And so here we are, it's the start of a new season but for the first time our season starts ahead with a Europa League qualifying fixture as we welcome Malmo to Wales for our first ever Europa League campaign.
Last season's 5-0 destruction of Bradford at Wembley in the Capital One Cup Final means that we have this campaign to look forward to and tonight it will become reality in front of a strong Liberty Stadium crowd as the new look Swans take to the field.
Our summer spending is possibly over but we have several new faces to welcome to the game tonight and likely starts for Jonjo Shelvey, Jose Canas and Wilfried Bony seem certain to happen as they get their first competitive run outs for the Swans.
Malmo will of course be no mugs as they showed with the 7-0 destruction of Hibernian in Leith last week and the fact that their season has already started may give them a match fitness edge if nothing else. But the Swans have prepared well for this game and only conceded one goal in a pre season that included two away wins at Championship clubs, 5-0 at Yeovil and 3-0 at Reading but this is where the real stuff starts and the results that start to matter.
A win over two legs will see us to the 4th qualifying round and progression through there will be to the group stages which is the first aim for the Swans and then beyond with Michael Laudrup believing that the Swans can match the progression of Getafe who reached the quarter finals under the Dane's guidance.
"If you look at our squad, I think we have a team who can disturb a lot of teams in Europe – even some big clubs in big leagues." Laudrup said
"But in a competition like this you also have to be careful.
"If you have one bad night you can be out, so first we have to concentrate on Malmo."
On the team news front Chico Flores remains a doubt for the game which leaves Jordi Amat on standby for his own Swans debut but other than that it is just about a full strength squad that the manager has to pick from.
I have to say that I am going into this game with a great deal of confidence and belief that we will emerge as winners by two or three clear goals but maybe that's just new season optimism but time will tell.
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