Swansea City's budget 'in Championship bottom third' - Julian Winter

Julian Winter (left) was involved in the appointment of Russell Martin (right) as Swansea's head coach in August 2021

Chief executive Julian Winter says Swansea City's budget puts them in the bottom third of the Championship when compared to rival clubs.

Winter says Swansea owners Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien are not looking to sell the club.

But speaking at a fans' forum on Wednesday night, Winter said the American businessmen are interested in attracting "new investment partners".

"These guys are long-term sports investors," Winter said.

"There's never any discussion around sale - that is never part of any discussion we have.

"They are very open about wanting to work with new investment partners, so if a partner came in as a minority partner they would be open to that - as Jake [Silverstein] did when he came in two years ago with the loan note which will get converted into equity at some point."

Winter arrived at Swansea two years ago, having been appointed chief executive by Kaplan and Levien following the departure of chairman Trevor Birch.

Kaplan and Levien have faced criticism from fans since buying control of Swansea in 2016, when the Welsh club were in the Premier League.

"They are not bought into the cycle of what the Championship has become," Winter added.

"The Championship has become this monstrous thing where clubs spend ridiculous amounts of money in the hope of getting promoted.

"Can I tell you they are going to throw X millions in in the future? Well there will have to be some funding, but I am not sure what level that will rest at. We will always be a trading club, I don't think we've ever been shy about that.

"Ownership are supportive of [head coach] Russell [Martin] for certain, in terms of playing identity, developing players, recruiting players. Overall we want to be successful on the field - that's the essence of it.

"Can we compete in this league? I think we can. I think Russell's doing well with the team we have. We have been unfortunate with some of the results. We could be five or six points better off if we are being sensible about it. If we have that we are looking in really good shape.

"I think we are in reasonable shape. We can't always point towards ownership all the time to solve every problem that we might perceive is around the corner. That's down to us."

Swansea finished 15th in the Championship last season, their first campaign under the guidance of former MK Dons boss Martin.

They made a slow start to this season, but have climbed to 16th after taking seven points from their last four games.

Swansea sold Flynn Downes to West Ham for around £12m in the summer, while bringing in Harry Darling (£1.4m), Nathan Wood (£400,000) and Joe Allen (free transfer) as well as four loan signings.

Russell Martin's Swansea side have won two of their last three games

"I would say our wage budget is probably in the range of bottom third in the Championship. Being honest, that's about where we are," Winter added.

"Some of the ones at the top of the division are the ones that have been relegated and are in first year parachute [payments] or second year parachute [payments].

"We are second year out of parachute so this is the second season that we don't have any Premier League parachute money. That means we have had to cut our cloth over time.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out - you go from £40m-odd parachute to £30m-odd parachute down to £15m parachute and then down to EFL distributions, which are very different.

"We will be bottom third. In real terms I think we are in good shape - we do have some debt but it's not significant.

"We will have to trade and we will have to have shareholder contribution for us to compete in this division."

Winter, meanwhile, said Swansea are hoping to agree new contracts with defenders Joel Latibeaudiere and Ryan Manning, both of whom see their current deals expire at the end of the season.