Russell Martin has confirmed that despite having the best clean sheet record in the championship his side need to bring in another striker in January. Russell Martin and Mark Allen, the clubs sporting director, have already targeted who they want, and will assess the situation over the coming weeks.

The evolution of Swansea City is being planned well in advance of the January transfer window. With 2022 just eleven weeks away enquiries where they can be made have been instigated, and we know that four players are early targets for the swans. Some of those are going to be out of contract in the summer, and one is abroad in a similar situation. None of the free agents currently available are rated that highly by the club, and where they would have been interested to some extent the salary demands are considered unrealistic at best.

Mark Allen has a fistful of contacts from his time at Manchester City and Glasgow Rangers, and has worked long hours with Martin to enable the swans to be one step ahead of the rest when the time for business is with us. It’s very early to speculate on targets, and there is little information about as we speak. In any event these situations won’t be helped by any media source with Swansea City’s best interests at heart rushing to report names, just to be first. For us it has never worked like that.

Russell Martin revealed his search for new players on the weekend “I think we'll need a bit of help at the top end of the pitch, there's no doubt about it," he explained. These guys will definitely get better between now and then. I don't want to be disrespectful to the players we've got at the minute, they've been excellent, but they do understand as well. And we do need help where it matters. Every window brings opportunity around to try and improve the squad. By January I'll have a really clear idea of what we need. Me and Mark are working tirelessly to get ready for January, and Julian and the owners have showed their support in that. We'll keep identifying who suits us and what we are having now is a lot of agents calling up with a lot of players really interested in playing for us because of the way that we play, and they think that they'll enjoy it. We are really getting there. I feel that, so in January we'll assess where we need to improve."

Martin is clearly loving his new job at Swansea City, Having only been at the club for two months the changes already can be seen visibly on the pitch. It’s refreshing too that the new boss has no fear to address issues that face him and his squad on a daily basis. Martin manages with an open dialogue with his players, and a transparency and honesty between them all is clearly evident. It’s good news too that Julian Winter and the ownership group are all behind this latest news to come out of the club. This was one of the main agreements when the swans appointed Martin, and it’s very good to see that this very important area is being honoured.

We will of course keep visitors to this website updated as to the progress of these new inquiries, but won’t put any deals in jeopardy. Its a great time now for Martin and the vast majority of his first team squad to assess where they are after eleven games of the season. The clear intention now being to push on and deliver a winning performance in the South Wales derby a week on Sunday.

Photographs Swansea Independent

Swansea City Polls