Swansea City must improve succession planning, says Neil Taylor

Neil Taylor joined Swansea City from Wrexham in 2010 and moved to Aston Villa in January, 2017

Neil Taylor says Swansea City must improve their succession planning.

Ryan Manning, Joel Latibeaudiere and Kyle Naughton have left after their contracts expired with head coach Russell Martin tipped to take over at Southampton.

Key performers Joel Piroe, Nathan Wood and Olivier Ntcham are entering the final 12 months of their deals.

"Succession planning is really important," said former Swansea and Wales defender Taylor, 34.

"Whether Swansea have or not, I don't know. If you have a look at the recruitment at the football club, it suggests that they haven't planned very well given the amount of players leaving.

"Letting your best players go for free, I don't think that's a good model.

"They've gone down the route of wanting to sell players for more money and having a manager that develops them, which is perfectly fine.

"You never know what a football club is like behind the scenes, but the longer you're in the Championship the more difficult it gets."

Despite the huge changes at the club - which include the appointment of Andy Coleman as chairman and the exit of chief executive Julian Winter - Taylor says the club must stick to their footballing principles following Martin's impending departure.

"They've got a good manager in Russell Martin, who, if he leaves will be a big loss," he added.

"It's important with the next one that he follows the same model and the same style of play.

"If you lose your identity you can slide quite quickly, so you've got to keep that as best as you can.

"Hopefully he gets a bit more support in terms of the quality of players you need to do that last bit which is at the top end of the pitch.

"Dominating the football and playing a certain style has to be the way for the Swans, only because when they've come away from it, it just hasn't worked."

Swansea's Liam Cullen, Ben Cabango and Ollie Cooper all attended a Wales training camp last week as Robert Page's side prepare for their Euro 2024 qualifiers against Armenia and Turkey next month.

Taylor praised his former club for the way they continue to supply talent for the national side.

"There's lots of them that are doing exceptionally well," he added.

"I watched them train this week and Ben Cabango was one of the best trainers that I've seen in the group.

"I looked at him and you could tell he was somebody who can operate at a high level, but also has the perfect attitude.

"To see that with my own eyes this week shows how well Swansea have done.

"There will always be a funnel of Swansea players going into Welsh football."