Swansea City have today announced a deal to sell 24-year-old full-back Jazz Richards, to Sky Bet Championship side Fulham. He completed a medical, and has already agreed personal terms with the west Londoners.
The Wales international - who can operate on either flank - has joined the Cottagers on a three-year contract deal, having only made ten Premier League appearances last term, most of which were substitute minutes. Richards, who joined the club six years ago, made 51 club appearancs in all competitions for the Swans up until his official departure from the club was confirmed.
Struggled for first-team opportunities with Swans
The transfer itself comes as no surprise really, because Richards struggled to hold down a solid starting berth with the Swans following Ben Davies' switch to Tottenham at the start of last year's summer window. Instead he has been frustrated with the lack of first-team opportunities given to prove himself, and as a result, has dropped down a tier into the second division in search of regular playing time once more.
Fulham have already got their pre-season training schedule underway as they aim to improve on a rather lacklustre 17th placed finish in the 2014/15 campaign, which was their first away from the English top flight after they were relegated the season before that. With a topsy-turvy issue surrounding the future of the club with the amount of changes in personnel that were made, the club's problems echoed on the pitch as they struggled for consistency with far too many draws and losing matches they should have won, in truth.
Fulham out in force for signings of intent
Richards is the club's fourth signing of the window, after Andy Lonergan, Ben Pringle and Tom Cairney were all brought in earlier on after the conclusion of the season. The 24-year-old was happy to sign permanently with Kit Symons' side, and stated he enjoyed his previous four-month loan spell at the club.
As quoted by the official Fulham website, he stated: "When I was on-loan here last season I settled in straight away with the lads and the staff, and I enjoyed the style of football that Kit Symons was trying to get the team playing. That made me want to come back.
Kit's a good manager, a good coach, and what he's trying to get us to do will take the club forward, and we've got the players to do so. And we've already made some good signings this summer."