Rob Davies
Swans boss Russell Martin believes his squad hasn’t been strengthened from what he had last season and wishes more changes could have been made.
Despite securing the signatures of Harry Darling, Nathan Wood, Matty Sorinola and Joe Allen, the Swans boss points to the losses of Cyrus Christie and Hannes Wolf as good examples of where the club has failed to strengthen.
But whilst it’s true that those two were losses – Christie joined Hull City today – it is fair to say that it’s a positive to see that Michael Obafemi and Joel Piroe are still at the club, for now at least.
Martin told Wales Online in his pre match press conference: “It’s really difficult to come out here after a game and not show emotion,”
“I’m really honest with you, sometimes maybe a bit too honest, but I’m a young manager and I will make mistakes.
“That’s the situation. I wasn’t moaning about it. The aim is to always try and ultimately get to the Premier League, but we don’t have the financial resources of the majority of this league now.
“There will be frustration around that, of course there will. We were never told it was going to be any different.
“The players we signed in the summer are young, apart from Joe [Allen]. Nothing suggests that we’ve actually really strengthened. Hannes [Wolf] was an important player for us, Flynn [Downes], Cyrus [Christie], we haven’t quite replaced people in these positions.
“That will frustrate people, it will frustrate us as well, but the financial situation is what it is.
“So we have to be really clever, think outside the box about what we can do and what we can’t do. Hopefully we’ll be able to do something before the end of the window.”
In more detail Martin talked about the backlash the owners have faced in the last week and his relationship with the Americans:
“What’s gone on previously is something we can’t comment on as we haven’t been part of that.
“I speak to them (the American owners) regularly, they’ve been as supportive as they can be. They’ve been really honest with that.
“How I try to judge people is that if they’re honest with you, sometimes I’ll explain what we want and sometimes they’ll say we can do it.
“Sometimes they will, like Harry Darling and Nathan Wood in the summer. I understand if people feel certain things about the previous five years or whatever.
“I can only comment on since we’ve been here. Yes we’d have liked more change with the squad.
“Would we have liked more experienced at times to help the young ones? Yeah. but that’s not being critical of them.
“They show support in a different way if they can’t do it financially. I spoke to the owners after Millwall and they loved it, for 92 minutes. They can see what we’re building.
“They thought it was one of the best performances since we’ve been here. They’ve been honest and supportive as far as they can financially.
“I understand people will be frustrated, as I was after the game on Saturday. It’s football. Every supporter, especially when you’ve had seven years in the Premier League, you want it again.”
Swansea and Martin face two tough and potentially defining trips to Middlesbrough and Stoke this week. Will the pressure be ramped up ever further on the manager?
It’s down to him to get the best out of the players he’s got and he’s simply not doing that
True
Wolf was not good enough last season and Christie was often off the pace.
On independent rating sites Wolf didn’t feature above the average and Christie had a lower rating than Manning.
At this moment in time do we really believe Wood and Sorinola have improved the team and were they worth signing? I’ll leave you to answer that