Swansea City: A new era begins after Russell Martin leaves for Southampton

Russell Martin celebrates victory at Cardiff City in April, his fourth win in four south Wales derbies

The best run of Russell Martin's Swansea City reign was also, it turns out, his final act as the Welsh club's head coach.

After two years, two mid-table Championship finishes and a rousing climax to the 2022-23 campaign, Martin has - eventually, thanks to a protracted dispute over compensation due to Swansea - swapped south Wales for England's south coast.

Martin has been handed the task of leading Southampton's rebuild after relegation from the Premier League.

At Swansea, meanwhile, it appears Martin will be quickly replaced by Michael Duff.

And with the start of pre-season training only a couple of days away, that is welcome news for the Swans.

Leaving on a high

Martin's exit comes after two seasons at Swansea, with his team finishing 15th in the Championship in his first year and 10th in the second.

His second campaign featured a painful run of three wins in 23 league matches which left some sections of Swansea's support calling for the ex-Scotland defender to be sacked.

Despite an increasingly strained relationship with Swansea's American owners - which was soured dramatically by a January transfer window in which the club failed to sign a player - Martin was not dismissed, and instead inspired a dramatic upturn in fortunes.

Swansea had been as high as fourth in the table last October.

The slump in form left them looking nervously towards the relegation places in March, yet a nine-game unbeaten run featuring seven wins - the best sequence of the Martin era - to end the season saw Swansea finish only three points outside the top six.

Joel Piroe scored what proved to be the final goal of Russell Martin's Swansea reign, a late winner against West Brom on the final day of the season

That meant some frustration for Martin's players, who may just have surged all the way to the play-offs had the season gone on for another couple of weeks.

Even though they missed out, there was a feeling of optimism about what 2023-24 might bring, as Swansea's impressive results came courtesy of some high-class performances featuring fewer defensive errors, which had been an issue earlier in the campaign.

With Martin gone, player-of-the-year Ryan Manning going and question marks over the futures of key men like Matt Grimes and Joel Piroe - who may well be Martin targets at Southampton - that optimism has given way to some concern about what is around the corner.

How did it come to this?

Martin signed a three-year contract when he took over at Swansea in August 2021.

When asked - on numerous occasions through last season - about his future, he said he would be happy to discuss the idea of signing a new deal.

But while there were some noises from the boardroom about tying Martin down, most recently following new chairman Andy Coleman's arrival in Wales, an extended contract never appeared close.

Would a new deal have been sorted had Southampton not come calling? Swansea's supporters will never know.

What is clear is that Martin had grown tired of some aspects of Swansea's owners' approach - while the suggestion is they were not overjoyed by his reaction to the January debacle.

Had it not been Southampton, there may well have been other clubs willing to hand Martin a job this summer, thanks largely to the progressive style of football he orchestrated at Swansea and previously MK Dons.

Where do Swansea go from here?

The long delay in agreeing to Martin's exit has given the Swansea hierarchy the chance to prepare for their next step.

For a while it seemed Chris Davies was destined for a return to Wales, where he previously worked as assistant Brendan Rodgers and helped Swansea win promotion to the Premier League.

Steven Schumacher, the Plymouth Argyle boss, was among the others who were considered by Swansea before they turned to Duff.

The Northern Irishman, 45, has various successes on his CV, having won promotion from the second tier three times during his long spell as a Burnley player.

As a manager, the former centre-back led Cheltenham Town - another of his old clubs - to the League Two title and then to the highest league finish in the Robins' history, 15th in the third tier in 2021-22.

That was enough to convince Barnsley to appoint Duff 12 months ago, and he came agonisingly close to another promotion as the Tykes were beaten by an extra-time goal in the League One play-off final.

Now Duff is poised for a first crack at managing in the Championship - at a club where the has been much change already this summer.

American businessman Coleman has been plunged in at the deep end having been named Swansea chairman in May.

Chief executive Julian Winter has departed and Luton Town's chief operating officer Paul Watson is believed to be on the way to Swansea, although his move is still to be confirmed.

And then comes the playing squad.

Manning and Joel Latibeaudiere, two regulars last season, are out of contract and seem certain to move on, meaning there are further holes to fill in a playing staff which was already short in some departments.

Joel Latibeaudiere (left) and Ryan Manning (right) are both out of contract this summer having been regulars in 2022-23

Piroe, scorer of 44 goals over the last two seasons, has only a year to run on his deal and is understood to be attracting interest from clubs on these shores and abroad.

Centre-back Nathan Wood's performances since his move from Middlesbrough will not have gone unnoticed, either.

Certainly, Swansea can expect much transfer speculation in the next couple of months, surrounding potential signings as well as possible departures, as a new era begins.

How Duff wants his team to play - and which players he wants to help him - will be interesting to see.