By Paul Jones

Russell Martin insists Swansea City are already planning for a summer rebuild – with him still as head coach.

The heat on Martin was turned up when his team lost for the seventh time in nine matches at Millwall on Tuesday night as they went down, 2-1.

Swansea co-owner Steve Kaplan made a rare appearance to watch his club, but it failed to alter a familiar pattern where the Swans dominate possession but lose the game.

A sequence of just three wins in 21 matches has seen the Swans slip from the fringes of the play-off race to the fringes of a relegation battle and placed a question mark over Martin’s future.

Steve Kaplan, Burnley v Swansea City – Premier League. Pic: Getty Images.

But the former Scotland international insisted Kaplan offered his support when the pair spoke before the game and that attention was already moving towards building for next season.

“It was just a good honest conversation,” said Martin.

“He offered a lot of support and a lot of encouragement.

“We spoke a lot about the summer and about what the squad needs. As I’ve said before, it’s a huge summer for the club.

“There’s going to have to be a lot of people coming into the building and a lot of attributes we haven’t been able to sign last summer or in January which is what we’ve been crying out for.

“We’ve probably been two or three players away from being a really top team at this level in our opinion, I think the stats back that up.

“But we love the group we’ve got and there’ll be loads of them that move forward with us and some that naturally move on, that’s football, that’s life.

“We’ll continue to plan for that the whole time we’re here. But we need to get a win very quickly to relax a few people and grow the lads’ confidence even further than it was tonight.

“I loved the courage and intensity they showed tonight. We were great tonight. I said to them ‘if you play like that on Sunday at home, the crowd will be right behind you, if you play with that courage and attitude, if we play like that on Sunday I’m confident we’ll win’.”

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Millwall Clinch Crucial Victory Against Swansea Despite Late Scare

Charlie Cresswell poked home the opener before Andreas Voglsammer doubled Millwall’s lead with his second in as many games.

In a breathless few minutes, Ryan Manning gave Swansea hope, deflecting a 20-yard strike from Matt Grimes past a wrong-footed George Long in the Millwall goal.

But Gary Rowett’s side held on, the win moving them two points clear of Blackburn, who occupy the final play-off spot.

Cameron Congreve and Liam Smith were among the substitutes for the away side at The Den, given the absences of experienced men such as Joe Allen, Jay Fulton and Joel Latibeaudiere.

“It probably highlights how thin the squad is, it also highlights why we’re excited by what we can achieve over a long period of time here with some of the young players we’ve got,” added Martin.

“Ten of the 18 are under 23 tonight, six of the starting XI as well, so there’s loads to be positive about. They train with us every day and they have a real chance.

“I had a good couple of hours with Steve this afternoon and he just reinforced the support for what we’re doing in the long term.

“He asked a lot of questions about a lot of the players and the period we’ve been through. He’s been really supportive since I’ve been at Swansea.”

Milwall manager Gary Rowett said: “Every time I’ve played Swansea in the last three or four years it’s been exactly the same type of game.

“It’s been frustrating, it’s been hard to play against and low-key in terms of tackles and that little bit of physicality that we like. So, we found that tough in the first half.

“I made a change at half-time and decided I’d rather go up against them a little bit and take a bit of a gamble and lose the game that way if that was what we had to do.

“But we needed to get a little bit of life into the game and inject a bit of atmosphere into it.

“We scored two different types of goals. The first one, Cressy (Charlie Cresswell), with a lot of bodies, does really well to prod it home.

“And the second goal, it’s great play by Zian (Flemming) to break free down the left-hand side and he plays a lovely little pass inside to George Honeyman, and he’s aware enough to find Vogy (Andreas Voglsammer).”

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