It's safe to say that Angel Rangel is a player that established himself as a firm fans favourite amongst the Swansea City faithful in his time with the club. 

In an exclusive interview with Football League World's Jacob Potter, QPR defender Angel Rangel took a trip down memory lane to look back at his time with Swansea, where he had plenty of fond memories to talk about.

Rangel admitted that he was surprised to move to the Championship side in 2007, after completing a transfer from Spanish side Terrassa FC. 

"To be honest with you, I was following a bit of the Premier League back in the day but I never thought I would be playing in England at all. One of my goals was to play in La Liga, wanted to play against Barcelona and play at the Nou Camp, but the move to Swansea just happened. I got the phone call and I moved here."

The 36-year-old admitted that he never felt a sense of pressure when he signed for the Swans, despite only penning a one-year performance related deal.

"I never felt the pressure to be honest with you, I remember meeting Roberto Martinez before I signed, and I met him at the stadium and he showed me the pitch and everything and he told me how easy it would be to settle in quickly and fit into the team and the way they played.

"He signed me because I was an offensive full-back that always looks after the ball. Straight away I started every game, and the team was doing well, winning games.

"We finished top with 92 points and getting promoted in my first season. So, everything went very smoothly. I think that's important when it goes well at the beginning and everything else takes care for itself. 

Rangel issued high-praise for former manager Roberto Martinez, and the full-back issued an insight into what the Spaniard was like to work under in his time with the club.

Martinez is now in charge of the Belgian national team, and will be hoping that his side can qualify for the upcoming European Championships.

"He's a very smart person, a very good coach. He loves to work, he would be in the training ground at 6am and the last to leave at around 6/7pm. He wouldn't show us a match, he would show us a few bits on the pitch and meetings, but we knew he spent hours studying the opposition to give us those three or four points to help us win the game.

"He took care of the mental side of it which would give you a lot of confidence and as I say, he would do a lot of talks individually to the players to make sure they were ready. The style of play was clear in training, and it was all about us."

The experienced defender expressed his emotions after Swansea won promotion to the Championship for the first time in their history, in what was Rangel's first season with the club.

He made 52 appearances in total for the Swans that season, and went on to become a mainstay for the club, in a spell which lasted 11 years in total.

"It felt amazing. Up to that date, I didn't have many promotions in my career, so to come in at third level (League One) football which is the same level I left at in Spain, to come here and reach the second division of British football, which is something I never managed in Spain, it was great.

"Started to be a life-changing moment  for me as I felt my status as a player was getting better and I felt the love from the fans. I felt integrated into British culture. One of the goals was achieved in winning promotion and we were looking forward to seeing what the next challenge would be."

Keep a close eye out for our next segment from Angel Rangel, when he discusses his promotion-winning season with Swansea, as they reached the Premier League under the guidance of Brendan Rodgers back in 2011 which will be live on Football League World on Tuesday.