It’s almost upon us, the seventy two best placed clubs below the Premier League kick off this evening and over the weekend as the 2023/24 football season gets underway. Swansea City take on Birmingham City at the Swansea.Com Stadium in front of what is expected to be a twenty thousand plus crowd.

Trepidation as well as expectation is upon us with several new faces on show for the Swans. Remember our training patterns themes from last season ? They worked out well in anticipating the Swans team for Saturday. We most certainly expect Joel Piroe to start with Jerry Yates up front and Josh Key in defence. Harrison Ashby is being described as match fit and he flew through his medical on Tuesday afternoon. If the paperwork gets properly logged today he could be a surprise starter.

The Swans had to wait for Tino Livramento to pass his Newcastle United medical yesterday afternoon before the Geordies would give the nod on Ashby formally joining the Swans on loan for the season. It’s like buying a house in a chain at times this football lark. The more impatient Swans fan has had to sit tight - and still this morning we wait for an official announcement.

But it is done.

We reported his signing here two days ago —> ⚽️ Ashby signs for Swansea

Elsewhere the inevitable change of goalkeeper may not take place as quickly as Saturday so Andy Fisher (below) could start ? That seems to be the way with keeper signings. The preferred choice not getting the nod until the one in front makes an error. We shouldn’t forget that Fisher was actually number two keeper last season until Steven Benda was injured at QPR in January.

New man Mykola Kukhrevych will start on the bench on Saturday with head coach Duff impressed at the levels he is already displaying since arriving at the club. “He is going to be another one we are going to try and get up to speed. But we think he’s got a high ceiling in terms of his development. We think that with work from the coaches, and the tools that he’s got in his armoury we think he can be a really important player for us” It’s unlikely we will see Joe Allen (below) who is still in the final stages of recuperation from his latest injury. Josh Ginnelly is also highly unlikely to feature in any starting eleven but may slip on to the bench with the increased substitutes allowance this season.

The defensive unit should include Harry Darling, Ben Cabango and Nathan Wood with Captain Matt Grimes starting as well in midfield. All in all the side has more depth but those nagging injuries really do upset the apple cart slightly in an otherwise exciting start to the new season.

Photographs with permission Swansea City AFC

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