This week’s Sportin Wales podcast saw us hold a football season review as Sportin Wales welcomed TalkSport’s Laurence Mora and freelance journalist and commentator Philip Marsh.

The pair spoke about whether Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut should be offered a new contract, who Wrexham should sign this summer, and whether Newport can keep hold of Will Evans.

However, Mora was particularly strong on his assessment of Swansea’s rollercoaster season, so Sportin Wales decided to take a more in-depth look at what went right and what went drastically wrong for the Swans this season.

It all began, almost 12 months ago, when then Swansea manager Russell Martin made a verbal agreement in May to join Southampton before it was announced in June.

This prompted a disagreement between Southampton and Swansea in terms of compensation owed. Laurence Mora explained more on the podcast:

“Some of the decisions over the last 12 months have blown my mind, they’ve made some bad decisions in the last couple of years but in the last 12 months they’ve been phenomenally bad,” said Mora.

“Andy Coleman came in as chairman and talked a good game, but the mess with Russell Martin around him leaving the club is an embarrassment.

“The fact they’re still chasing them financially, still an argument going on with Southampton. The lawyers will sort it out, but it’s not a good look, surely this could have been done and dusted long ago.

“Swansea didn’t seem willing to invest in Martin and the style of football, then went completely away from the style of football to go to Michael Duff.

“Credit to Coleman he saw it quickly. He could have belligerently stuck his heels in but he saw the writing on the wall quite quickly and hoicked Duff out.”

Michael Duff, the former Barnsley manager, was appointed as Martin’s replacement but had an atrocious start to his time in charge as Carwyn Bowen, creator of Swansea City unofficial content account Only Swans, elaborates on;

“To be honest it’s been a bit of an eye opener,” said Bowen.

“We can’t just progress from style to style whenever we want. Swansea City has to be suited to a certain style in the fact we are a very unique club and have a specific style of keeping the football and playing nice football attached to us.

“Going from a possession-based manager in Russell Martin to Michael Duff really affected us and fan moral was at its lowest since I became a fan 15 years ago.

“They didn’t do enough planning when they thought about who to bring in as manager, they just saw that Duff’s a winner, really nice CV, just lost in a play-off final, bring him in and everything will be rosy but that wasn’t the case.

“At the start of the season we went seven league games without a win which was shocking. He was one of the first managers in EFL history to not win one of his first seven games which is incredible.”

After failing to win any of his first seven league games, Duff then won four on the bounce as Swansea scored 11 goals in the process, but then a run of one win in seven eventually saw him lose his job in early December.

It wasn’t just Duff’s comments on the field which frustrated Swansea fans, it was also his comments off it, as Philip Marsh said on the Sportin Wales podcast.

“Duff seemed like a nice guy but he didn’t suit the club,” said Marsh.

“The press conference before the derby against Cardiff, he said if they go up and lose both derbys he’d be happy and he said that while they were a point above the relegation zone.

“The writing was on the wall from that point onwards and the performance in the first South Wales derby said it all.

“The other mistake Swansea made was how long it took to replace him, he went in late November and it was only start of January before they found someone else and by that point the season’s over.

“For the club that, on the whole, has run things smoothly for the last 10 years, this was an off-season and a season to forget.”

“That was bonkers,” Mora added.

“They removed Duff which was a positive statement and you felt they must have someone lined up, it was bizarre to say the least.

“So many names bandied about, from my understanding they didn’t necessarily get their number one choice but I think Luke Williams is a good fit and will be a positive influence in the summer.”

The eventual successor, former Notts County manager Luke Williams was appointed on 5th January and whilst he didn’t manage a league win in his first four, since then Swansea’s form has improved and they are unbeaten in their last four with just one game left in the season.

At the time of writing, both managers have been in charge for 19 league games this season, Duff’s record stands five wins, six draws and eight losses for a total of 21 points, whilst Williams has seven wins, four draws and four losses for 25 points.

In fairness to Duff, the blame cannot be sent squarely at his door, with some poor transfer business last summer.

“The summer is the most we’d spent in a season since we were relegated and it was the worst we’ve spent in our entire time,” said Bowen.

“£2.5 million on one striker who averages nine touches a game [Jerry Yates from Blackpool] and simply doesn’t look fit to play for this football club.

“He was completely miss-profiled and can’t play in a one striker formation so god knows why we signed him.

“Then the other striker [Mykola Kuharevich], another £2 million spent on him potentially and he’s barely seen the pitch, he sits in the same row as me for every single Swansea game because he doesn’t play.

“It was damming transfer business, especially when signed by a new sporting director.

“The January players were players that fit the profile a bit more but we still need to rectify this poor business from last season.”

Mora added to this on the podcast;

“They’re now stuck with players who were bought for Duff who don’t suit the way Williams wants to play and those are on two or three-year contracts,” said Mora.

“I see a real summer of problems…sorry Swansea fans!

“Are they going to splash the cash? Absolutely not. They’ve got to remove people from the books. Williams has had half a season to look at his players now, he knows which ones he wants, he’ll have gone through it with Coleman.

“I don’t think they’ll be fishing in the pool of the Championship, they’ll be looking at League One and League Two and teams like that which they can get a bargain from.

“This is what worries me about the Swansea summer transfer market. Liam Cullen is almost out of contract is not getting a long-term deal, not a better paid deal, just an extension and has to go and prove himself again. I do worry that financially they haven’t got the money to push them on.”

“I wonder how gutted they’d be about Morgan Whittaker as well,” Marsh added.

“A goalscorer they had on the books last year and he’s been really good for Plymouth, they’ll be looking at him and scratching his head.”

Whittaker moved from Swansea to Plymouth for £1m plus add-ons in the Summer and has since scored 19 league goals in a side fighting relegation.

So who might Swansea sign in the summer?

Notts County striker Macaulay Langstaff is the top goalscorer in League Two and is known well by Williams following their time together, but a lot depends on which players Swansea manage to keep hold of.

“Whether we see the likes of Joe Allen there next year, I remain unconvinced whether that will continue,” said talkSport’s Mora.

“It depends if the manager wants him and whether Joe fits. He’s been terrific this season in the bits I’ve seen of him but the body is the body and he’s done a lot of hard yards.”

Only Swans’ Bowen would like to see Allen stay, alongside the likes of Jamie Paterson and Przemyslaw Placheta who was signed in January but would also like to the academy be given a chance.

However, Bowen thinks it unlikely Swansea will be able to make the loan signings of player of the season Carl Rushworth and striker Jamal Lowe permanent deals.

“Since we’ve brought in Luke Williams we’ve brought in some more exciting players than we had in the summer and it looks more positive now,” said Bowen.

“The midfielder to go next to Grimes has to be one of our first priorities, we’ve been linked to Aberdeen midfielder Connor Baron, I don’t hate it, we usually do well when we sign from Scotland.

“This is another great era of our academy which is pretty good at producing players. Azeem Kerr Abdullai is a really good prospect, played through Scottish age groups and Sam Parker came through well before he got injured.

“Rushworth is just a bit too good for us, Brighton will be looking to ship him to a better team. It’s a shame our situation has been so bad because he could have been in team of the season, regarded as one of the best keepers in the league.

“Lowe has recently been convincing me that I might want him back but probably not. He’s hunting for a contract but Luke Williams said he’s on a Premier league contract and we can’t afford to bring him back.

“He is a match winner but there are younger players who could offer more and academy players who could offer more too.”