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Wales Online
Sport
Mathew Davies

Swansea City fans deliver damning transfer window verdict and identify best signing in landslide vote

Swansea City's January transfer window was one full of frustration.

Head coach Russell Martin was left without players he would have liked to sign to bolster his currently threadbare squad.

Moves for Ryan Giles, Matt O'Riley and Ryan Longman collapsed at various points during the month, with deals not signed off at the very top of the house at the Swansea.com Stadium.

Their failure to get bodies in the door was there for all to see against Stoke City this week, with arguably Martin's best midfielder - Flynn Downes - playing as a centre-back.

As acknowledged by his manager, Downes did a good job at the bet365 Stadium but he should be being used in his specialist position.

A number of other players looked off the pace and jaded due to the rigours of the season so far, with Joel Piroe and Jamie Paterson on the bench and Hannes Wolf and Cyrus Christie looking tired as the game progressed.

It is no surprise then to learn that supporters were disappointed with the club's business in January.

Christie, Wolf, Andy Fisher, Finley Burns and Nathanael Ogbeta arrived in SA1 last month, while Dan Williams, Steven Benda, Liam Cullen, Lewis Webb, Morgan Whittaker, Ethan Laird, Rhys Williams, Jake Bidwell and Liam Walsh all left Landore.

In our transfer window survey, the average score for the window as a whole was just three out of 10.

READ MORE: The out-of-contract players Swansea City could sign right now

Fans made their feelings known as the clock struck 11pm on deadline day that the club had failed to strengthen to the extent they felt was needed.

Martin expressed his own feelings the next day.

"We're quite light on numbers. January is really difficult," he said after the 1-0 defeat to Luton Town.

"I've said to you before, I don't enjoy it. It's all a bit of a theatre. Clubs leave it so late, not one phone call about Liam Walsh and we get one at 7pm.

"You expect it to be frustrating. We came in four days before the season started. There were many people not up for the challenge. We're really up for the challenge.

"The players we've brought in have added to us, they've made the squad better, the team better. I think every manager in the country would want to do more business, they want to improve their squad as much as possible.

"What we didn't have was the luxury of time at the beginning. We had to learn with games. Did we do everything we'd have liked [in January]? No, I'm not going to sit here and lie. But have we been supported as much as the owners can possibly support us at this minute in time? I believe so. I trust them on that."

In the best signing category we saw an overwhelming winner, with Christie bagging 58 per cent of the vote from supporters.

He was followed by Wolf with 30 per cent, with the others making up the difference.

And in the final question, when asked where the Swans will finish this season, 65 per cent went for a bottom-half finish, 18.5 per cent hoped for a top-half finish while 14 per cent said relegation could be on the cards.

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