The manager knows it, the players know it and most certainly the fans know it, and that’s the swans are letting this season slip away. With no wins in eight and three of those games being losses the return to championship action for Russell Martin and Swansea City has been miserable.

Three games have come and gone since the season restart, one draw and two losses is the total to date, and with Watford and Burnley to come at home things aren’t going to get any easier. The game away at Reading on Tuesday was there for the taking, the chances created significant enough to collect all three points and that’s been the story of the return to action. All three of the games played since December 10th could have been won, but it’s not enough though to keep harping on about what might have been anymore. The general feeling now is that Russell Martin is fast approaching an end to his time at Swansea, unfortunately for those looking for a quick termination they won’t get it. The reality of the situation albeit getting darker by the game is the outcome of the January transfer window will be the decider on Martin’s fate.

That could well come with him making the decision to walk, however he isn’t a quitter, and less likely the majority owners could terminate his time at the club. Now that’s something they have never done since they took over majority control at Swansea City. The option we think they are taking at the moment is to see out January, and if needs be focus on the positives for the season run in. It really can’t be gauged in any other way, and anything other than that will come as a huge surprise.

But football does throw up one or two.

On the game tonight we may see a similar starting eleven to the one we saw on Tuesday, although Jamie Paterson is featuring a bit more in recent training patterns we as a site would prefer a more focussed Ollie Cooper than the one we saw at Reading. Paterson as well has been told he can openly find another club, and with all the mischief and issues of last January with him that’s been a long time coming. We don’t expect him to start with that being the case. Michael Obafemi is doing what Michael Obafemi does, and that’s being his own worst enemy but we do expect a return to the squad by Olivier Ntcham if he passes a fitness test later this morning.

Captain Matt Grimes knows where his teams issues are, and has stated that “We’re not shying away from it — we’re not starting games well enough at all and it’s something we need to get better at quickly. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb again. We concede two sloppy goals and we made a late charge at the end, but ultimately it’s not good enough. We’re creating chances in most games, but we just keep giving ourselves too much to do and we’ve said that for a while now. We have a lot of conversations about it, but they’re pointless if we’re not doing it on the pitch. That’s what we need to do, we need to start delivering on the pitch. The fans were fantastic as they always are but we’re not giving them enough, we’re not giving the manager and staff enough at the moment. We’re letting everyone at the club down and it’s up to us to put it right. Hopefully starting Friday, we’ll do that.”

We wouldn’t expect anything less from Grimes who regularly seems to have to trawl out similar statements most months which is a huge shame given the work Russell Martin and his team out in to the concentrated detail for each game. We reported yesterday evening on the current situation with Chiedozie Ogbene of Rotherham United not being as clear cut as is ( or was ) being indicated and that was reaffirmed when he started for Rotherham United last night against Huddersfield Town. A player signed and sealed does not start his sides final game of the year before he can move to a new club. However, it should occur, but the fact he played means there is still work to be done. His availability for Millwall v Rotherham United on New Years Day.

More later on this Sky Bet Championship fixture which kicks off at 7.45pm tonight at the swansea.com stadium. There are limited tickets left for the game.

Artwork by Swansea Independent

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