Swansea City will be travelling north from west Wales today in preparation for tomorrow afternoon’s away fixture against Stoke City. It’s a must win for both sides who are quite frankly dreadful over their past ten games, so much so they are both right in the relegation mix.

The problems at Swansea City stretch far and wide from the results on the pitch. New football man, Richard Montague is coming in, an old mate of Swans head Coach, Luke Williams. And as we have stated it’s pretty clear that there was no intention to sack Williams, as he was a key component in Montague coming to the club. Even Williams admitted that yesterday. So, what does that actually mean ? Simply, there won’t be any changes in personnel until the summer. And that’s a long way away. Unless of course a free agent is unearthed who has gone unnoticed. Which is highly doubtful. Based on that we won’t see anything positive from Montague’s work until July and August this year. However, as it stands there is little to say what league he will be recruiting for.

Yesterdays report ⚽️ Montague latest

The Chairman of the club, Andrew Coleman has they best intentions for the Swans but he has proven regularly over time he hasn’t the football acumen or experience to get things done. Especially when he is trying to control everything at every level. We now know for sure that Montague was in Swansea on numerous occasions during January, and we now definitely know that Melker Widell from AaB was straight from Richard Montague as his club Notts County were well off being able to pay the fee and salary. But as we reported yesterday it is certain that Melker came from Montague with the consent of the Reedtz brothers who own Notts County and Football Radar, a very successful tool in researching players at all levels.

There was little reasoning to prevent this and Montague immediately earned the trust of Coleman who he has known for some sixteen months. Of course there will always be dissenters who have no other proof than a few people on social media who spend their days trying to bully others. We now know any interaction with these people is senseless. ‘People’ who have grown up and gotten away with some serious criminal acts on social media.

What we have learned since yesterday’s report is that the brothers who control Notts County see the Swans as a friendly club to do business with. They are skilled businessmen. We expect Swansea players to go on loan in the future as an example. In time though with the fall from grace we are seeing at the Swans which one will be the nursery club in the future ? Montague again will be the go between. It wouldn’t surprise us at all if Montague unearths certain players not suitable for the Swans who could well end up at Notts County. Montague’s links won’t just stop there as he is also a main feature of Football Radar. It’s highly unlikely he will resign that position as the company are of benefit to the Swans, and most certainly a part of Coleman wanting Montague from the off.

Unless our sourced information is way off plus our research is the same, this relationship will continue.

⚽️ Stoke City
Recent form displays both clubs meeting tomorrow are right in the damp end of the Championship relegation battle. Even when the last ten games for both clubs is examined. Nothing is going right for either club.

That’s over ten games and includes the Swans wins at the end of December which just proves that since 2025 has been with us there’s been one away win and a home draw over the current year. Stoke have performed better, with four draws and one win since the turn of the year. They also beat Sunderland just before the end of December. It may well be an indicator as to how crazy the Championship is at times but it also displays how bad Swansea City are going into this game. Williams has made comment on the game, "We have to get over Sheffield Wednesday and try to make a good performance at Stoke. All the games are so tough. Plymouth have just won 5-1 – a team not in a great league position can beat Liverpool and then score five goals. That's what EFL football is, so competitive. We have to make sure we concentrate for ninety minutes and not give away a really good chance. Then we have to be more aggressive and more clinical in the opposition box."

Mark Robins who is the current Stoke manager has also stated similar things to Luke Williams. "We've got to pick up points, so the pressure grows every time you don't and games start to diminish, the pressure comes on and games start to become must-win. The players need to understand it's better now to start picking up points rather than having to do it with the last three, four or five games to go”

To be honest from a pretty poor first half display at Bristol City where the Swans could have conceded at least two goals this cannot be repeated. Every team seems to be scrapping for points but the Swans don’t seem to have the energy to do so. Plymouth Argyle straight from their 1-0 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup thumped five goals past a desperate Millwall in midweek. That desire and commitment is currently not a Swansea trait and hasn’t been for some months.

⚽️ Officials : Dean Whitestone will be assisted by Daniel Leach and George Byrne, while Alex Chilowicz is the fourth official. Whitestone last officiated the Sheffield United home defeat, and yes he is the referee who sent off Harry Darling.

Glory Nzingo is another player who has left for more game time in the recently formed MLS next pro league. The league makes use of unique rules such as all regular season draws being decided by penalty shootouts and the addition of concussion substitutions. On July 6, 2022, new rules for the league were introduced in the middle of the season. This included an off-field treatment rule meant to curb gamesmanship and time wasting and a new rule for red card suspension. Eddie Pope an ‘All American Hall Of Famer’ is the chief operating guy at the club. To try and gauge the credentials of the club and league is difficult and shouldn’t be confused with a league of similar description and of a higher quality also in the MLS.

More on the game in the morning. Thank you for following the Indy. If you are not yet a subscriber it’s easy to do. Go to login / register and submit your email. You will be supporting the Brain Tumour Charity.

A reminder we have a Leon Britton framed and signed match shirt from the season the Swans were promoted to the premier league. Kindly donated by long term supporter of the site, Leigh Dineen.

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Photograph Swansea City AFC and licensed from Reuters

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