Viva Swansea City – the Arsenal and Liverpool of the Championship!

Good article first of all. Despite the amount of Spaniards at our club, I don't feel any less proud of the team. Probably in the last year or so, with the style of football we've been playing, I amongst most Swans fans have been happier with the foreign team than any previous squad that we've had here.

First time I read about any comparison between The Swans and Arsenal. Strange this, me being a Norwegian Arsenal fan, but I used to live in Swansea to study. I think its worse for fans of smaller teams, like Swansea, to "loose" their local players and replace them with foreign ones than it is for Arsenal fans. Anyway, if these new foreigners can help Swansea become a PL team I see nothing wrong with it...Best of luck to Martinez this year!

Well, I am a Liverpool fan and to be honest, no team can honestly say they are "local". Before Martinez came to Swansea, how many local Swansea boys were playing for the team? For that matter, how many Welsh boys were playing for them? For Liverpool, there are 2 players, Stevie G and Carra. So to me, bringing in foreign players has been happening for decades, because the majority of players that play for any one club are normally foreign to that particular city.

British players cost far too much. Why spend over a million on a player like Paterson when we can go to Europe and pick up 6 promising players for one tenth of the price? This clubs been to the brink financially too often. I'm happy with this prudent spending. Also the Spaniards brought in last season have totally embraced Swansea and the fans. Sometimes I feel certain british players could look at them for an example.

I can see your point Graham, but as with many Swansea supporters I have complete faith in Roberto. I believe Roberto would love to have Welsh players in our side but as he has acknowledged himself, he faces two problems: 1) You have to pay a premium for British players. Roberto's signings last summer were an amazing success. For peanuts he signed players who are now worth millions. To sign a player of equivalent skill from an English league club you would have to pay a much higher fee. 2) Our youth system is extremely poor. Despite a hotbed of talent, the Swans have produced hardly any top quality players in the last few years. I hate to say it but Cardiff have stolen a march on us in signing young welsh talent such as Ramsey, Ledley, Gunter, etc. Both the Chairman and Roberto have both been quoted as saying that this is an area that they are urgently addressing. On the whole I think Roberto is just trying to do the best job he can with the resources at his disposal. He's working towards having more Welsh lads in the team (he recently signed Ashley Williams, and there's hope for Owain Tudor Jones and Shaun MacDonald) but he won't pay over the odds and developing young talent will take time. I personally think Roberto is the brightest young management talent in the British game and I can't imagine Swansea City without him at the helm. I rate him so highly i'd rather trade in all our players than lose our manager.

To be honest under Martinez we have had more Welsh players playing for us than we have had for a very long time. He has brought in a Welsh international defender (Ashley Williams) during the summer and Owain Tudor Jones has hopefully got over his serious injury and he is not afraid to give some of the youngsters a game. As long as these foreign players give 110% for the club and are happy to play in the cold winter it makes no difference to me where they are from.

Interesting article. What perhaps the writer is unaware of is that prior to this we had team full of English players put together by Kenny Jackett. Only 1 regular was Welsh & we supported the team wholeheartedly then as we do now. I take on board Graham's concerns but Martinez has already expressed his desire to play more locals - if they were good enough & available...which for many years they haven't been. We cannot compete with the over-inflated transfer fees for British players so this is our way around this. If one was to witness the commitment to Swansea City of players such as Guillem Bauza, Angel Rangel, Dennis Lawrence & Dorus De Vries noty to mention their ability then it is obvious why we support Roberto's policy. By the way it's worth noting we have 6 Spaniards now...and who just won Euro 2008 playing expansive, possession football with the emphasis on skill & pace (as opposed to physicality)....!

As a lifelong Swansea Town and now Swansea City supporter I am dissapointed that not more local players play for the Swans. Swansea has for many years produced excellent players e.g. John Charles, Mel Charles, Ivor allchurch, Trevor Ford, Cliff Jones and lately Leighton James and Robbie James. However, modern football has now changed and for the Swans to prosper in the Championship, it is vital that they aquire players from far and wide in order to retain their status in the Championship. Roberto Martinez has been a revelation since he has become the manager as did John Toshack. Toshack himself brought in Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan and Emlyn Hughes to play for the Swams so the supporters here are well used to seeing non-local players play for the club. Roberto Martinez has also signed a welsh player - Ashley Williams from Stockport County as well as developing local talent (Shaun Macdonald and Owain Tudur Jones) who hopefuly will go on to represent Wales many times in the future.

Interesting article, but like other posters, I'm unwilling to criticise Martinez on this one. If anything, he's paid more attention to Welsh and local players than some previous managers. Owain Tudur Jones has been mentioned, with Roberto showing a lot of patience with a player who's been out for years. Ashley Williams has just signed, and the Swans are linked with young Welsh keeper Owian Fon Williams. Moreover, he's given first team opportunities to two promising youngsters (Joe Allen and Shaun Macdonald), and he's put pressure on the club to improve its youth development policy and facilities. In my opinion he's only playing the system. As it stands, British players are over-priced and over-paid. Roberto allegedly pointed out to one recently departed player that despite that player potentially being of good Championship standard, for the wages that the player was demanding Martinez could find two such players in Spain. Think of the wages offered by some other Championship clubs to who are in truth very average British players. James Beattie is a good example. To their credit, Liverpool and Arsenal too have been interested in British players, but as Wenger has said, nothing can be done if the quality isn't there. Whilst Swansea simply cannot compete with the wages offered by some Championship clubs, they must seek the best value possible. Swansea have gone up to a league in which they have to compete with clubs benefiting from the unjust parachute payment. Whilst the long-term effects of this remain to be seen, we have already seen Championship clubs believing that in order to compete they should break the bank, allowing debts to spiral. I fear that the real worry is the knock-on effects of the payments, making it nearly impossible for smaller or lower league clubs to survive in the Championship. This will effectively consolidate the Premiership model in the Championship, with a top few yo-yo clubs going up and down, 10 also-rans competing for play-off spots, and the rest, scrabbling to survive both on and off the pitch. If taking advantage of more reasonable foreign markets offers a better chance to compete in such a division, then good on Roberto.

when spain is only a 2 hr flight from our local airport, these players are just as far from their home as an englishman that we would cheer just as loud. otj comes from north wales and is a lot more difficult to get to than spain. this is just a typical english thought. i want swansea to do well and would support 11 yanks if they won us prizes and played for the cause!!!!!!!