Liam Cullen signs until 2029 - Official

[AKCJ]

11 minutes ago, kingfox said:

I see Hourihane called him Culls.

 

Looking forward to the Leicester social media birthday post.

 

Happy birthday, Culls 🥳

"Great ball from Culls into Kirsten who slams home the equaliser #NcoLei"

[kingfox]

5 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

"Great ball from Culls into Kirsten who slams home the equaliser #NcoLei"

“Skippy plays it into Culls but his effort goes wide #NcoLei”

[Dan]

25 minutes ago, Wasyls Pec Deck said:

So I’m picking up this signing should be regarded as underwhelming? But I guess he reflects our position in the pecking order these days…

I've ended up writing a long post here and it isn't all addressed for you really but..

 

He should on the face of it be good enough for League One but I think it points to a lot of the deeper lying issues still being as strong as ever. These, for me are:

 

- I made a bit of a point the other day about how we should totally ditch our scouting department while times are hard because I don't think it offers us a single penny in use. That is not the fault of the scouts, but we just clearly don't listen to anything they do. Every signing is done via an agent or a manager recommendation. They are completely redundant.

 

- Rudkin is clearly still heavily involved in negotiating. Hence why we'll have paid over the odds in transfer fee and in wages.

 

- This overpay in this means we aren't able to make a number of other signings. There was a good list posted on here the other day of on the up, 21-25 year old League One / Two players who had a year left on their contracts. For the price of this signing, we can probably sign three of those, plugging more gaps in our team.

 

- While not being necessarily a 'bad' player for the level (though I think the Swansea fans' choice of compliments are really quite telling as well), his strengths are not what we are lacking, and his weaknesses are in line with plenty of others.

 

To me this is sort of similar to the Skipp deal. It isn't as egregious as he should, in theory, be one of the better players in the division. To me though this is a relatively decent amount of money, for a player who doesn't really plug our gaps, who even if a success in the short term is not going to really fix things in the long term. It's clearly Martin's recommendation - I would imagine they've agreed to back him on this one to make up for pissing him around early doors. It's just everything I expect of this regime. The whole thing points to the same disconnect that got us in this mess in the first place.

 

I genuinely wish him the best of luck, he seems a decent character and we've lacked them. But there are too many red flags to overlook here. We've seen this before and I'm offering a regime that have overseen the biggest decline basically ever no benefit of the doubt, as nobody should.

[BKLFox]

3 hours ago, Ricey said:

I just can't get excited by players that bottom half Championship teams don't want. It just rams home how far we've fallen so quickly.

 

My biggest concern though is that we aren't signing players with resale value. The last time we went down to League One our transfer business was a good mixture of experience and players that could develop then make the step up to the Championship or even the Premier League. I'm not seeing that so far. It's all loans, older players and players making a step down.

But we could if we wanted to fill a starting 11 + a good chunk of the bench with our own academy lads right now... there is our resale value & all pure profit.
We need to get out of Lge 1 at the 1st time of asking & will therefore need some street smarts not just pure enthusiasm, the likes of Chaplin, Cullen, McCarthy will aid in this.
I've also asked previous how much are fans willing to spend on these 'new young players with future resale value', 1, 2, 5m more & how old should they be 18-20 or 21-23?
Which next big thing in any of those age brackets that would cost us 3m-5m+ be willing to drop down into Lge 1 for a start, you are also spending for future potential will they help now & will they reach potential, ooh & then where is this 3-5m+ coming from?

So far i think the blend is ok, our own youth, a few older heads & a good splattering of loans all with the sole goal of getting out of Lge 1, Chaplin & Cullen will still be able to help us in the Championship & if the gods are with us & we hit Premier lge in a double bounce then we sell them back to a Lge 1/Championship team for their final year even if its for £200k that £1m-£1.5m outlay will have been well spent.

 

 

 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by BKLFox

[H.a.r.r.y]

Realistically, King Power will be off soon, so won't be spending much, we're in league one, he's likely to be a solid player in this league

 

i think there's an overreaction about this signing

 

people saying he won't get us promoted out of the championship are forgetting we need to get out of League One first

[filbertway]

40 minutes ago, Pita said:

A good improvement on our last toforwards. Welcome to Leicester 

Last seasons stats.

 

Ayew

 

Cullen

 

Daka

 

Jordan James just for fun

[Sol thewall Bamba]

52 minutes ago, kingfox said:

I see Hourihane called him Culls.

 

Looking forward to the Leicester social media birthday post.

 

Happy birthday, Culls 🥳

How does Conns know Culls?

[SemperEadem]

2 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

How does Conns know Culls?

Played together 

[kingfox]

13 minutes ago, BKLFox said:

I've also asked previous how much are fans willing to spend on these 'new young players with future resale value', 1, 2, 5m more & how old should they be 18-20 or 21-23?
Which next big thing in any of those age brackets that would cost us 3m-5m+ be willing to drop down into Lge 1 for a start, you are also spending for future potential will they help now, ooh & then where is this 3-5m+ coming from?

