Swansea City transfer news as Russell Martin gives…

Swansea City transfer news as Russell Martin gives definitive Joel Piroe stance and player omitted from squad list

Your Swansea City headlines for Tuesday, July 26.

Martin's definitive Piroe stance

Swansea are not required to sell Joel Piroe before being able to continue with their planned transfer activity this summer.

The Swans have already recruited Harry Darling, Matty Sorinola, Nathan Wood and Joe Allen having sold Flynn Downes to West Ham United for a hefty sum. It has been speculated that Brighton have shown an interest in Swansea's star striker Piroe this summer, although sources close to the Seagulls have played down the possibility of a move while Swansea are not thought to have received contact from Graham Potter's side about the Dutchman.

Speaking after his side's 2-1 win at Charlton Athletic, Martin admitted the club were more intent on offloading fringe players at present. When asked if Piroe was one of the men Swansea were waiting on leaving, the head coach responded: "No. That'd be madness. I hope we can keep hold of him.

"I haven't got a clue what's going to happen. There's just no point in us stressing about it. We'll be prepared for him staying. We'll be prepared for him going. But we're not reliant on him going out to do other things."

Bennett omitted from squad list

Ryan Bennett has not been handed a shirt number ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

The Swans confirmed their squad list numbers on their official website four days ahead of their Championship opener at Rotherham United. But defender Bennett was not given a jersey number.

The former Wolves and Norwich City man has been told he can leave the club this summer and has not trained with the first team during pre-season. The full story on the shirt numbers is available here.

No targets from coaching staff

Russell Martin has revealed Swansea's players will set out the targets for the season ahead.

The Swans finished 15th in the Championship last term and are bidding to end the upcoming campaign far higher up the table following what was a major transitional season after Martin's late arrival from MK Dons a year ago.

Jamie Paterson recently admitted the club are targeting promotion into the Premier League while Flynn Downes also said the top-flight was the aim for the Swans prior to his move to West Ham. But Martin says the coaching staff will not be issuing the squad with specific targets when it comes to the league standings this term.

"I'm so excited. I think we all are with the amount of work we've got in over the year and then over the last five weeks," admitted the 36-year-old. "The culture of the group is fantastic, the amount of work they've put in, how willing they are to learn and engage with us.

"Expectation wise I don't have any [targets]. I know that'll probably upset a few people. Where we'll end up is where we deserve to end up. All I know is we're better prepared for this season than we were last season.

"We have a lot more solutions to a lot more problems. We have more players who are suited to what we want to do and how we want to play. Over the course of the second half of last season I thought we showed, on the whole, pretty good form. We just paid for a slow start which we knew would be the case.

"There'll be no targets from us. We just want to see the team that we want to see every week. The vision of the team, the way the team wants to play, we want to try and dominate every single game that we can with the ball because football is seriously random. We'll see where it takes us. The boys will have a decision to make on what they want to achieve and we'll just try to help them do that."

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Rotherham ref confirmed

Matthew Donohue will take charge of Swansea's Championship opener at Rotherham United this weekend.

The Greater Manchester official was the man in the middle for the Swans' 3-0 win at home to Peterborough United last term while he also had the whistle as Russell Martin's men were beaten 4-1 by Nottingham Forest at the Swansea.com Stadium.

Donohue will be assisted by Robert Hyde and Andrew Aylott. Will Finnie is the fourth official for the contest at the New York Stadium. Kick-off in Yorkshire is at 3pm on Saturday.

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