Your Swansea City headlines for Thursday, March 31.
Marsch plans transfer talks amid Downes interest
Jesse Marsch will hold transfer talks with Leeds United's director of football Victor Orta next week amid interest in Flynn Downes. Downes has impressed since moving to south Wales from Ipswich Town last year and has become one of Russell Martin's key players. As a result, the Whites have been touted with a move for the Swansea midfielder in the summer transfer window.
And Marsch has revealed Leeds will undertake a scouting mission in early April.
"Victor and I have a scouting meeting next week," the American told LeedsLive. "We've had discussions already. My role is to be the manager and then we have Victor Orta and his scouting team. I like to give profiles of the players I like and trust them to do their job diligently before we make decisions together. Everyone needs to be fully aligned when a player arrives.
"We may need another attacker or two and one nine in particular. We'll speak about it next week."
Agents' fees revealed
Swansea paid £1.6m to agents between February 2, 2021 and January 31, 2022.
The Swans signed the likes of Joel Piroe, Flynn Downes and Michael Obafemi last summer while Nathanael Ogbeta and Hannes Wolf are among those brought in earlier this year. And the Football Association have revealed the Swans paid a total of £1,617,579 to agents for their roles in transfers from the two most recent windows.
Having forked out £10.1m over the same period, league leaders Fulham paid agents the most out of the sides currently in the Championship, although the Cottagers are receiving parachute payments having been in the Premier League last term. In total, the 24 clubs in the second tier paid £44.4m to agents.
The list in full:
AFC Bournemouth - £3,505,603
Barnsley - £505,640
Birmingham City - £1,253,633
Blackburn Rovers - £1,059,338
Blackpool - £368,515
Bristol City - £1,392,048
Cardiff City - £1,459,333
Coventry City - £833,482
Derby County £748,889
Fulham - £10,160,399
Huddersfield Town - £1,395,768
Hull City - £242,986
Luton Town - £564,162
Middlesbrough -£1,579,801
Millwall - £1,022,311
Nottingham Forest - £2,388,090
Peterborough United - £311,280
Preston - £1,047,671
QPR - £925,162
Reading - £876,330
Sheffield United - £3,571,417
Stoke City - £3,400,617
Swansea City - £1,617,579
West Brom - £4,148,886
Who has been Swansea's best signing under Russell Martin? Have your say in the comments section below.
Cardiff favourites for derby - Gabbidon
Danny Gabbidon believes Cardiff are the favourites going into Saturday's South Wales derby.
The Bluebirds have claimed 10 points from their last four matches and have significantly improved under Steve Morison following what was a highly productive January transfer window. Bookmakers have Cardiff as the favourites to beat Swansea this weekend. And ex-Wales star Gabbidon believes his former club Cardiff need to put Swansea's defence under pressure whenever possible.
"This is a really intriguing one tactically. You look at Swansea, you know exactly what they're going to do. Russell Martin isn't going to change his game plan," he said on EJFOF.
"But the big question is, will Steve Morison change his? You look at Cardiff, the good run they've been on has been built on allowing the opposition to have the ball. They've sat quite deep and been difficult to break down and looked to counter attack.
"Against Stoke, there was a little bit of a shift where they tried to play a bit more on the front foot. They tweaked the midfield area and played Tommy Doyle as a number 10. They won that game. I'm really intrigued to see if he reverts back to type of what he has been doing and allows Swansea to have the ball, which, for me, is a dangerous thing to do, or whether he continues in the same vein as the Stoke performance where they were much more positive and on the front foot.
"We have seen plenty of teams do that to Swansea, force mistakes and get goals against them. I think they have to be brave and try to force mistakes from those Swansea players and create chances off the back of that. Certainly from the form between the two teams, Cardiff being the home side, you'd lean towards Cardiff City winning this one." You can read the derby score predictions from our writers here.
Manning's versatility proving key
Ryan Manning admits he does not know where his best position is on the pitch. The 25-year-old has primarily operated on the left side of a back three under Martin, although he can also play as a wing-back or in midfield. Manning played in two different positions for Republic of Ireland during the international break, and he believes his versatility has been a key factor behind his increased influence at Swansea.
"It's the million dollar question! I don't really know myself," he said. "The way football is now, you have to be adaptable to a lot of positions.
"[Against Lithuania], I was able to play left wing-back, and when Jimmy [James McClean] came on, I was able to jump in a centre-back. It probably helps that the style at my club is similar to the style that's here. We play out from the back.
"For me, it's just about being as adaptable as I can to play in as many positions as I can. It gives me more opportunities to play than if I was restricted to one position.
"When I was with the [Ireland] U21s, I was playing number 10. Football has probably changed a little bit. Left wing-back is a lot more of an attacking position than it was years ago. For me, it was just about adapting to get into teams, and carve out a career. That's where I've ended up. I enjoy playing there, getting chances to get assists, and shots on goal."
Manning has served three games of a four-match ban after being sent off against Fulham. He is unavailable for Saturday's derby clash with Cardiff.
Do you think Swansea will do the double over Cardiff? Have your say in the comments section below.
Young guns given Fairwood chance
Several youth players have been training with Swansea's first team ahead of the clash with Cardiff.
Tivonge Rushesha, Cameron Congreve, Lincoln Mcfayden and Azeem Abdulai are among those being put through their paces alongside Swansea's senior players at Fairwood this week. Russell Martin is a regular at Under-23 matches and is keen to promote youth where possible given the Swans' financial situation.
A number of players from the academy have been given the chance to impress the coaching staff on the training ground during the course of the season. Footage from the club released on Thursday afternoon also shows first team stars including Matt Grimes, Michael Obafemi, Joel Piroe and Jamie Paterson going through numerous drills in preparation for the trip to the capital.
Ryan Manning, Ben Cabango and Olivier Ntcham were absent having been away on international duty with Republic of Ireland, Wales and Cameroon respectively. Brandon Cooper is continuing his recovery from injury.
Marv's derby message
Marvin Emnes says it was an "amazing" feeling to score the winner for Swansea against rivals Cardiff in the 2010 derby.
The Dutch attacker struck the only goal of the game after 75 minutes at Cardiff City Stadium to earn Brendan Rodgers' side all three points. It proved to be one of the standout moments from what was a memorable campaign for the Swans who gained promotion into the Premier League for the first time.
And ahead of the latest South Wales derby, Emnes has sent his former club his best wishes.
"I just want to have a quick word about scoring the winning goal against Cardiff. It was a great experience and a good feeling," he said. "It was something amazing to put my name up there by scoring the winning goal against Cardiff.
"It felt amazing because it's something that not many people have done before. I just want to wish you guys all the best for the next game and hopefully to get the three points back."