This is where you really need to target players from PL2, like numerous other League 1 clubs do.

 

Luton have signed Gideon Kodua and Callum Marshall for example, Sheffield Wednesday doing the same with Sil Swinkels and Louie Barry.

 

Of course no guarantee they’ll bring in profit, but signing 2-3 players in their bracket would be sensible business imo, instead of relying on players of their ilk only on loan deals.

 

Those four I mentioned probably cost around the same or less than what we paid for Cullen.

[stevostadium]

2 hours ago, Lesta2014 said:

Was he training today?

YES worked hard tbh

[stevostadium]

33 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

How does Conns know Culls?

they played together at Swansea when Conor was on loan from Villa

circa 2020/21

[hackneyfox]

2 hours ago, HankMarvin said:

“Apparently 1.5m going up to 3m is really good going from us. Home grown player who gave years of service and we've got a decent amount for him. Best of luck Culls, league one will hopefully be a bit more forgiving.”

 

From top poster on Swansea FB page 

 

2 hours ago, Dan said:

Crikey  

Take into account the number of twats on here who post ridiculous claims of how much we are paying for a player or the fact that they’re still on 80k. Then ask yourself how likely this is to be true.

[hackneyfox]

If I mention that he cost 2.5m, he’s on £67k a week and it’s a 4 year contact with him having the option to extend a year and it gets quoted by someone else then it’ll become an FT fact.

[moore_94]

https://x.com/onlyswanss/status/2083123035779760155?s=46&t=iTzhx1CuqR6Zm7mlPMX1ug

 

It felt like this day would never come. That isn’t because Liam Cullen is the most talented player to play for Swansea City, or a key squad member. There was just a certain vibe that this boyhood jack was here to stay.

 

A utility man who always gave his all, popped up at big moments and very rarely got injured. The sort of player you need in any good dressing room.

 

It was less than a year ago that Alan Sheehan sounded like a broken record each week in the press, saying that Cullen was his number nine and someone would have to win the shirt off him.

 

Unfortunately for the Welshman, Žan Vipotnik did that in spectacular fashion, stepping up to finish as the Championship's top goalscorer.

 

One of those always quick to sing Cullen’s praises was Vitor Matos, perhaps why this news has come as such a surprise.

 

“He has a top mentality. He’s a winner. He’s one of the most important players in the squad,” The Portuguese told us when we asked a question about Cullen in the press conference following his spectacular goal against Stoke City.

 

Cullen joined the Swansea City academy at the age of eight before making his senior debut under Graham Potter in a League Cup defeat to Crystal Palace in 2018. He leaves just one year short of two decades at the club.

 

In Lockdown, he announced himself to Swans fans with a goal in a 4-1 victory over Reading, helping drag Steve Cooper's side into the play-offs. Possibly the forgotten goal of that game, it kicked off Cullen’s reputation as a man for the big occasion.

 

That was best typified by three goals in South Wales Derbies. Any goal in that fixture is special, but when a goal is scored by somebody who sat in the stands dreaming of this occasion it just means a little bit more.

 

The only reason we pack out the stands is because we are not good enough at football or too young/old to live our true dream and be out there on the pitch representing the club we love. Liam Cullen is one of the lucky few who got to do that. Three goals against them? I think we’ve all thought about how we’d celebrate that if we were out on the pitch.

 

Ultimately that is what we all want as football fans. Local lads representing the club they love. If not for that, then what is a football club?

 

After Joel Piroe left, Swansea struggled badly for goals, with nobody reaching double figures during the 2023/24 season. In the 2024/25 campaign, the Welsh international stepped up and arguably saved the Swans from a relegation scrap by scoring 12 goals.

 

Even last season, he continued to deliver in important moments. He helped to kickstart the Vitor Matos era with the winner against Portsmouth in December. On Snoop Dogg's maiden visit to South Wales, Swansea trailed 1-0 in injury time, before Liam Cullen saved the club from embarrassment when the world was watching.

 

His long-range strike against Stoke will also be remembered as one of the best goals scored by a Swansea player in the Championship era.

 

He closed out his time at the club by opening the scoring in a friendly victory over Udinese just last Friday.

 

Perhaps the biggest compliment you can pay Liam Cullen is that every manager he played under trusted him. For some reason, we as football fans often think we know better than those who watch their players train every day, yet every manager Cullen worked under spoke highly of him.

 

You reading this might not rate Liam Cullen. Football is a game of opinions and that is why we are all captivated by this sport on a weekly basis. But, no matter how much you don’t rate a coach for Swansea or Wales in recent years, you do not know more than them. Sorry.

 

"I keep hearing some nonsense about him about how maybe he shouldn't be playing. I get really surprised by that because he's such an intelligent footballer,” Craig Bellamy said about him in November last year.

 

With the potential exit of Žan Vipotnik on the horizon and rumours of Bobby Wales heading out on loan, Swansea could once again find themselves looking light up front.

