These occasions haven’t always been the most pleasant for Swansea City.
But in comparison to some years, Wednesday night’s fans’ forum was a serene, bordering on routine exercise for all involved.
Swansea City feel in a good place right now. Celebrity investment, a deal to buy their stadium in the pipeline, some moves in the transfer market that look dangerously close to some semblance of competence and a bid to improve the club’s academy.
There’s a lot to be positive about, as evidenced by one supporter using his chance to ask a question from the floor to offer Tom Gorringe, Ben Stevens and Vitor Matos a drink on him.
But optimism wasn’t the only different about this evening.
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Musician Mal Pope, who counts the vocals to the Fireman Sam theme tune among his sterling catalogue of work, was handed the role of hosting in place of Kev Johns, who continues to recover from a stroke earlier this year.
The evening began with a rapturous round of applause for Johns, which largely set the tone for a night that gave fans a first glimpse into what feels, for several reasons, a new era for the club.
Gorringe alluded to that very point at one stage, casting his mind back to the club he walked into back in March 2025.
“Before I joined I came here for a game against Sheffield Wednesday at home,” he said.
“Luke Williams was still the manager at the time, the stadium was half empty, we lost 1-0 from a mistake. It was two awful teams, it was an awful game of football.
“You could feel the apathy in the air. This club had drifted far too far away from where we want to be.”
“I came in with my eyes wide open [about] what we wanted to do, to give everybody hope again, to make everybody believe that we can be a force, that we can be true to our past, do things the right way and ultimately that we can move up the leagues and compete at the level we want to compete at,” Gorringe added.
“In order to do that we have to make a lot of decisions, we had to make a lot of changes. We had to make sure we brought the right people in.
“I think I can sit here today, probably for the first time since I joined, and say now all of those foundations are in place.
“I think everything is here that we need to really kick on and improve. We have got the right people in the building.”
Some have clearly left the building, including several of the club’s homegrown first-team stars, with Liam Cullen, Sam Parker, Ollie Cooper and Cameron Congreve all heading out the door.
It’s another blow to the strong Welsh core that the club had relied upon in previous years, and this point was brought up by one fan, who asked “Are we confident we’ve got enough players in the dressing room that will fight for the badge?”
The selling off of the club’s Welsh contingent has become something of a talking point on social media, with some fans concerned the identity of the club is being lost. Others are adamant it’s the right move to make for the club to progress.
In his own opinion Matos clearly believes in the strength of the senior players still in the building, which he suggested will form the spine of the squad’s ambitions. The seniority of some of the new arrivals too, he claims, will help maintain Swansea’s ability to compete in games where heart, as well as ability, prove important.
“We have important players. From Vigs, even Paul Farman, from Ben Cabango, from Cam Burgess, from Jay Fulton, even from players now coming in.
“One of the things we tried in the market was to go for players whose character fits the club. That’s quite important because when we sign a player we are signing a human being and we need to understand how they will fit in the squad and the club.
“The other thing we tried is to sign talent and potential, and at the same time sign players that are emotionally stable.
“For example, Elijah Just. He seems a really young kid, but he’s 26, and he can perform already in different kinds of contexts.
“Players like that bring seniority to the group. They bring experience.”
Bringing young players through the academy, however, is still a big part of how Swansea claim they want to operate, and there are some promising signs that a couple of players are now on their way through.
Matos confirmed Filip Lissah is to stay with the first team next season, and also praised young Carter Heywood for his progress.
“We always dream to have a team built from the ground in the academy,” Matos admitted.
One of the plans to help keep Swansea’s talent factory ticking over appears to be he move to Category One status.
The academy was downgraded ahead of the 2020-21 season, but Gorringe confirmed on the night that moves are in place to change things.
“We’ve made the formal application now to move back to Cat 1. What that means in practical terms is we will be assessed over the course of next season.
“There’s criteria you have to meet and I think we’re comfortable and confident we can meet that criteria.”
Gorringe also admits that player trading is likely to remain a key part of the operational model, which he says has helped free up the funds for this summer’s transfer efforts.
“We are operating a player trading model,” he added. “Ultimately that means we will, and always have actually, regularly sell players.
“I think we’ve averaged over £11m profit over a 10-year period and that pre-dates where we are now. If you look at the squad we’ve got, we’ve got more assets in it.
“When I look back to that first game against Sheffield Wednesday, I remember saying to a friend of mine, ‘I’m not sure where the assets are or where the value is’.
“Now I think you can look through the squad and see value and assets. Ultimately that provides us with opportunities.”
Whether that says anything about any potential appetite to sell star striker Zan Vipotnik, arguably the club’s biggest asset right now, remains to be seen.
Sporting director Stevens insists there is a blueprint in place should they decide to cash in.
“Yes we have a plan behind the scenes,” he said. “We’re making sure we have all options available if as a board and a club we decided to take an offer for Zan.”
Some might say the imminent capture of Ross Stewart could well be what Stevens is referring to.
Time will tell if that now widely-held presumption is accurate.
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