Fulham move could have broken my heart

Matt Grimes opened up on his extended contract yesterday and admitted that it could have “broken his heart” had he been away from Swansea watching them play the way Russell Martin is molding them.

Grimes put pen to paper on an extended Swansea stay last week ending speculation over his future that could easily have seen him join Fulham back in the summer transfer window when the Cottagers came in for his services.

That move never got off the ground – although Grimes admits that it could easily have happened on deadline day – and the rest is starting to feel like history with the ever present midfielder now the only player who has played every minute of league action under Martin.

It was clear from the first day that Martin arrived in Swansea that he had a plan and a desire to hold onto his captain and it is definitely a case of the two working well together backed completely by Grimes comments about how he would have felt now if he was watching on from elsewhere.

“To be honest with you, it would have absolutely broken my heart if I had ended up at another Championship team and had to play against this style of football and been battered the way we have battered teams,” said Grimes.

“There was a conversation in the morning,” he added in relation to the Fulham move “It looked like it was going to go ahead and then kind of really quickly turned.

“It was not really down to the wire, conversations were going on through the day. It just never happened.

“I am very happy here and I think a lot happier here than I would have been there, to be honest.

“Every week we get a chance to work and the manager is implementing his ideas, he is telling us the way he wants us to play, the intensity of how he works is second to none.

“I think he makes the whole dressing room better, I think every player can look at themselves in the mirror and say ‘I am a lot better player under this manager’ and whoever comes into the team or the club will find that the case.

“He is fantastic to work with and I believe he is taking this club places.”