Swansea is a Championship team no more: in fact, they’re sitting in the top half of the Premier League; they’re unbeaten at home since November, that being their only loss at the Liberty Stadium all season; they’ve conceded fewer goals at home than all but Manchester City in the Premier League and all with much of the team that secured them promotion via the play-offs from the n-Power Championship.
Now, thanks to their brand of passing football, rightly continuing to earn comparisons with the tiki-taka masters of FC Barcelona, they’re on the brink of providing England internationals at senior level for the first time in their history – and all during the club’s centenary year.
Their pretty play, built on possession throughout each third, was their philosophy in the Championship and now their approach is paying dividends in the top flight, too. So much so that as many of four of their players will feel they have a right to be considered for England’s next international: the rearranged friendly with the Netherlands, now taking place on February 29th.
With all four of the players having spent the majority of their playing time in the Football League –one had only ever featured in the Championship and another has now played for Swansea in League 2, League 1, the Championship and the Premier League – Brendan Rodgers has shown how heavy investment is not needed to compete in the Premier League and his resolute in sticking to morals and values is about to see 4 players plying their trade in the second tier of English football this time last season, potentially receive England call-ups.
- Scott Sinclair
This 22-year old is happy on both wings and having signed from Chelsea on a three-year contract for £500k in 2010, Swansea City have seen their purchase amount to a bargain: with a hat-trick in the n-Power Championship Play-off Final in a 4-2 win over Reading, Sinclair had already paid back all the money he’ll ever earn at the Liberty Stadium; however, he’s continued to perform in the Premier League and is currently Swansea’s second highest goal scorer with 6 league goals. That’s 5 more than Louis Saha, 4 more than Fernando Torres, 3 more than Theo Walcott, 2 more than Aaron Lennon and 1 more than Luis Suarez.
- Leon Britton
At the heart of Swansea’s midfield, with the equally tireless Joe Allen, is Leon Britton – a man that has played for Swansea in every tier of the Football League. A goal in the top flight would see Britton as the first player to score in every division of the Football League for Swansea. The metronome of Swansea’s side, has ensured that their “possession with penetration” football has continued against the likes of Arsenal: whilst in the Championship, Swansea made 214 more passes per game than the league’s average of 312 at 526, which was 98 passes higher than Arsenal’s average and led to an average possession rate of 61% and a pass accuracy 7% higher than that in the Premier League at 83%. Britton is quintessential of this: so far this season, his pass success rate is 93.5%, which makes him 0.5% more accurate than Barcelona’s passing maestro, Xavi Hernandez. At current, there is no better passer in the world.
- Nathan Dyer
Before this season, the pocket-sized winger, who is the shortest player in the Premier League at 5ft 5’, in a team containing 4 players under 5ft 8’, had never played outside the Championship. The 24-year old is a product of the famed and highly successful, especially in recent years, Southampton Academy. In 2005, he was part of the Southampton youth side to make the final of the F.A. Youth Cup, in a team containing; Theo Walcott, Leon Best and Gareth Bale of the Premier League and Martin Cranie, David McGoldrick and Adam Lallana, of the Championship. Expect the lattermost to join the first trio in the Premier League sooner rather than later.
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