A Message from Matt Grimes

A MESSAGE FROM RUSSELL MARTIN

Go od afternoon and welcome back to the Swansea.com Stadium for our Championship fixture against Preston North End.

It is fantastic to have you all back with us in the stands this afternoon. We are really excited to be playing in front of you again.

It has been a long time since we last played in front of you at home, and I can tell you the importance of your return is something we have spoken about as a squad and a staff this week.

It has been a difficult period for us with postponements ensuring we did not play a league game for five weeks, and it can be so easy at times like that to feel disconnected from your team and club.

But the outstanding support we received at Huddersfield last weekend – and from the first day we arrived at Swansea – underlines how strong that connection between the coaches, the staff, the players and you really is. I hope you were all able to see how desperate the players are to succeed for you and the club, and to make you all proud. We want to be the team we know we can be, we have shown it on numerous occasions this season and we did it again in the last game.

I was certainly proud of how the players performed after a nervous start. Huddersfield are a team who have been in good form and we ended up being a bit disappointed we had not taken all three points.

We hope to use that as a springboard for the second half of the season, and we are very excited as a group about the games to come.

We have also been able to add Andy Fisher, Cyrus Christie and Hannes Wolf to our squad so far this month, and we are delighted with all three of those additions.

They all fit the profile we look for, of players who are hungry, ambitious and desperate for the opportunity to come here and be involved in what we are trying to do. I have every confidence they will be important players for us. We have also seen some of our younger players head out on loan to gain more valuable senior experience, while Jake Bidwell has joined Coventry and departs with our best wishes.

Jake is an outstanding professional, and we did not want to stand in his way if an opportunity came up that he felt suited him and his family.

I am sure there will be more business before the end of the month, but our focus is very much on taking on Preston this afternoon.

They have been doing well under Ryan Lowe, a coach I came up against last season and again at the start of this when he was at Plymouth.

He did a fantastic job there, which has seen him having this opportunity and you can already see the impact he has had.

We know it will be a tough test, but we are determined to try and make sure we mark your return to the Swansea.com Stadium with a positive performance and result.

Enjoy the game,

Russell

MATT GRIMES A MESSAGE FROM

Good afternoon and welcome to everyone joining us from around the world for this afternoon’s Championship match against Preston North End at the Swansea.com Stadium.

As a team we are delighted to welcome back the Jack Army on home soil this afternoon for the first time since December 11th.

The incredible support we received from the away end at Huddersfield last weekend and the boost it gave us just cemented how important the supporters are to us. Football is nothing without fans and even though it was only one home game without the Jack Army, it was difficult and we hope to never have to experience it again.

Saturday’s game in Huddersfield was a real game of two halves and we were disappointed to concede in the manner we did and know we could improve in those situations.

We showed what we are capable of as a team and the type of performance that we can produce in the second half. There are plenty of positives we can take and if anything we were frustrated that we didn’t take all three points after coming so close to a winner at the end of the game.

We were also buzzing for Flynn to get his first goal for the club, he’s a fantastic lad and player and he’s really important for us as a team.

The aim is to now carry on that momentum into this afternoon’s match and build on the positives. We’ve had a good week of training in Fairwood and are hoping that the performance can be a catalyst going into the second half of the season. We’ve recently seen the arrivals of Andy Fisher, Cyrus Christie and Hannes Wolf and they are all brilliant additions to the squad. Andy and Cyrus have had a bit more time to settle in and have done so superbly but Hannes has also been able to hit the ground running in training after arriving on Thursday.

This afternoon’s game will be challenging against an in-form Preston side. They’re a side that like to dominate games and they press teams really hard so we know what to expect but we’ll be ready and prepared. We’re excited to hear you in full voice and will use your support to our advantage as much as we possibly can.

Enjoy the game today!

Matt

A MESSAGE FR M CERI STONE

Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water along came another shark in the form of the Omicron strain of Covid-19 to close the beaches, or in our case the Swansea.com Stadium.

At Swansea City we have overcome many struggles over the decades and we tackled this current battle as we have all others, by singing Hymns & Arias and moving onto the next game.

It does seem that we suffered from this recent lockdown far more than other sides in the Championship, both through the stadium being closed for a month and Covid-19 impacting the squad.

However, the enforced break provided an opportunity to reflect on an eventful year and look forward to some new highs, starting with a positive result against Preston North End this afternoon.

For both the club, and your Supporters’ Trust, 2021 was a year of great change.

We went from watching games online to being allowed into stadiums just in time for a trip to Wembley. Defeat in the play-off final saw Steve Cooper depart in the summer, but as one door closed another opened and in walked a new hero in the form of Russell Martin.

It is early into Russell’s tenure but he seems to have transformed the feeling around the club. The squad has been reinvigorated and he has brought back the ‘Swansea Way’ of playing possession-based football. If we can cut out some small errors and take more of our chances surely more success will come our way.

