The Butty man is back, no sandwiches because he left them on the beach at Porthcawl, his rinsed sun drenched skin surely a sign he must look west to the states. But can he trust those who promised him solace, money and support ? He is unsure so he steps backwards in to a smugglers cave, there are no shipmates there, the space is bare, after a whole month waiting, he has nothing left but hope.

How reasonable was it for Swans fans to expect more from the last transfer window? Entirely reasonable. The Swans were 12th in the table, just four points off the playoff places. Adding support for Joel Piroe, adding a right back/wingback and injecting more pace in the team would have made a huge difference to being able to push for a playoff place.

All this was being planned; confirmed and conveyed by Russell Martin before and during the transfer window. He wanted to add to the squad with first team players who would provide the quality needed for a push. We were told the Swans had a list of players, which didn’t depend on player outgoings. With this build-up it wasn’t surprising that fans had great expectations for the window and felt hugely let down come Wednesday morning.

There appears to be two schools of thought on this debacle. The first one is cock up theory with some unbelievable guff about players wanting to drive their kids to school and have their mum make them bacon butties rather than move to Swansea. To his credit Russell Martin debunked this in his press gathering on Friday. He defended the actions of his team, of Julian Winter (CEO) and Josh Marsh (Head of Football Operations).

If it’s a cock up then we have to ask who makes these decisions and how quickly can they be made when needed? Do distant owners feel it necessary to micromanage every club detail from 2,000 miles away. It is usual in business, especially when working across two continents, that there is emphasis on good communications and having clear delegated authority to the CEO (Julian Winter) to be authorised, within defined parameters, to act on the club’s behalf during the transfer window.

The second school of thought was that the American owners weren’t bothered about making any signings.

Why? They oversaw, and maybe influenced, the return of club asset Morgan Whittaker from Plymouth. Whittaker was viewed as able to either add to our squad or as a potential sale. If he stayed then did the club need to spend more on firepower up front? In addition, Rotherham clearly wanted too much for Chiedozie Ogbene — reportedly £1M for a player out of contract this summer. This would be an understandable barrier in this window. Hopefully we can sign him on a precontract for next season.

With Joel Latibeaudiere and Ryan Manning not signing contracts offered we know that Martin feels confident to select them for the remainder of the season knowing they will give their all. In which case the American’s position maybe to say let’s sit tight and see where we are at the end of the season. Not necessarily an unreasonable view but completely at odds with the transfer window build up and raising questions that need answering. The lack of activity during this window is likely to kill of any lingering hopes of promotion via the playoffs.

Even if Whittaker strikes a massively effective goal scoring partnership with Piroe, our leaky defence remains a big weakness - our 42 goals against is beaten by only four other teams in the league — with few signs of improvement. So, what is our ambition ?

The result against Birmingham topped a truly awful week. The first half saw the Swans play some wonderful football and deserving to be further ahead at half time. Birmingham came out in the second half and had tweaked their gameplan. We looked leaden footed and were outplayed. Defensive weaknesses came up yet again and now look likely to be a feature for the remainder of the season. Martin’s post-match presser showed a demoralised character who clearly didn’t want to be there.

What will this week hold ?

Could Martin and his team walk or be sacked for questioning the transfer window fiasco? Could Winter and/or Marsh walk or be sacked ? None of these are impossible scenarios. It would be disastrous for the club if they were to occur and I hope that they don’t happen. However, considerable bad feeling has been caused and many people feel let down.

This week relationships between key parties need to be worked on to re-establish trust. Players with imminent end of contracts need these to be worked on. We need to get the club back on an even keel. And we’ll want to see the Swans at Bramall Lane next Saturday with a belly full of fire and ready to go again.

Artwork by Swansea Independent

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