The young Swansea City stars to benefit most in…

The young Swansea City stars to benefit most in pre-season as duo impress coaches

Swansea City have just one more pre-season game left to play before kick-starting their 2022/23 Championship campaign.

The Swans face Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Saturday before travelling to Rotherham United for their league opener seven days later. The summer schedule has afforded Russell Martin the chance to try out various formations, tactics, and, of course, personnel.

The exits of players including Korey Smith, Ben Hamer and Yan Dhanda has provided certain fringe players with greater opportunities to impress the coaching staff.

Several young guns were taken to Pennyhill Park earlier this summer as players were put through their paces ahead of the six pre-season fixtures. And coaches have been hugely impressed with the efforts of Cameron Congreve and Ollie Cooper in particular.

The pair rose to prominence last term, with Cooper excelling during his loan spell with Newport County while Congreve made his first team breakthrough at Swansea before signing a contract extension just four months after earning his first professional deal at the club.

Head coach Martin has long been an admirer of Cooper and regularly received positive reports from those at Rodney Parade during the 22-year-old's time with the Exiles. He has been in the senior set-up this summer after returning from Newport and could well get the chance to be a squad player at Swansea this season, although another loan can not be ruled out.

The same applies to Congreve who is just 18 years of age, but is highly thought of at the club. The attacker made five appearances under Martin in the latter stages of the 2021/22 season and netted in the Swans' pre-season win over Bristol Rovers last weekend.

"He deserves everything he gets, Cam," assistant boss Matt Gill said after Saturday's win. "He's a really level-headed lad, he's signed a new contract and signing it off with a goal today was brilliant."

Youth players Azeem Abdulai, Ben Lloyd and Joel Cotterill are among those to have made the step up from the youth set-up to the senior group of late while Lincoln Mcfayden - who featured in the Carabao Cup for Swansea last season - is another to get the opportunity to prove his worth this summer.

However, the transfer situation of others has seen Lewis Webb and Dan Williams return to the club prematurely. Goalkeeper Webb started well at Shelbourne but returned to Swansea due to a lack of regular minutes in Ireland.

As for Williams, he sustained an ankle injury and was forced to cut short his spell with Dundalk but has been handed game time during the Swans' summer schedule. Despite Joe Allen's arrival, the sale of Flynn Downes combined with the injury sustained by Liam Walsh means Martin's men are a body light in the centre of the park.

Jay Fulton could yet be moved on given that he is unlikely to feature regularly under the current coaching group, and it all means Williams could remain in south Wales beyond this summer. Despite the likely exit of Steven Benda, Webb is likely to be second choice at best given that Martin has put full faith in Andy Fisher since the 24-year-old joined from MK Dons in January.

Others such as Jordon Garrick, Morgan Whittaker, Liam Cullen and Brandon Cooper have been involved this summer following loan spells away from the club last season but are likely to depart again - either on loan or permanently - before the September 1 transfer deadline. As for Ryan Bennett, he has been left out entirely.

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