The young Swansea City stars to benefit most in pre-season as duo impress coaches
Swansea City have just one more pre-season game left to play before kick-starting their 2022/23 Championship campaign.
The Swans face Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Saturday before travelling to Rotherham United for their league opener seven days later. The summer schedule has afforded Russell Martin the chance to try out various formations, tactics, and, of course, personnel.
The exits of players including Korey Smith, Ben Hamer and Yan Dhanda has provided certain fringe players with greater opportunities to impress the coaching staff.
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Several young guns were taken to Pennyhill Park earlier this summer as players were put through their paces ahead of the six pre-season fixtures. And coaches have been hugely impressed with the efforts of Cameron Congreve and Ollie Cooper in particular.
The pair rose to prominence last term, with Cooper excelling during his loan spell with Newport County while Congreve made his first team breakthrough at Swansea before signing a contract extension just four months after earning his first professional deal at the club.
Head coach Martin has long been an admirer of Cooper and regularly received positive reports from those at Rodney Parade during the 22-year-old's time with the Exiles. He has been in the senior set-up this summer after returning from Newport and could well get the chance to be a squad player at Swansea this season, although another loan can not be ruled out.
The same applies to Congreve who is just 18 years of age, but is highly thought of at the club. The attacker made five appearances under Martin in the latter stages of the 2021/22 season and netted in the Swans' pre-season win over