This is my first piece for Swansea Independent and I’ve thought about it a lot over the past few days. To really give my thoughts some context I waited until yesterdays game was over against Middlesbrough. It does sort of prove my point to an extent.

If there’s one thing I’m certain about when it comes to Swansea City it is that Joel Latibeaudiere, Matty Sorinola and Andrew Fisher are not up to the mark. Some will say I’m wrong to single them out, but really ? They consistently play well under par and contribute not a lot to the overall team game Russell Martin wants to play.

Sorinola is weak, he has little or no pace and is playing a role he doesn’t look at all comfortable in. His job is to play as a wing back out on the right, and to take on players supplying crosses for goal scoring opportunities. Not something he has done that well during his time at Swansea. His defending as we saw yesterday isn’t that much better. Luckily for Russell Martin he is on loan and can be returned, and he is lucky in one other aspect as well.

That is Joel Latibeaudiere. He is out of contract at the end of this season and surely that’s as fortunate a situation as is possible for Swansea City. I’m always at a loss for words when Martin praises Latibeaudiere as he often does. He is another player not unlike Sorinola who really doesn’t contribute that much to the time he is on the pitch. He is also played out of position and he is often seen squandering passes as he did yesterday, and when he isn’t he seems rash and uncalculated in his decision making. Yesterday he gave away a penalty, and it was a shocking tackle. He lost the Swans the game at that point. He should not be offered a new contract, and if there is a Swansea City fan out there who thinks differently I would like to meet them. Because I don’t know one supporter who disagrees with me.

On Andy Fisher there is a problem. I am told we paid four hundred thousand pounds for this goalkeeper. Last week at Luton he cost the Swans any chance of at least a point by mishandling a cross for Luton to score. Yesterday, and I’ve seen this written on the websites football forum he stayed put on his line for the second Middlesbrough goal. I always thought a brave goalkeeper would have challenged the Boro player and screamed for the ball as has already been stated. That for me cost the Swans that goal despite whatever Olivier Ntcham was trying to achieve.

Andy Fisher came to Swansea with a reputation that he is a quality keeper. The money the club paid out for him and his salary which I read is about ten thousand pounds a week is preposterous. It really doesn’t surprise me the American majority owners won’t spend much more money with the amount of players Russell Martin has had who have not found their mark. The loans the Swans have had in have generally been poor, Fin Stevens and Rhys Williams ( pictured below ) spring to mind. The the question I’m asking is are these players the Swans are signing on loan just scraping the loan market barrel ? The club have little intention of paying much money out, or are they being mismanaged ?

Armstrong Oko-Flex looked marginally promising from what I saw of him but wasn’t used that much and it didn’t surprise anyone when he returned to West Ham in January. He wasn’t getting much game time and definitely wasn’t given a run in the team to prove himself. I saw absolutely no point in signing him or Stevens this season. Totally pointless. A bit like most of Swansea’s games. It is frustrating, I was at the game and I do travel away, but it’s getting beyond a joke for all of us to have to spend almost all our spare money as students to watch the Swans when we are being short changed.

Russell Martin, if he does survive what is the worst spell of results in the time I’ve been watching the Swans has more of a rebuilding job to do now than he did when he came to the club. That’s how I see it. It seems he has more than lost his way and most fans think he should have been sacked a good while ago. But of course that costs money. Wherever this season takes us, and I for one do believe Swansea need two more wins for absolute safety in this league it can’t happen like this again. It’s been an awful season all round. I’ve seen more mistakes from this Swans side than I’ve seen in the eight years I’ve been watching my local team.

I can’t think of a nice way of putting this but surely now it’s time for Russell Martin and Matt Gill to leave ? It really does pain me to say that, but I’m uncertain if I can take much more of the type of play I’ve seen this season. It’s so painful to watch and the promised progression of eighteen months ago seems as far away now as ever.

If you want to write for Swansea Independent, drop us a line at Swansea.Independent1@gmail.com

Photographs licensed from Reuters

Walrus added 07:50 - Mar 14 Congratulations Liam on taking the plunge on writing an opinion piece. However, opinions are like......yes you know the rest and whilst you have made some valid points as a paying fan I suggest you practice writing without slaughtering individuals as you have.
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