With the continued arrivals of high-calibre signings, how far have we come in the last few years?
This summer has easily been our most proactive when it comes to transfers in a long time, but as has been pointed out in the media this week it wasn't so long ago that we went five whole years without spending money on a player - and when we did it was £35,000 for Paul Connor. A little less auspicious than some of the signings over the last month, but I thought a really good way of assessing how rapidly the squad has improved would be looking at a "Best XI" for the Swans over the last few seasons.
You'll have to ignore the "season 2012/13" which appears in the top left of these graphics, it's simply part of the EPLIndex tactics board dooda and I haven't got it in me to photoshop any of them.
2007/2008
As you can see Garry Monk, Leon Britton and Angel Rangel all remain, whilst Alan Tate could easily have been included at left-back. Other honourable mentions should go to "Big" Kevin Austin, Tom Butler, Guillem Bauza and Warren Feeney, who scored a couple of goals while on loan. The League One-winning side had a good sense of balance about it, exemplified by the three midfielders; all completely different types of player but when combined they formed an efficient midfield unit.
2008/2009
It's worth noting that while these teams are supposed to represent a "Best XI" for each respective season, the amount of games played by any one player also factors into their inclusion. That being said, Dyer made the team after arriving on loan from Southampton in January (and going on to endear himself to fans by scoring the opener against Cardiff in April - a header no less).
Joe Allen and Ferrie Bodde both impressed too, but the former didn't feature as heavily as the players included while the latter suffered the first in a series of serious knee ligament injuries - a real shame given how well he'd started the season. He'd picked up 7 goals from 17 starts in the league, but sadly this would be the last season he'd play any football of note, to date anyway. It seems unlikely now that Bodde will ever be able to recover sufficiently to play professional football - all the best Ferrie, you're remembered fondly in Swansea.
2009/2010
Ah. The season of Sousa. As you can probably decipher from the team, we weren't the most free-flowing attacking unit under the Portuguese, but certain signatures were secured (Ashley Williams & Nathan Dyer) on a permanent basis, while Cedric Van Der Gun was brought in to offer a threat out wide. He never really did to be honest, and I'd managed to completely forget about the man (slightly ironically) nicknamed "The Gun". Luke Moore & Shefki Kuqi both made an impact arguably as great as Pintado's, but Gorka deserves the centre-forward spot as no-one worked harder for the cause than him that year, despite taking flak off the fans for a lack of goals.
When Leicester came knocking for the services of Sousa, it must have been all Huw could do to not break into a big grin, and mutter something similar to "Take him!".
When Leicester came knocking for the services of Sousa, it must have been all Huw could do to not break into a big grin, and mutter something similar to "Take him!".
2010/11
Under Rodgers (as Garry Monk's autobiography testifies to) the Swans shackles were released, and a number of signings were made which would rejuvinate the Swansea team. Leon had departed after falling out with Sousa (but returned after an ill-fated spell at Sheffield United), but the main plus points of this season would have to be Joe Allen, Scott Sinclair and Neil Taylor. All three announced themselves as serious players, with Sinclair in particular drawing praise from all quarters for his goalscoring exploits.
Some fans may be surprised I didn't include Fabio Borini, but despite his impressive showings after joining on loan Dobbie played well throughout the season, despite not always seeming to be in favour with the manager. He's since shown his quality with numerous play-off final appearances, and seems set to get another crack at the PL this year - good luck to him, as (famous playoff goal aside) his time in SA1 never seemed to kick into top gear.
2011/12
Following Swansea's promotion to the Prmemiership, the Swans maintained as much of their squad as they could, but wasted no time in bringing in Championship top scorer Danny Graham from Watford for a club record £3.5million pounds. It proved an astute bit of business as he went on to finish the club's top scorer, as well as one of the PL's top scoring Englishmen. Caulker joined on loan from Spurs and proved himself to be an outstanding acquisition, while Gylfi "The Gylf" Sigurdsson provided the goal threat from midfield we'd been lacking in previous years. Sadly a transfer which was reputedly already arranged was scuppered by Spurs offering the lad more money. Such is life...
2012/13
2013/14?
I thought I'd throw this in (from a blog I did the other day) just to show the strength in depth we've managed to achieve in just a short few years. Compare this squad with one from three years ago, and you have to applaud how we've managed to acquire quality players without, up to this point, breaking the bank. We are about to announce the signature of Wilfried Bony for about £12million, however this is obviously the biggest amount we've shelled out and the rest of the team has been assembled relatively inexpensively.
Hopefully all of the new signings will hit the ground running, and this time next year we'll be reflecting on this summer's transfer activity much like we are currently reflecting on last season's. Exciting times!