please log in to view this image Saturday 29th July 2017 - 3pm Birmingham City v Swansea City St Andrews Stadium, Birmingham After playing in 100 degree heat in the USA, the Swans revert to a more familiar climate when they travel to St Andrews, Birmingham on Saturday. The Blues have themselves been on the road pre-season, losing 1-0 in Austria to FC Union Berlin before beating Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona 2-0. After travelling back to England they beat Oxford United by the same scoreline. They narrowly avoided the drop to League 1 last season after appointing Harry Rednapp as manager with only a few games to go. Old ‘Arry will be keen to see the Blues off to a better start this season and will see the Swans fixture as an important part of their build up for the Championship. Personally, Harry has had a worrying cancer scare this summer and I’m sure all Swans fans would wish him well. Ex-Swan David Cotterill is in the Birmingham ranks so it’ll be interesting if he gets a run out against his former club. Newcomers for the Blues will be Cheikh Ndoye (Angers), Marc Roberts (Barnsley), Dan Scarr (Stourbridge) and David Stockdale (Brighton and Hove Albion).
Birmingham win, or otherwise we sneak a 0-1 win, doubtful though, will Siggy be playing?...................
Nope "Gylfi Sigurdsson, however, will not feature as it was agreed between the club and player that he would sit this game out due to the current transfer speculation surrounding him." In fact looking at the squad for this game doesn't fill me with confidence for the season Lukasz Fabianski, Kristoffer Nordfeldt, Erwin Mulder, Kyle Naughton, Angel Rangel, Mike van der Hoorn, Alfie Mawson, Federico Fernandez, Stephen Kingsley, Martin Olsson, Roque Mesa, Leon Britton, Jay Fulton, Leroy Fer, Tom Carroll, Wayne Routledge, Luciano Narsingh, Oli McBurnie, Jordan Ayew, Tammy Abraham.
Missing from that list would be Sigurrdson (or his replacement) and Llorente (or his replacement). Makes it look a bit better, but I'd agree, we need two or three more quality signings.
TBH, I think we need 3 quality signings if Gylfi and Llorente stay. To just replace them means we'd be standing still. I still think we need at least 5 signings to improve the first team, if they both leave.
We need Sigg's replacement ASAP, another Striker, and a RB before the start of the season!..................
No Bartley, Montero or Barrow in the squad. Could they all be leaving? Bartley to Leeds as part of the Wood deal maybe seeing as they look set to sign Negredo?