SWANS: ‘Our season begins now’ — Matos heads for Galbraith reunion at Stoke

Swansea City begin their Championship season on Saturday at the ground of the club that took their most influential player of last season.

Ethan Galbraith left for the bet365 Stadium in an eight-figure deal at the end of June, after a single season in which he became central to how the Swans played.

Head coach Vitor Matos was happy to acknowledge what the midfielder gave him, but warned his players against fixating on one man.

“He was influential for us last season, I was quite clear on that. Galbraith went to Stoke, there was an agreement,” Matos said.

“I think he’s one more player that is there and they have other strengths as well. So we need to look at them in a collective way and not just look at Gali.

“Our season begins now and our aim is to beat Stoke.”

That will not be straightforward. Stoke spent more than any other club in the division this summer, and rarely give much away at home.

“It’s not an easy place to go. We all know that. Stoke are really consistent at home,” Matos said.

“The game will ask different questions of us than the game against Birmingham. We have prepared for this game and will try to play with our identity against a good team.”

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Ross Stewart will not be involved. The striker joined on a free after leaving Southampton at the end of June, arriving without a pre-season behind him.

“Ross is one week now, after around nine days with us, so he will not be involved at Stoke,” Matos said.

“I think he’s still adapting. This is the beginning of pre-season for him, so he will be almost 100 per cent for the next week.”

Swansea are also without Cameron Burgess for the season after the defender ruptured his Achilles against Birmingham City, and Matos said the club had been looking at centre-backs even before that.

“I think even when Cameron was fit before the injury, we were thinking maybe another central defender would have been useful,” he said.

“I think the first thing is the respect we need to show for the situation of Cam. Our mind and our thoughts are first with him more than anything.

“Then we look at the market in the same way. I said that of course we need more depth in one or two positions. The market is open until it’s closed. We’ll see what will happen.”

On the season ahead

Matos was asked where he expects the season to take his side. His answer was to refuse the question.

“I think we need to focus on the quality of our game. We need to focus on going to play against every opposition in the way we want, and then it’s about the next game, because the season is quite long,” he said.

“There’s a lot of changes during the season, like we all saw last season. Being emotionally stable is quite important, understanding the moment is quite important.

“We are all ambitious, but that ambition doesn’t mean anything on the pitch and doesn’t mean anything in the moment. What it means is that we need to train in the way we are training now and to fight to win the next game.”

The competition itself has changed this season, with the play-offs expanded to take in the clubs finishing third to eighth.

“I think it’s a good change in terms of competitiveness. If we look at last season, the difference between eighth and 16th place was close until the end of the season,” Matos said.

“So that shows the competitiveness will be tremendous, and at the same time it will show that you need to be quite stable to understand your position. You win, you probably are close. You lose, you probably are close as well to relegation.

“It’s a season that will be close. You need to be consistent and be a strong team to compete and be able to bounce back.”

Kick-off at the bet365 Stadium is at 3pm on Saturday.