Chairman's column: Blackburn

23rd October
Club

Read Swansea City chairman Huw Jenkins' programme notes for tonight's clash with Blackburn Rovers.

The second international break of the season is behind us, and now we look forward to another busy period in the Championship.

Tonight’s encounter with Blackburn Rovers is the second of three games to be played within the space of a week.

It follows on from the trip to Aston Villa, who saw Dean Smith take in his first match as manager while the club paid tribute to Mr Aston Villa himself, Sir Doug Ellis, who sadly passed away recently.

Doug will always be remembered as a true gentleman and a football man through and through. He will not only be sadly missed by everyone at Aston Villa, but everyone within football who would have been in contact with him over many years.

The list of our first-team squad and young academy players who were on international duty last week was a very encouraging sign for everyone at Swansea City.

The list included: Connor Roberts, Joe Rodon, Daniel James and Declan John (Wales); Kristoffer Nordfeldt and Martin Olsson (Sweden); Oli McBurnie (Scotland); Cameron Carter-Vickers (USA); Cian Harries, Keston Davies, Aaron Lewis; Brandon Cooper, Liam Cullen (Wales Under-21s); Joel Asoro (Sweden Under-21s); Joe Lewis, Ben Cabango (Wales Under-19s); Bradley Gibbings, William Rickard and Tivonge Rushesha (Wales Under-17s), while Kees de Boer was on stand by for Holland Under-19s.

The numbers seem to be slowly growing and the most pleasing aspect is the age of representation seems to be getting younger even at senior level, and that can only be good for our club’s future.

Not only do all of our young players gain invaluable experience representing their respective countries for their own personal development, but it keeps the name of Swansea City being talked about all over the world.

Hopefully the list will continue to grow.

Tonight’s game will be another tough Championship challenge for Graham Potter and the squad, with Reading then visiting the Liberty on Saturday.

There is plenty of ex-Swansea City interest in both games with our former striker Danny Graham expected to play for Blackburn Rovers tonight and then former boss Paul Clement, who will bring his Reading team including Modou Barrow here on Saturday.

Deadlines mean I wrote these notes prior to the Aston Villa game so with a little luck we are looking forward to tonight’s game with added belief and confidence.

Hopefully we can make the most of both home games this week as the table really starts to take shape – after these three games are played, we will be nearly a third of our way through the Championship season.

Enjoy the game.

Huw