These are the latest Swansea City headlines on Sunday, October 31.
Striker issues exit statement
Ali Al-Hamadi has posted a goodbye message to Swansea City fans after confirming he has left the club.
The striker joined Swansea in 2018 and was a regular for the club's age-grade sides, doing well for the under-23s.
At 19, Al-Hamadi's career is still in its infancy but the Iraq-born player won't be pulling on a Swans shirt again.
In a message posted on Instagram, he wrote: "This past summer, I had to make the difficult decision to leave Swansea City Football Club.
"I’d like to begin by saying a huge thanks to the majority of people @swansofficial for the past few years I spent there and for developing me both on and off the pitch. I’ve made friends for life and had some of the best experiences I could ask for. It certainly wasn’t always easy for me, particularly with injuries and missing games, but it’s taught me invaluable lessons that I will carry for life.
"There’s been a lot of hurtful and simply untrue rumours about why I left Swansea which have been upsetting to hear. The decision was simply a matter of wanting to prove myself at first team level. Sometimes these things just don’t work out in football and it was ultimately a decision I had to make with my head and not my heart.
"I’d like to wish everyone at Swansea the best for the future. I’ll always be a supporter and I’m sure we’ll cross paths again one day."
Al-Hamadi was on trial at Derby County earlier in the season and is now believed to be with Wycombe Wanderers.
Manning: All about clean sheets
Utility man Ryan Manning says clean sheets are the bedrock of Swansea's progression this season.
The Swans secured another shutout against Peterborough United on Saturday - their eighth of the campaign.
Russell Martin's side may like to be seen as a passing side but Manning knows the unglamorous side of the game also has to be done.
"Clean sheets are the foundation of winning games, if you keep the ball out of your net and you score once, you’ll be flying," he said.
"The clean sheets matter now more than ever, the more we can keep, the further up the table we’ll go and continue to build.
"It’s probably been the ideal Saturday for us, but we’ve got a tough week coming up now so we need to make sure we build on this.
"Hopefully, going into the international break, we’ll have a good week of three games. It’s tough playing a game every two days but it’s all about building for Tuesday night now.
"Our home form has been really good, that allows us to build a foundation that we can build on away from home.
"Last week, tiredness probably killed us a little bit at the end of the game at Birmingham, there were sloppy goals which cost us.
"We’ve put that to bed now this week with a good performance here. If we can play like that again on Tuesday, we’ll definitely be in good contention for an away win."
Posh chairman's 's*** show' verdict
Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony has described Posh's performance against Swansea as an "absolute s*** show".
Taking to Instagram on Sunday, MacAnthony praised Swansea's display, calling them "absolutely terrific" while lamenting his own side's poor showing.
"Comments on [Saturday's] game, not a lot to say. Absolute s*** show," he said.
"I think we all feel like that. I'm gutted for all the fans that went there. Because that would be like going to the dentist without any numbing. That's how bad it was.
"Unlike our boys to be that bad. I'd like to think they were all nightclubbing the night before, but I'm not sure they were!
"Anyway, that's the Championship. You come up against some good teams. Swansea were absolutely terrific.
"Well done to Russell and his team. Amazing performance by them. I don't think we laid a scratch on them all game.
"My advice, go to the training pitch, dig a hole, get the match ball, put it in there and leave it there and forget about it.
"We move on to this week, two big games, I'll see you all Monday night at the forum and then the home games on Tuesday and Saturday."
Ferguson: Our brains went to mince
MacAnthony's comments may have placed a bit more pressure on Darren Ferguson's shoulders.
It was certainly a bad day at the office for the Posh boss, who lamented his side's start to the game.
Peterborough are 20th in the Championship table after 15 games played, with fixtures against Huddersfield Town and Fulham up next.
"It was a long afternoon," Ferguson said.
"You prepare all week to play against a very good side who are excellent on the ball so the last thing you need is to be two down so quickly.
"We switched off for the first goal, gave the ball away in a bad area for the second goal, and teams in this division don’t need too many opportunities like that, and the third goal close to half-time killed the game off.
"With where we are in the Championship and where Swansea are we will get days like this when you suffer at the hands of high-quality opposition. It was a shame for the fans who came down all this way, but it is going to happen.
"The early goals gave them the confidence to pop the ball about and we went the other way. Our brains went to mince after the second goal. We started to chase the ball rather than stick to our gameplan and they punished us.
"They had complete control of the game and we had to decide whether to stick or twist. If you chase them, they play through you and if you sit off they play around you. They are very good and very hard to play against.
"At least we didn’t go under in the second half. I asked the players to stick together and play as a team rather than as individuals and they stuck at it, although Dai [Cornell] had to make a couple of very good saves."
- For the latest Swansea City news and analysis delivered straight to your inbox, you can sign up for our newsletter here.