 

The transfer window remains open, so that may yet change. Regardless, Cullen's departure removes a proven Championship goalscorer and one of the club's most reliable options from the bench.

 

Cullen is a dream squad player. He can play in several positions, is a good pro, sets high standards in training and never drops below a 6/10.

 

Perhaps he has pushed for this move. He’s never seemed like that sort of character but the draw of more regular football with Euro 2028 approaching in the rear view mirror may be captivating.

 

Russell Martin is the man who gave him the greatest springboard at Swansea and working with him once again is an understandable draw.

 

The move may be a step down in level initially, but Leicester will be well positioned to bounce straight back up from the third tier next season.

 

Go well, The Kilgetty Messi.

 

Edited 7 hours ago by moore_94

[AyewJoking]

could be decent at this level but Leicester fans best get used to eating a lot of shit whilst our "rivals" Forest and Cov are living their best lives.

[Long Eaton Fox]

Well from all the stats and comments about his playing style he definitely seems to be a league 1 Shinji Okazaki. That has to be a good thing. Same all action style, goal ratio and team player.

[coolhandfox]

4 minutes ago, AyewJoking said:

could be decent at this level but Leicester fans best get used to eating a lot of shit whilst our "rivals" Forest and Cov are living their best lives.

Don't think we have to worry about Coventry we will be seeing them soon enough.

[South Shire Fox]

Whats with this weird flag holding the club has all the new signings doing? 😂

[AKCJ]

Just now, Long Eaton Fox said:

Well from all the stats and comments about his playing style he definitely seems to be a league 1 Shinji Okazaki. That has to be a good thing. Same all action style, goal ratio and team player.

Now we just need to find League 1's Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez.

 

Players like Albrighton and Okazaki can be accepted as team players if you've got players in the team that their work rate is for. In 2016 their work rate provided the base for the Vardy and Mahrez to dominate the league. This season we'll have Cullen running around like a blue arsed fly to make up for the bone idle Stephy Mavididi who will end the season on 7 goals and 3 assists.

 

We need to get some genuine quality in the squad to make up for players like Cullen otherwise we become League 1 mid table plodders. Players who work their arse off are two a penny in this league. To get out of it we need players who can make the difference.

[Long Eaton Fox]

1 minute ago, AKCJ said:

Now we just need to find League 1's Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez.

 

Players like Albrighton and Okazaki can be accepted as team players if you've got players in the team that their work rate is for. In 2016 their work rate provided the base for the Vardy and Mahrez to dominate the league. This season we'll have Cullen running around like a blue arsed fly to make up for the bone idle Stephy Mavididi who will end the season on 7 goals and 3 assists.

 

We need to get some genuine quality in the squad to make up for players like Cullen otherwise we become League 1 mid table plodders. Players who work their arse off are two a penny in this league. To get out of it we need players who can make the difference.

Well Ballard is league 1 Vardy. lets hope Watson is league 1 Mahrez.

[Vindaloo FOX]

My Swansea mate said he will run his sock off for you, after seeing theses twats mope around for the last few seasons I will take that all day.

 

Welcome Liam. 

[slymunn]

6 hours ago, Ricey said:

I just can't get excited by players that bottom half Championship teams don't want. It just rams home how far we've fallen so quickly.

 

My biggest concern though is that we aren't signing players with resale value. The last time we went down to League One our transfer business was a good mixture of experience and players that could develop then make the step up to the Championship or even the Premier League. I'm not seeing that so far. It's all loans, older players and players making a step down.

The difference then (for me) was we didn't have 15 academy players involved in the first team. We dont have to buy based on re sale as we potentially have them at the club already. 

[ronnup]

1 hour ago, Vindaloo FOX said:

My Swansea mate said he will run his sock off for you, after seeing theses twats mope around for the last few seasons I will take that all day.

 

Welcome Liam. 

 

No small thing this,  our dressing room wad desperate for good characters and a reset in the culture. If he brings that he can be a bit shit with it

[Ted Maul]

A £1.5m transfer fee isn't necessarily a problem, provided that he's on sensible wages and we actually have the money to be paying that (we've just got to hope that the incoming fees have indeed balanced the books for this season I suppose).

 

If it rises to £3m then we've been promoted and no longer looking into the financial abyss. 

 

From a purely footballing perspective, he seems a decent character and should be excellent at this level.

[Xen]

41 minutes ago, ronnup said:

 

No small thing this,  our dressing room wad desperate for good characters and a reset in the culture. If he brings that he can be a bit shit with it

If players are a bit below the standard we'd want but actually put in the effort to make up for it, then we can get behind them and their effort might well allow others to shine anyway.

 

Whereas the last few seasons, we've had players who on paper were good enough but just didn't give a crap, and it ended up bringing the rest of the club down with it. 

 

 

When we were last in league one Pearson/Walsh (and again in his later stint) focussed recruitment on character and how they'd integrate into the squad, and it paid dividends. More of the same and we might go some way to getting ourselves back on track. Cullen seems like a step in the right direction in that regard, at least.