Swansea City manager Russell Martin has insisted that the Swans allowed new summer signing Kyle Joseph to go out on loan straight away so that he could get the game time he needs to continue his development.
Joseph was one of the nine new signings to arrive through the door at Swansea this summer in what was a busy transfer window for the club.
The forward arrived from Wigan Athletic with a growing reputation and with interest from numerous other clubs. That came after he had managed to fire home five league goals in 18 appearances for the Latics last term.
However, despite featuring in both of Swansea’s wins in the League Cup in August, the decision was made to allow the forward to leave on loan for League One Cheltenham Town towards the end of the summer transfer window.
The 19-year-old managed to register his first goal for Cheltenham on Saturday with him getting their goal in their 1-1 draw at home to MK Dons.
Speaking to Swansea City’s official website, Martin insisted that the Swans decided to allow Joseph to make the loan move to Cheltenham Town because he was behind bodies in the forward area and needs to get game time to continue his development.
“Kyle was the same (as Ollie Cooper), he was behind a few bodies here, and this club has had such success developing other clubs’ players that sometimes we have to offload some.
“He has had a big move to the club, it’s a big change, and he’s only played 15 games, I think, at first-team level. He needs to play some football, and we liked the way that Cheltenham went about it, how much they wanted him, how much he fits into their system.
“There’s a good coach there, in Michael (Duff), which I hope will be really beneficial to him, and it’s not a million miles away. We can really keep tabs on him and Ollie.
“It's not a case of 'out of sight, out of mind', we’re really going to keep track of them. Matty Gill will go and visit them at Newport and Cheltenham regularly, because that’s part of Matt’s role.
“He’ll go and visit them. We’ll watch their clips every single week and get feedback.
“We look forward to seeing their progress.”
The verdict
Joseph is certainly an exciting talent and managing his development is something that Swansea have to prioritise over the next few years if they are to get the best out of him.
The 19-year-old showed a lot of promise at Wigan last season in League One. There was also a reason why he was attracting interest from a lot of clubs before Swansea managed to win the race for his signature during the summer.
It seems like that signing could in the long-term prove to be an excellent one for the Swans, but they are doing the right thing this season in loaning him out to Cheltenham to continue his development if chances to start would have been slim with them this term.
Swansea are a club that have developed a lot of young and talented players in recent times. It seems like Joseph could well be the next success story for the Swans.
He has already started life at Cheltenham in a positive fashion and if he continues his form then the Swans will have been vindicated dully in loaning him out this summer.