Laudrup Rejects Allen Talk

Michael Laudrup has made it clear that he would not welcome interest in any of Swansea's best players and he is determined to keep Joe Allen.

Midfielder Allen has been linked with a move to Liverpool even though Brendan Rodgers has agreed not to raid his former club.

And Laudrup has now cooled speculation suggesting the Wales international could be on his way out the Liberty Stadium exit door, insisting that he remains very much a key figure in the club's plans for the future.

"I want Joe to stay here because he is very important for the team. As far as I know, we have heard nothing from Liverpool," said the new Swans boss.

"If it is more than just rumours then I'm sure the chairman will talk to me about it."

Laudrup accepts that such transfer talk is an inevitable consequence when players catch the eye, but he hopes to be able to keep his squad intact.

"It is normal to have interest when people are doing well," he explained.

"Swansea did well in their first season in the Premier League and some of the players were not well known at the highest level before.

"Of course we want to keep our most important players and I would not welcome any interest in our best players. But it is part of the game."

Allen is one of three Swansea players, along with Neil Taylor and Scott Sinclair, who has been selected for the Great Britain Olympic squad, which Laudrup admits could cause a problem.

He told Swans Player: "They are not there for pre-season, then there are international games, so if they go all the way to the end they could present themselves here on August 16, only 48 hours before the first game.

"That's not very good for us but it's fantastic for Swansea to have three players going to the Olympics."

Swansea began pre-season training this week, with new signings Jose Manuel Flores and Jonathan de Guzman joining their team-mates.

Laudrup is hoping to add another couple of players before the transfer window shuts at the end of next month and also admitted there are likely to be some departures.

"I don't want to mention any names but I think we need a couple of players still," said Laudrup.

"I wanted to come here and give everybody a chance. In the first few weeks we'll watch everybody and then later on we'll have to make some decisions. There will be some positions where we will have maybe too many players."