How does Swansea City’s squad market value compare to Cardiff City?

Once again, it’s Swansea City that have endured a more successful season than their South Wales rivals Cardiff City despite not managing to force their way into the promotion mix this season.

Achieving consecutive top-six finishes under the stewardship of Steve Cooper before his departure last July, successor Russell Martin has completely changed the Swans’ playing style whilst also overseeing a flurry of transfer activity at the Swansea.com Stadium.

They have suffered dips along the way though – and that’s perhaps understandable considering they have lost key players from last term including Andre Ayew, Connor Roberts and Jamal Lowe – with the former leaving on the expiration of his contract last summer.

But they have still been a more formidable force than Cardiff who will just be glad they have managed to steer themselves away from danger following an extremely poor start to the season under Mick McCarthy.

The potential key behind this failure was their underwhelming summer window, failing to recruit the quality needed to be competing at the right end of the Championship and the potential reason behind this emerged in October when chairman Mehmet Dalman painted a gloomy picture of the club’s finances.

Unfortunately for the Bluebirds, their squad is currently worth less (£28.49m) than Swansea’s (£34.92), perhaps understandable considering the latter were in the Premier League more recently than the former.

The £6.43m gulf between the two sides may get much wider in the summer though with Sean Morrison (£3.15m), Marlon Pack (£2.25m), Joe Ralls (£2.25m), Will Vaulks (£2.25m), Leandro Bacuna (£1.98m), Aden Flint (£1.35m) and Alex Smithies (£900,000) all out of contract in the summer.

That’s seven of Cardiff’s ten most