Can We Top Last Season's Eighth Place
Friday, 7th Aug 2015 07:00 by Planet Swans (follow us on Twitter @swansnews)

I'm not sure how many Swansea fans would have realistically predicted an eighth placed finish for the Swans last season but that was how it panned out so could we expect that final position to be improved this time around?

Anything higher than eighth last season and we would have been in Europe again this time around but even with that it was a phenomenal season that will live long in the memory for some fantastic performances and results.

But as we look to embark on a new season you have to start to wonder whether we could improve on that 8th placed finish especially when you consider the summer activity.

For starters we have kept hold of all the key elements of last season's squad that took us there. There have been some departures - Tremmel, Carroll and Jazz Richards as examples but none of them were essential parts of the squad and we should definitely not be weaker as a result of them.

Compare and contrast that with the new arrivals in Kristoffer Nordfeldt, Franck Tabanou, Eder and Andre Ayew all of whom have added to the competition within the squad and the starting line up.

When we are heading into a game against the Champions thinking that we could be leaving on the bench the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Nathan Dyer, Eder, Tabanou and Montero then you know that this is a squad with massive strength in depth and that would leave us to believe that maybe we could top that 8th place.

I guess the challenge comes as to how other sides blend in their new players and how they do compared to last season but that is something that we cannot control. What we have to do is push on with the players that we have and ensure that we do the best we can with them.

If we can retain a relatively injury free squad then we certainly can do better than that 8th placed finish. Is it too much to dream that we could go as far as the 6th place top flight finish that John Toshack's side achieved in 1982.

Whatever happens it promises to be interesting times ahead.