By Rob Carbon

Swansea City have warned off envious clubs casting their eyes towards head coach Steve Cooper.

The Swans boss takes his side into a top of the table clash with Norwich City at the Liberty Stadium tonight hoping to close the gap on the Canaries to two points with a game in hand as the title race heats up.

Last season Cooper, who won the World Cup with England Under 17 before stepping into senior club management for the first time 18 months ago, took his side to the play-offs.

Automatic promotion will be very much on the agenda if his side can win tonight and his reputation is fast gathering pace.

Swansea co-owner Jason Levien has revealed the club have already improved Cooper’s existing contract – which has another season left on it after this one – and insists he will fight should other clubs come in for the coach.

“There was some negative pushback when we made the appointment, just like there was with Graham Potter,” said Levien.

“But we were steadfast in our belief in Steve and his leadership as a manager. We feel as though he has certainly done a very strong job for us.

“We addressed his contract situation before the season. We are really proud of his appointment as our manager and we don’t want to lose him.

“We think Graham Potter did a good job for us before him. One of the interesting things is that Swansea had a track record of developing managers prior to our arrival – Brendan Rodgers, Roberto Martinez, the list is there.

“We’d liked to continue that tradition. We have enjoyed working with Steve and we think he has done a terrific job with this group of players.”

When Rodgers left the Liberty Stadium to take over at Liverpool he cost £5m. There was also compensation for the previously unproven Potter when he left to join Brighton in the Premier League.

Cooper has 18 months left on his three-year deal at the club and should be able to write his own terms if he gets Swansea back into the Premier League this season.

“We’ve got a lot of faith in Steve Copper, a lot of belief in what he has done and a lot of appreciation for it,” said Levien, who recently matched a £5m investment from new board member Jake Silverstein into the club finances.

“We are living in the here and now. We’ve got 20 matches left and each one of them is going to be as tough as the next. That’s really where our focus is at the moment.”

Cooper was given a double boost ahead of Norwich clash with former Canaries loan defender Kyle Naughton returning from suspension midfield dynamo Korey Smith return to come back into the squad after injury.

The 30-year-old Smith has been sidelined for the past fortnight with a quad injury, his last outing coming in the 2-0 victory at Barnsley on 16 January, but he is back in the mix for Friday as the Swans launch a seven match run in February.

Embed from Getty Images

“We’re looking forward to going through this mad month of February and seeing where it takes us,” said Cooper.

“We have to embrace these challenges, look forward to them and go into games like the one against Norwich with no fear. That’s been the talk all season.

“You have to look forward to the big games and I’m loving the camaraderie among the players and staff at the moment. They’re a really professional bunch of players, but in the end, it’s a league environment, and these big games are the ones you want to be judged on.”

The clash of the top two teams in the Championship at the Liberty Stadium could be crucial in the title race with the Swans looking to cut the gap at the top from five to two points with a game in hand.

The mean machine defence at Swansea has conceded only six goals in 13 league matches at the Liberty this season, while the attack has delivered 19 goals in the recent nine match undefeated run in all competitions.

Norwich, on the other hand, have failed to score in their last 284 minutes over four games.