over £2m. He had thrived for Chesterfield under Paul Cook in League One.

Clucas continued to improve under Steve Bruce in the Championship and then Mike Phelan and Marco Silva in the Premier League last season, despite the club’s relegation.

Clucas started Hull’s first three Sky Bet Championship matches this season, but he did not feature in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at QPR following talk of Swansea interest.

New Tigers boss Leonid Slutsky admitted after Saturday’s game at Loftus Road that Clucas was preparing to go “to another club”.

“I don’t know [which club] but it’s Premier League. I think there will be official information, it’s his decision. I only listen to information – I don’t take part in negotiations. I think a deal will be in some days.”

It is understood that the deal is worth £15million with another potential £1.5m in add-ons.

Lincoln-born Clucas joined Hull from Chesterfield for £1.3m in July 2015 and scored nine goals in 96 appearances.

Swansea’s need for attacking reinforcements was underlined by head coach Paul Clement following their 4-0 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday.

With Sigurdsson sold and last season’s top scorer Fernando Llorente out injured, Swansea have managed only one on-target goal attempt in their opening two Premier League games.

‘The need (to strengthen) has been reinforced by the performances and the results,’ Clement said with Swansea having taken only one point from the two games.

‘The moment Gylfi’s going you know you need to strengthen. Without him, Llorente and Ki (Sung-yueng) we are weaker.

‘We still have a good squad, but we absolutely need more quality players to come in so we have a chance of being competitive this year.’

Clement said he had targeted ‘two or three players’ to fill the void left by Sigurdsson’s departure.

As well as Clucas, former Swansea players Wilfried Bony and Joe Allen have both been high on the club’s list of targets.

Bony is surplus to requirements at Manchester City and Swansea are hopeful of concluding a deal, although Stoke have rejected an inquiry for Allen and said the Wales midfielder is not for sale.

 

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