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Tom Coleman

Swansea City transfer news as youngster set for loan exit, Joe Allen poised for debut and Blackburn throw barb at Swans

Here's your round-up of all the latest Swansea City headlines for Monday, August 8.

Williams set for loan exit

Swansea City youngster Dan Williams is poised to play some part in the upcoming Carabao Cup clash with Oxford United, ahead of an expected loan exit this summer.

The Wales Under-21 international returned to south Wales this summer after sustaining an ankle injury during his loan spell with Irish side Dundalk.

READ MORE: Swansea City transfer news live updates

However, boss Russell Martin says the club are hopeful of sending the 21-year-old out on loan once again to give him more experience of first-team football.

"With Dan, he went on loan and started really well before getting injured which is really unfortunate," said Martin. "I think we are looking for Dan to go out and play football if we can.

"You know my view on it, if they're not playing football at 21 or 22 here, they need to be playing somewhere. We can't stockpile here.

"At that age, the biggest benefit you can get is playing games. It needs to be at the right club and at the right level to make it worthwhile. We can't just send our players anywhere. They do need to learn other sides of the game for sure, but it needs to be the right profile for Dan.

"We are working on that. The most important thing is we get him fit. He'll be involved on Tuesday at Oxford in some capacity. He's a great lad, he's looking fit again now and it's just about building him up, him and Ben Cabango, to a point where they're ready to play.

"We'll keep looking and assessing and we'll see if we can find the right one for him."

Allen close to second debut

Russell Martin has also confirmed that Joe Allen is closing in on his second Swansea City debut, and could play some part against Oxford on Tuesday night.

The midfielder re-joined his boyhood club earlier this summer after leaving Stoke City on a free transfer. However, he has been recovering from the hamstring injury he sustained during Wales' Nations League clash with Belgium in June, and has missed the Swans' opening two games of the current campaign.

Martin is set to give several fringe players the chance to impress against the U's at the Kassam Stadium, as he did in the games against Reading, Plymouth Argyle and Brighton in the League Cup campaign last term. However, the head coach has confirmed he will not completely rotate his squad, with some more established men set to feature.

"It [rotation] was important for us at Reading last season," said the 36-year-old. "Kyle Naughton played in the middle of a back three and stayed there for the rest of the season. There were a few players who did really well like Joel Piroe. If it wasn't for that game, it might have ended very differently.

"There'll be some players who continue to play and some that are rested because, for them to travel there and play in a game when we've got so many games coming up, it just won't be worth it. It'll be a bit of a mixture, but there'll definitely be some opportunities for people on Tuesday."

Blackburn fire bizarre barb at Martin

Blackburn Rovers have launched a bizarre dig at boss Russell Martin following their 3-0 win on Saturday.

Martin was already unhappy with what he felt were derogatory comments from the Rovers bench about his team's style of play during what was a disappointing day for his side at the Swansea.com Stadium, a suggestion that was played down by the opposite number Jon Dahl Tomasson.

However, Rovers' media team weren't nearly so diplomatic releasing a video on their official TikTok account that was clearly aimed squarely at the Swans boss.

Earlier in the week, Martin had been recorded during training speaking to his players about the game, claiming that if side were able to dominate possession, Rovers would tire as the game wore on. That speech was then layered over footage of Rovers scoring each of their three goals, with the last line of 'they're not going to be able to run any more' on repeat towards the end.

For some equally bizarre reason, 'My Way' by nu-metal band Limp Bizkit can also be heard in the background.

Young Swans fall to Owls

Swansea City's under-21s opened their Professional Development League season with a defeat at the hands of Sheffield Wednesday.

Wednesday headed into the interval in front after Luke Cook's early strike, although they were reduced to 10 men after Murtada Al-Jahadhmy was dismissed for a second yellow card.

The Swans levelled through Josh Thomas within four minutes of the restart and looked on course for a point, only for David Agbontohoma to net the winner four minutes from time.

10 in limbo

Swansea City's start to the season hasn't gone to plan so far.

A draw at Rotherham United and a miserable 3-0 home defeat against Blackburn Rovers means Swansea have some work to do to get their campaign up and running.

Four players have arrived so far in the shapes of Joe Allen, Harry Darling, Nathan Wood and Matty Sorinola but more work is needed to make head coach Russell Martin's squad more rounded.

For any more arrivals to happen, Swansea need departures to take place first. There are question marks hanging over a number in the first-team squad, with the club eager to move on a number of players to free-up space. Here we give the latest on each man's situation.

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