Your Swansea City headlines for Thursday, September 29.
New coach talk shut down
Adam Asghar will not be joining Swansea's first team coaching staff.
The Sun recently claimed that the Swans were keen on adding the Scot to their backroom team following the exit of assistant Luke Williams earlier this year.
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However, Russell Martin has stated that Asghar - who has coached age grade groups with Motherwell and Scotland - will not be moving to south Wales following a visit to the club.
"We have a lot of coaches who come in for study visits," said the head coach. "It's a person that I know and Andy [Goldie] knows from the academy. Andy worked with him before.
"He's currently out of work and he was curios with what we do, which a lot of people are. We have a lot of people here. Sometimes you hear about it and sometimes you don't.
"So someone has put two and two together and got 105, so he's not coming in to work with the first team. He's a good guy, he enjoyed his couple of days here and we enjoyed having him in, that was it."
Potential future captain revealed
Russell Martin believes Ben Cabango is a future captain for Swansea.
The defender endured a tough start to life under the current coaching staff but has excelled in 2022, recently earning a recall into the Wales squad after missing the summer schedule due to an ankle injury.
It comes as Martin was asked at a fans' forum about the possibility of Joe Allen becoming Swans captain at some stage in the future, although Martin threw his full backing behind current skipper Matt Grimes and described Cabango and Joel Latibeaudiere as players who possess the necessary leadership qualities to wear the armband in the future.
"Being a captain is so much more than wearing the armband on a Saturday," said Martin. "We have a brilliant leader and captain.
"The role of a captain for us is who you can rely on, how they behave consistently from Monday to Friday, who gives us everything they've got, who's reliable, who's consistent, who helps his team-mates and adds value to the team around him, and we have a brilliant one in Matt Grimes.
"The players understand what he brings. We're really luck to have him and I think sometimes he's a bit underappreciated. If he carries on playing the way he has done, he wears the armband.
"If he's not in the team we have loads of players who are developing into leaders, Ben Cabango being one of them. He's definitely a future potential captain. He's growing so much. Kyle Naughton is very quiet but he leads in his own way.
"It's up to us to try and develop as many captains on the pitch as possible. Joel Latibeaudiere is another one."
Grimes has played every minute of Swansea's 56 Championship matches under Martin since the head coach joined the club from MK Dons in the summer of 2021.
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Contract updates emerge
Julian Winter is hopeful that Ryan Manning and Joel Latibeaudiere will sign new contracts with Swansea.
The pair both see their current deals expire following the conclusion of the current campaign but continue to be key members of Russell Martin's first team squad.
Chief executive Winter has confirmed the club are already in talks with Latibeaudiere and his representatives while they have also recently entered discussions over the possibility of extending Republic of Ireland international Manning's stay in south Wales.
"We talk about those players all the time," said Winter. "We would really like to think we would extend both of them. But it's not as simple as just saying we'd like to do it because there's quite a lot to work.
"We've certainly been in dialogue with Joel Latibeaudiere and his agent. I don't think we're a million miles away, we're quite positive on that.
"Ryan Manning likewise. It's become a more recent discussion. I think you probably saw from Ryan's goal celebration [against Hull] that something has happened in his life, so he might have a different view of the world. Here's hoping that he has and that he would like to extend his stay here. They're both things we're very conscious of."
The subject of Russell Martin's own contract was also raised at the club's fans' forum this week, and while the head coach said he would be more than happy to sign fresh terms with the Swans, Martin admitted he was happy with his current situation.
"Would I? Yes," said Martin when discussing the possibility of signing a new deal. "But I haven't been offered one.
"I'm comfortable with the length of contract I have. We love it here, we're really happy, we love the job that we're doing, so it's all good and we're really comfortable with where it's all at."
Martin's current contract at Swansea runs through until the summer of 2024.
West Brom injury boost
Joe Allen has trained with his Swansea team-mates ahead of the Championship clash with West Brom on Saturday.
The midfielder pulled up with a hamstring injury in the opening half of the Swans' 3-0 win against Hull City prior to the international break and was replaced by Wolves loanee Luke Cundle.
Speaking after the match, head coach Martin confirmed the 32-year-old's injury was not serious, and, after Allen withdrew from the Wales squad for their Nations League fixtures with Belgium and Poland, Rob Page played down concerns over the midfielder's situation.
Swansea return to action against West Brom this weekend, and ahead of the contest at The Hawthorns Stadium, Allen has been in full training at the club's Fairwood training ground.
The visitors will be backed by more than 1,500 supporters in the Midlands. Kick-off against the Baggies is at 3pm on Saturday.
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