Swansea City season review: Work to do as Vitor Matos tries to change the record

This time last year, Swansea were building momentum under former boss Alan Sheehan, who inspired an upturn in form to stave off relegation fears after the Luke Williams era ended on the back of a worrying slump.

The previous season, it was Williams who oversaw the turnaround in his team’s fortunes after Michael Duff’s forgettable spell in charge.

The challenge facing Matos is to change the record at Swansea, which will start the 2026-2027 season with an eye toward entering the playoffs, as was the case at the beginning of the season that ended with Saturday’s victory over Charlton Athletic.

There will likely be more expectations next time around given that the two teams in seventh and eighth place will secure a place in the play-off within a year.

However, it is worth noting that apart from the two play-off campaigns under Steve Cooper – when parachute payments were still a helping hand – Swansea’s best finish since exiting the Championship was a 10th-place finish, first under Graham Potter in 2019 and then under Russell Martin three years ago.

Matos’ side finished 11th, just as Sheehan’s side did last year, although Swansea took three more points this time.

In the end, they were nine points clear of Hull City, who secured the last qualifying places for the season, and five points clear of Derby County, who finished eighth.