A great season where we really built on staying up last year. I didn't expect us to break into the top half in just two seasons of being in the Prem so I am naturally delighted.
We just can't seem to get the hang of cup competitions though.
The New Arrivals
The Best 11
Overall Squad Stats
Club Awards
Despite doing much better this year and recording a top half finish in the top flight, we seem to have lost nearly 90,000 social media followers which is strange. In terms of fans expectations next season, it's pretty much the same.
We were only meant to get a small upgrade to the stadium at the end of the season by nearly 3,000 but thanks to some additional funding that has been secured, we are now upgrading by nearly three times that amount!!
Commercials
Finances
Now we are 4 seasons in, let's take a look at the overall best 11 and a bit of a round up.
3rd August 2026 Transfer News: There's no doubt that one of our biggest weaknesses last season was going forward. Only one player scored double figure goals and our highest assister all year only got 5!! So there was no doubt where the focus would be in the transfer market this Summer and our first signing is a new striker in the form of Manchester City's Liam Delap! This kid has bundles of potential and at 23 years old should strat coming into his prime...I hope so as we I've broken the club's transfer record, agreeing a deal worth £22.5 million to bring him here (£10.5 million paid up front).
Transfer News: Another attacking player to come in is Kanya Fujimoto from Gil Vicente. I've had my eye on him for a while and he finished top of the assist charts in Portugal last season so that made my mind up that I had to go and get the Japanese star. He joins for £19.5 million with £11.5 million paid up front.
Transfer News: My third signing of the Summer is a bit of a bargain one. Gaetano Castrovilli was transfer listed by Fiorentina despite playing 31 league games for them last season (predominantly as a sub), so we only had to pay £4.9 million to bring him to South Wales.
Transfer News: It's important to keep an English/Welsh core to the team, so my next signing was with that in mind. Keane Lewis-Potter has had a good season in the Championship with Watford and he tore us apart when they knocked us out of the FA Cup. He's a risky signing at £12.25 million, but hopefully it will pay off.
It's fixture day for the new campaign and we can't complain with our opening 5...there is absolutely no reason to feel like we can't take at least 9 points from these opening games.
Facilities: The youth setup is getting another upgrade as we continue to develop the club off the field as well as on it.
Transfer News: Time for two free transfers to come into the club on pre contract deals that had been agreed a few months back. The first is centre back Jerry St Juste who has to be one of the paciest centre backs I have seen. He can also play right back too and is a great signing on a free.
Transfer News: The second freebie is Turkish creative midfielder, Barkey Ozcan who got himself 9 goals and 9 assists for Istanbul Basaksehir last year and I'm hoping he can bring those sort of numbers to the Premier League.
Transfer News: This guy certainly deserves a mention. Matt Grimes has played over 300 league games for the club, 128 of which were under my management. He was a large part of getting us to and keeping us in the Prem, but he's 30 now and struggled to hold down a place in the first team last year, so it was time to cash in whilst we could still bag a decent sum for him. He joins Blackburn for £5.25 million.
Transfer News: My next sale out of the club is a bit of a strange one. 19 year old Steve Davies hasn't ever really been on my radar and doesn't strike me as a star of the future, so I was a little shocked when Bournemouth came in and offered us £9 million for him. Naturally I accepted and just hope now he doesn't go on to become a world superstar.
Transfer News: I needed a second right back in the team for the upcoming season but transfer funds are now running low, so I turned to the loan market and have managed to pick up 19 year old prospect Jason Gardiner from Chelsea.
Transfer News: And then I signed a young 18 year old right back for the future. Frank Reyes comes in for just £750k from Sporting Cristal in his native Peru and the youngster has some brilliant mental attributes...if he can improve on his technical ones over the next couple of years, he can develop into a fine player.
I've been working on a new tactic for the upcoming season after all the additions this Summer and here it is...
And during pre season, we did alright with it to be fair.
For the first time since we got promoted, the bookies actually don't have us pegged to finish in the bottom 3. We're getting at least a little bit of respect after our 10th placed finish last season.
Well, it's fair to say season 5 didn't go to plan. I was sacked 18 games into the new season as we propped up the Premier League with just 10 points. The new formation didn't work, but reverting back to previous tactics didn't seem to revive our form either. The players signed simply weren't good enough with some really shocking average ratings. It's been a hard slog this save and at no point did I ever find it easy, but I have to thank Swansea as this save reignated my enthusiasm for the game again and I'll certainly be back with something new....probably in a different country though for a new challenge.
