Ryan Manning’s To Do List: Get Swansea City Higher Up the Table . . . Leave

SWANSEA, WALES - APRIL 15: Ryan Manning of Swansea City (C) celebrates his goal with Morgan Whittaker (L) and Liam Cullen (R) during the Sky Bet Championship match between Swansea City and Huddersfield Town at the Swansea.com Stadium on April 15, 2023 in Swansea, Wales. (Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty Images)

Ryan Manning’s To Do List: Get Swansea City Higher Up the Table . . . Leave

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By David Williams

Ryan Manning wants to end his time with Swansea City on a high by getting them as close to the play-off as possible.

The defender still has an unsigned new contract on the table and appears intent on leaving according to head coach Russell Martin.

But Manning – who has arguably been the Swans’ most consistent performer this season – insists he is focused on continuing the club’s climb back up the Championship table.

Swansea recorded their fourth win in five matches with a 1-0 victory over Huddersfield Town at the weekend with a third consecutive clean sheet and a fifth goal of the season for Manning.

The victory lifted them to 13th in the table, seven points off the play-off places with a maximum 12 points still to play for.

If Swansea were to win their remaining four games, they could get to 68 points – which is likely to only be enough for the top six if there is a major collapse in form among the clubs above them.

“The fans are getting behind us and there’s a feelgood factor around the place. That’s what happens when you start winning games,” says the 26-year-old Republic of Ireland international.

“During the international break, the gaffer spoke to us and said we’ve got to set an objective to go unbeaten until the end of the season.

“We’ve obviously been on a really good run with four wins and a draw so we just need to keep building on it and finish as strongly as we can.”

“Defensively, we’re grafting every day and the gaffer is putting in so much time and effort to make sure we’re on it, so I think the recent clean sheets are a reward for that.

“We had a couple of games – away at Luton was a good performance, Middlesbrough was a good performance – and we felt that there was a change from January and February where we’d struggled quite a lot,” he added.

“So we knew that if we could build on the performances then results would come and then momentum is momentum and on days like this when things are going your way you just seem to keep getting the lucky breaks.

“We weren’t really ever a team that gave away a lot of clear cut chances. It might have looked like we did because of the style of football we play, but really we don’t give up that many chances but we were at a point where it felt like the other team would have two shots on target and score two goals.

“The Bristol game was the beginning of this and we managed to come good after the international break. The Cardiff game was massive for everyone at the club and the city and we’ve continued to build on that.”

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Swansea fans sang a chorus of, “Ryan Manning, we want you to stay” after his goal against the Terriers and Martin revealed afterwards, “I joined in.”

Swans chief executive Julian Winter appears unwilling to improve the deal offered to Manning and Martin added: “I’m not in charge of that side of it. He knows how I feel about it and how us as a coaching staff feel about him with how important he’s been for us over the two years or so we’ve been here.

“It’s another lesson to learn, about players going into the last year of their contract.

“I think we’ll learn that lesson. I hope we will. It’s Ryan’s prerogative to not sign currently and I think the club feels we’ve offered a really good contract, which I would agree with.

“Ryan’s had an amazing season, statistically for a left-back he’s been brilliant. I’ll never say never, but at this moment in time he looks likely to leave.”

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