We have added quality to the squad and already new cult heroes have emerged in the guises of Joel Piroe and Flynn Downes. We are also in the middle of a hectic transfer window and it will be exciting to see the balance of the squad come the end of January.

In your Supporters’ Trust we lost almost 30 years of experience as three senior members stepped away from the board. In turn, we welcomed five new board members who are incredibly committed and we elected a new Chair and Supporter Director who have been superb.

Healthy levels of membership and engagement have been maintained and we are delighted to have celebrated our 20th anniversary this season. Looking forward, we would love to continue being one of the most impressively run clubs in the league. A great deal of credit goes to chief executive Julian Winter and his team for their impressive efforts over the past 18 months.

It would be great to see the team continue on its exciting path and convert impressive performances into points. A couple of new signings, plus a change of luck and dispatching some of those chances should reap rich rewards.

At the Trust we are already looking ahead to the summer elections for our board. It would be great if more of our supporter base would consider putting themselves forward because your Trust is only as strong as its members and you have an important role to play in taking us through the next 20 years.

On a personal level I want us to do the double over Cardiff on the way to another day out at Wembley, which starts with a victory over the Lilywhites today. Not asking for much but we are ready to dip our toes back into the water.

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The Swans Foundation is the charitable arm of the Club and through football inspired projects we aim to help local people with their health, learning and wellbeing. To deliver the best results for the children, young people and adults we work with, the Foundation are proud to partner with a number of national and local charities including Streetgames who specialise in running sports activities with disadvantaged young people, Platform, a mental health charity and Football Vs Homophobia who recently ran a workshop for us highlighting the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people within football and how we can support them effectively. Working alongside these organisations enhances the positive impact we have in Swansea and the surrounding area.

Many of our key partners, as you would expect are drawn from the world of football. These include Premier League Charitable Fund, the EFL Trust and the FAW Trust. These three organisations enable us to carry out innovative, football-based projects in schools and in the local community. Recently the Foundation has developed a strong relationship with the Dyfed Powys Police and Crime Commissioner’s office to help provide more opportunities for young people from disadvantaged communities to take part in sport, improving their confidence and reducing anti-social behaviour.

In addition to our football-based projects, the Foundation provides donations to other smaller charities and good causes through our grant giving scheme, SwansAid. Since its inception in 2013 the scheme has awarded nearly £200,000 to various organisations and causes including, Surfability who provide suitable equipment so young people with disabilities can surf, as well as local community groups such as Baglan Boys and Girls Club, West Wales Pan Disability Football League and Mumbles Lifeguard Club.

In October the group completed a memory walk to help raise funds for Alzheimer’s Society Cymru, which is the clubs chosen charity of the 2021/22 season. This season the club asked its supporters to nominate which charity they felt should be the Clubs Charity of the season. Overwhelmingly the jack Army told us that that recipient should be Alzheimer’s Society Cymru. Through this nomination process the club discovered other charities which are close to the hearts of the local community and as such it has looked to provide support to others, even though they did not achieve the full ‘charity of the season’ status.

We are always on hand to support with donations of kit and memorabilia that can be utilised to raise funds for those in need. We have a long-standing relationship with Matthews House, who work with the most vulnerable people in the city. The charity is a key member of the food poverty network and was at the heart of the pandemic response locally.

The Club and Swans Foundation are proud to play a prominent role in supporting the ‘everyone deserves a Christmas’ campaign, spearheaded by Foundation Trustee Carolyn Harris MP. The annual campaign aims to provide festive cheer to those who require an extra helping hand. The campaign provides families in need with a Christmas hamper consisting of festive food, drink and treats. This year, over 1000 hampers were delivered to families across Swansea.

At Christmas time we announced our initiative of ‘whose coat is that jacket?’, whereby Swansea City, the Ospreys, and Ministry of Furniture worked together for those in need this Christmas through the scheme, which aims to provide the homeless and those in need with warm layers of clothing to help them fight the chill at this time of year. The Jack Army once again showed the power of community through supporting the donation scheme and in the end over 500 coats and jackets were distributed to locations including the City Church in Dyfatty, Matthew's House and Zac's Place.

We also work very closely with several charities to support their campaigns to raise awareness at certain points during the year. For example, in November we worked with Stonewall to deliver workshops in local schools around LGTBQ+ awareness as part of their Rainbow Laces campaign. We also worked alongside Show Racism the Red Card delivering anti-racism activities centred around Black History Month, with the support of Swans legend Nathan Dyer. These events are crucial in helping to raise awareness of important issues. By working alongside well-known charities, coupled with the power of the Swansea City brand, these messages can really hit home and make a big difference in the lives of the children and young people we work with.