The Swans travelled from Swansea to their overnight accommodation prior to taking on Millwall at the New Den tomorrow (3pm) - today. A fully confident squad with more wins than losses in December. Then of course the opening game of the new year on January 1st saw the Swans defeat WBA 1-0.

After Thursday afternoon and revealing formation and strategy in the first half against West Bromwich Albion there doesn’t need to be too much concern if Ronald and Josh Key are ruled out of this game. We have ready examined the availability of the rest of the squad in our first re match below.

⚽️ That’s here —> So many similarities

The Swans are in limbo slightly this and next week as they have four players on loan from Premier League clubs with indications that one maybe two could be recalled. We hope not but the Swans are preparing for that eventuality especially regards Ishé Samuels-Smith and Manuel Benson from Chelsea and Burnley respectively. It is wise to do so. The recall of Ollie Cooper from Wigan Athletic (initiated by Swansea) due to his lack of game time seems to be to get him a club elsewhere this January. However, if Malick Yalcouyé is recalled then who knows how he will fare this month ? For us Yalcouyé has been totally mismanaged throughout his time at Swansea. Alan Sheehan especially but Vitor Matos doesn’t escape criticism. We don’t expect a talent like Yalcouyé to be ignored as much as he has been but also credit to Matos for his inclusion of late.

That certainly has to continue tomorrow.

We can only hope that’s sufficient for Brighton to see the rest of his season at Swansea as beneficial. He will be crucial in any further resurgence. Tomorrow’s game at the New Den is a big test but as we determined in our first pre match report above that very little separates the two sides on goals scored and conceded, just league position. That report is quite revealing.

There’s no specific news we can talk about on a defender as yet - other than an ex Premier League player has been approached and we can confirm he was in Swansea on Thursday evening. We can’t be crystal clear all the time so apologies as our regular readers know it’s not always our way. If he is one of the targets this month, and we think he is, then it will all boil down to money and the length of any contract. These things can drag on though. It isn’t for us to divulge a name at this stage. But it’s hardly difficult to work out who he is.

As we know with players once their name is out there they do test out their options, and senior players will usually go where the best money is offered. Lewis O’Brien money which we saw eleven months ago is definitely not available for any new recruits this time around. But the Swans most certainly do not need to sell to bring in new faces. Of course if offers are incoming and for the likes of Ethan Galbraith and Zān Vipotnik they will have to be in multi millions and well above market prices. Unless that happens the budget is there for the specific players the Swans have already highlighted as possibilities as the month progresses.

Portsmouth are keen to see Florian Bianchini off their books despite him being on a season long loan, without knowing the details on that agreement a recall by the Swans unless another club is sorted seems unlikely. However, these things change by the day. It’s hard to see what Cooper and Bianchini can offer Vitor Matos in any squad permutation.

On the game as reported Ronald, Key and Idah ‘could’ be out. Idah will be, and the expectation on the other two is pretty much clear from the last time we heard from the club. We expected to have some Glory Nzingo news today but that hasn’t turned up. He had a very successful season in the ‘next pro’ league in the USA scoring and creating goals. Tickets have gone extremely well for this game from a Swansea point of view. We will have our match day morning tomorrow followed by team news and a match report.

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Photograph : Swansea Independent