Today's media round-up

Michael Laudrup believes the Swans must improve just to consolidate their position in the Barclays Premier League.

After the best season in the club's 101-year history, the Dane is now looking ahead to the start of a new campaign.

But despite finishing ninth, and capturing the Capital One Cup, Laudrup believes next season will be just as tough.

The likes of Newcastle, Sunderland and Aston Villa will all be looking to spend after disappointing campaigns last time out, while the teams coming up from the Championship will be looking to improve their squads also.

"It's impossible to always move forward, but sometimes even maintaining the status quo is enough," said Laudrup.

"At this club we cannot pretend to think that we are going to win another major trophy next year or even the year after that because that will be very difficult.

"However, if we're talking about the Premier League, I think we will have to improve just to stay where we are now.

"It's a little early to set exact targets because we still have to get new players in, but with our idea of the players we want, I think our target should be to try to at least stay mid-table and consolidate ourselves as a Premier League side.

"It will be very, very tough to stay in mid-table because some of the other clubs below us want to invest to improve."

Laudrup has made it clear that his prime transfer targets this summer will be in attacking positions.

Despite Michu scoring 22 goals in all competitions, the next top scorer in the squad was Jonathan de Guzman with eight strikes to his name.

The Swans have been linked with a move for Chelsea forward Romelu Lukaku and Celta Vigo striker Iago Aspas.

Michael Laudrup has described the club and country battle next season between Ben Davies and a fit again Neil Taylor as "a beautiful problem for a manager to have." 

The pair will be fighting it out for the left back berth in the Swans first team when the 2013-14 campaign gets underway.

Davies has enjoyed a remarkable debut season in senior football, making 44 appearances for Laudrup's side, while also making his international bow.

Neil Taylor, meanwhile, was ruled out for much of the season after suffering a broken ankle back in September, but the former Wrexham man returned to feature in the final three games of the season.

And Laudrup admits that he will have to call upon the services of both Taylor and Davies as the Swans battle on four fronts next year. 

"It's a beautiful problem to have. A positive, rather than a negative," said the Dane. "I hope we end up playing more than 50 matches next season, because of our Europa League commitments to go with the Premier League and the domestic cup competitions.

"So the truth is I need the pair of them because you can't expect just one to feature non-stop in each of those matches.

"It's a fantastic problem for me to have as manager, two very talented left-footed left-backs vying for a place in the team. Neil was so very unlucky with his injury, but let's not forget what a very good player he also is.

"Up until his injury, he had made tremendous strides as a player and was in the GB Olympic side. But the way Ben stepped in when Neil got injured has been incredible.

"You forget how young he is. It's very, very rare in football to see someone of that age play so consistently well after just breaking into the team."