Swansea City Supporters' Trust criticise 'short-sighted' owners

Steve Kaplan (centre) and Jason Levien (right) decided to keep Huw Jenkins (front left) as chairman when they bought a controlling stake in Swansea City

Swansea City Supporters' Trust have criticised the club's owners for lacking ambition and called for chairman Huw Jenkins to stand down.

It comes in the wake of a January transfer window in which the club lost further players and made no signings.

Jefferson Montero, Wilfried Bony and Tom Carroll all left on deadline day.

The trust own a 21.1% stake in the club and say the transfer policy is "short-sighted" and "highlights the inept way the club appears to be run".

A statement said: "The club is as far detached from its fan base now as it has ever have been in the club's history.

"Changes simply need to be made and the events of the most recent transfer window serve to highlight that beyond all doubt yet again."

Since relegation from the Premier League, 16 senior players have been sold or loaned with only six arriving.

Wales international Daniel James was set to be added to that tally with a deal in place for him to join Championship leaders Leeds.

The move collapsed in the final hours of the transfer window despite the winger having travelled to Elland Road for a medical. Jenkins is understood to have ended discussions when the structure of the deal became apparent having been already against the notion of losing the 21-year-old.

Huw Jenkins (left, pictured with Jason Levien) was appointed an OBE in 2015 for services to Welsh football

Despite those efforts, the trust have repeated their argument for Jenkins to leave his post having overseen previous "mistakes" in the transfer market that they say have led to the club's current situation.

Manager Graham Potter - who has led the side to within six points of the play-offs as well as the FA Cup fifth round in his first season - admitted on Thursday he shared fans' anger and frustration at recent transfer dealings.

The trust's statement said: "The final day of the transfer window proved once again that the club seemingly has little interest in ensuring we are competitive on the pitch and is prepared to leave Graham Potter with a significantly reduced squad.

"To say that the club's current transfer policy, such as it is, is short sighted is an understatement and highlights the inept way the club appears to be run now. It is not unreasonable to expect a professional football club to have a plan in place for a transfer window and contingency plans to replace any players who leave. It is also unclear who in the club is responsible for making decisions, allowing confusion to reign."

Swansea chief operating officer Chris Pearlman admitted in an interview last month that Swansea are still feeling the financial impact of relegation from the Premier League as well as mistakes in previous transfer windows. He added the club's majority shareholders - American businessmen Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien - were not prepared to run up debt or "roll the dice" on new signings.

The trust's statement said they "fully support the need to run the club on a financially prudent basis" but said - because of lack of detailed financial information - they were "unable to confirm whether the desire to move players on is the result of that financial prudence or simply a lack of ambition by our majority owners".

As well as renewing the calls for Jenkins to stand down, the trust called on the club's owners to explain the reasoning behind the club's decisions and questioned why cuts are not being made to non-playing executive staff.