These are your Swansea City headlines on Monday, February 20.
Manning replacements identified
Swansea head coach Russell Martin says the club have already eyed potential replacements for outgoing star Ryan Manning.
Martin confirmed on Monday that Manning won't be signing a new deal with the club, with his contract expiring this summer.
The situation has left the manager exasperated and he's urged the club to learn from its mistakes when it comes to deals reaching their conclusions.
New targets have been lined up, he confirmed. “We’re exploring other options for that for next season already," he said. "It’s what we have to do, we have to be ready. It’ll be a real shame.
READ MORE: Russell Martin reveals star will leave Swansea City this summer with new targets already lined up
“The reality is now, you get past January and people think he may leave in January and you readdress the situation, but I don’t think anything’s changed from his end or his agent’s end.
“We have to avoid that in the future. It is what it is really.”
Downes: Hammers struggles are 'killing me'
Former Swansea midfielder Flynn Downes says the position West Ham United find themselves in is "killing" him right now.
The Hammers went down 2-0 to Tottenham on Sunday and now face the very real prospect of relegation. They are 18th at present, in the bottom three and on a poor run of form.
Downes, who left Swansea last summer in a deal worth £14million, says the club's plight is taking its toll on him
“It’s killing me.," he said. "It’s killing everyone. West Ham fan or not it’s killing everyone at the club. We’re not in a good spot. But we know what we have to do, we have to take the fight to everyone.
"I am a bit annoyed but we have got to brush ourselves down. We know what we are in for now - it’s a relegation battle, whether you like the facts or not that’s what it is so let’s have it.
“There is no beating around the bush. We know what we are in for, in every game we play now we have to win and that starts Saturday. We have to win. It’s as simple as that. Pressure or not we have to win, there’s no other option.”
Neil's view on Swans
Stoke City boss Alex Neil says Swansea will present his team with a "specific" problem tomorrow and believes Martin won't be happy with the number of games he's lost this season.
Neil praised the football played by Swansea, revealing he watched three of their games over the weekend, including the 4-3 home defeat to Birmingham City earlier this month - a match he couldn't believe Swansea lost.
"I think Swansea are a very specific-type team in this league and going from Blackpool to Swansea sums the Championship up," he said.
"We go out and win 3-0 comfortably (in mid-week last week against Huddersfield) but that doesn't automatically mean that solution is going to work for the next game because the next game in this league can be the opposite in that Blackpool don't build at all from the back, they kick everything forward and land on second balls and make it a fight.
"Swansea are literally the opposite of that. They'll open the pitch up as much as they possibly can, they'll risk the ball and when they get it going and get it working they're really good to watch.
"However, I'm sure the frustration for Russell will be that for how good they are to watch, they've lost more games than he'd like this year. I watched them against Birmingham - I watched three of their games yesterday - and Birmingham beat them 4-3 and how they beat them I'm not quite sure but they did beat them."
Celina, Clucas doubts
Neil has also revealed that former Swan Bersant Celina is a doubt for tomorrow's game with illness.
The Kosovan has been laid low with a bout of tonsillitis. Delivering a full fitness report, Neil said: "We've got a couple of decisions in the next 24 hours really. We'll see how the lads are today and that will determine if they are in contention.
"Ben Pearson is one of them. We need to make a late decision on him and I'm not entirely sure he's going to be available. We'll wait and see.
"(Josh) Tymon and (Nick) Powell are getting better. They're making progress every day but those injuries have got a term on them.
"Bersant Celina came in yesterday but he's been suffering for a week with tonsilitis and he's been unwell. I'm not convinced he's going to be available.
"Axel Tuanzebe is not far away but he's got a wee grumble in his legs at the moment. He's another one we'll check on today."
Sam Clucas, who loves playing against his former club, is also a doubt, with the midfielder set to play for the under-21s tonight after back surgery.
"Sam’s made good progress," Neil said. "There’s an under-21s game this evening and Sam will play 45 minutes in that, which is good. He had surgery on his back and he’s trained with us for over a week now, 10 to 14 days. Hopefully minutes tonight will build him up.
“The original plan was to get him ready for Brighton (in the FA Cup next midweek) and depending on what happens this evening it could be even sooner.”
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