Russell Martin looks for progress: Swansea City 2022-23 Championship season preview

After a year of transition comes a season of progress. That is the plan, at least, for a Swansea City side hoping to make strides in the Championship in 2022-23.

Flynn Downes gave a hint of the mood within Swansea's dressing room when he declared back in April that winning the second-tier title was his aim for the upcoming campaign.

Downes will not achieve that goal, of course, for he now plays for West Ham United.

But for Swansea, hope of a significant improvement on last season's 15th-placed finish remains, even if any talk of a title push looks rather optimistic.

The loss of Downes, one of the best midfielders in the division last season, was a hefty blow for Swansea this summer.

Yet his exit was offset by the return of a favourite son in Joe Allen, while head coach Russell Martin hopes the addition of Harry Darling - plus Middlesbrough youngster Nathan Wood - will stiffen up a defence which was too brittle at times last season.

There is still work to be done in the transfer market, with Swansea's squad looking thin - or even bare - in certain positions.

But the fact that Joel Piroe and Michael Obafemi remain on the books means Swansea will begin the new campaign with goalscorers in their team.

That firepower provides grounds for optimism, although Martin's side must find more consistency across the pitch if they are to make an impression at the top end of the division.

How did last season go?

It was a mixed bag. Swansea reached the play-offs in 2020-21 - just as they had done the previous season - but the feeling this time last year was that another push for the top six would be a tall order. So it proved.

After Steve Cooper left his post as head coach during pre-season, Martin was not appointed until the week in which the new campaign began.

He inherited a squad which had lost influential performers such as Connor Roberts, Marc Guehi, Conor Hourihane and Andre Ayew - although the likes of Piroe, Obafemi, Downes and Jamie Paterson proved to be fine additions.

Martin was charged with reviving the kind of possession game which has brought Swansea so much success since Roberto Martinez was named manager 15 years ago.

Martin's team played some spectacular football at times but, for all their possession, they conceded too many goals to make a sustained push for the play-offs.

They did though make history in the south Wales derby, beating Cardiff City twice - and in emphatic fashion - to record the first league double in the history of the fixture.

That feat will not be forgotten in a hurry.

What are their prospects this season?

After a difficult start, Swansea improved as last season wore on.

Though they have lost Downes - and on-loan wingback Cyrus Christie, who is still to be replaced - they will hope to maintain the momentum built as 2021-22 wore on.

Martin said his team were hindered last term by the lack of a pre-season together, so expectations will be greater as this campaign begins.

Nevertheless, Swansea have one of the tighter budgets in the second tier, so it would be quite some achievement should they feature in the promotion race come next spring.

If Swansea do find themselves in contention, it will be thanks in no small part to Martin's style of play.

It could be spectacular if it works, but Swansea need to rid themselves of the vulnerable streak which was too often evident last season.

Head coach Russell Martin's view:

"All I know is we are better prepared for this season than we were last season. We have a lot more solutions to a lot more problems. We have a lot more players suited to what we want to do and how we want to play.

"And over the course of the second half of last season I thought we showed, on the whole, pretty good form. We just paid for a slow start, which we knew was always going to be the case.

"I hope we can pick up from where we left off and keep growing and improving and see where that takes us.

"There will be no targets from us (the management). We just want to see the team we want to see every week, the vision of the team, the way the team wants to play, wants to try and dominate every single game we can with the ball and control the game as much as we can, because football is seriously random. We will see where it takes us."

Transfers in

Joe Allen (Stoke, free); Harry Darling (MK Dons, £1.4m); Matthew Sorinola (Union SG, loan); Wasiri Williams (Braintree, free); Nathan Wood (Middlesbrough, undisclosed)

Transfers out

Yan Dhanda (Ross County, free); Flynn Downes (West Ham, £12m); Ben Hamer (Watford, free); Korey Smith (Derby, free); Morgan Whittaker (Plymouth, loan)