Max Watters was left feeling mad with frustration by his first spell at Cardiff City – but hopes his second will be a smoother ride. The striker was sent out on loan by former Bluebirds boss Mick McCarthy last summer, even though Watters had only just arrived for £1m from Crawley. Now, current Cardiff manager Steve Morison is hoping Watters’ recent flood of six goals in six games at MK Dons can help the Welsh strugglers to a vital victory at home to Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

Russell Martin has admitted Swansea City don’t have the depth to sustain a promotion play-off challenge. The Swans head coach gave a realistic assessment of his squad in what might be considered as a clear message to the club’s American owners that they need to authorise some spending in the January transfer window. It comes after Martin’s side crashed to a 4-1 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest, a team revitalized under Martin’s successor, Steve Cooper.

Steve Cooper has been confirmed as Nottingham Forest’s new head coach and is set to bring his former Swansea City sidekick Alan Tate in with him. The former Swansea boss, who left the club at the end of July, replaces Chris Hughton at the City Ground. Hughton paid the price for a poor start to the Championship season, where they took just one point from their opening seven games.

Russell Martin has claimed the reason Swansea City’s players are not fit enough is because of their disrupted pre-season. The Swans head coach claimed a summer of upheaval is taking its toll as his team crashed to a 3-1 home defeat to Stoke City on Tuesday night. The protracted departure of Steve Cooper, the cancellation of pre-season fixtures due to Covid-19, and the unsuccessful pursuit of other candidates before the club turned to Martin all combined to leave the squad underprepared for the start of the Championship.

The coach who denied Swansea City a place in the Premier League has an early chance to remind Swans fans what they are missing on Friday night. Brentford head coach Thomas Frank – who ended hopes of a Welsh club in the Premier League with a 2-0 victory for the Bees in the Wembley play-off final in May – is in the big time this evening with a home match against Arsenal. It will be a fixture the Swans could have savoured had things not gone so badly wrong for former head coach Steve Cooper and his team in what proved to be his last competitive fixture in charge.

Look who’s back! The Football League kicks off the new season on Friday night when West Bromwich Albion travel to Bournemouth. Cardiff City, Swansea City and Newport County are all in action for the first time on Saturday. So, what to expect from 2021-22? Fraser Watson suggests managerial experience of a particular league, on its own, is over-rated when it’s stacked against a whole load of other demands. In the immediate aftermath of Steve Cooper leaving Swansea City, a development seemingly inevitable and yet so untimely, discussion amongst supporters soon turned to his likely successor. Indeed, a mere hour or so after a club statement confirmed the departure, I sat in a golf clubhouse with three other regular hackers, who – perhaps oblivious to the financial constraints at the Liberty Stadium – banded about the predictable names.

New Swansea City manager Russell Martin has revealed he sounded out former boss Graham Potter before deciding to move to the Liberty Stadium. Martin has been appointed Swansea’s new head coach on a three-year deal, but needed to gain a positive reference for the club from Brighton manager Potter, who was in charge at the Swans before recently departed head coach Steve Cooper. “I spoke to Graham, and he spoke so highly of the club, of the people and of the area,” said Martin, who has moved from MK Dons.

Steve Cooper was encouraged to sign a new contract with Swansea City before it was mutually agreed he should leave, according to the club. The Swans – who have already been linked with QPR assistant manager John Eustace, Lincoln City’s Michael Appleton and MK Dons’ Russell Martin – confirmed on Wednesday evening that Cooper had left The Liberty Stadium after two years in charge. It’s a departure that seemed likely when the Swans failed to win promotion to the Premier League in May after losing their play-off final to Brentford after the Welsh head coach was linked with a number of other jobs.

Steve Cooper insists there will be no sulking at Swansea City over the lost ticket to the Premier League. The Swans’ head coach has claimed he will soon get down to work on implementing plans for next season despite uncertainty over his own future following the play-off final defeat to Brentford at Wembley. Cooper’s side have been left to reflect on the certainty of starting the next campaign on zero points in the Championship – alongside the likes of Hull City and Peterborough – with 46 matches to play, instead of visiting venues such as Old Trafford or Anfield.

Steve Cooper believes being an England World Cup winner will help Swansea City seal a return to the Premier League. Swansea meet Brentford in the Sky Bet Championship play-off final at Wembley on Saturday, three seasons after their seven-year stay in the top flight ended. Cooper says his ethos is all about a collective approach and no hierarchical structure with “everyone having a voice”.

Jamal Lowe hopes to complete the journey from PE teacher to Premier League player in the shadows of the Wembley arch he knows so well. Harrow-born Lowe grew up 15 minutes away from England’s national stadium with dreams of making the big time dominating as he set out on his football journey. Those thoughts were a distant dream as Lowe trawled around the non-league circuit, from Hayes to Hampton & Richmond and many points in between.

His time at Swansea has yielded more than 300 appearances over 10 consecutive seasons, but Wayne Routledge looks set to be cruelly denied the send-off he merits. The 36-year-old was stretchered off in the second half of last night’s 1-1 play-off draw with Barnsley, a result that ultimately sealed a final date with Brentford at Wembley next Saturday, having seemingly landed awkwardly on his knee. It’s an occasion Routledge is now almost certain to miss out on, and given he is out of contract in the summer, the scenes afterwards which saw him applauding the returning fans at the Liberty Stadium may inadvertently turn out to be his farewell to them.