Swansea City new £1.5m midfielder Flynn Downes has backed the Welsh outfit to bring sexy 'tiki-taka' football to the Liberty Stadium this season.

The ex-Ipswich midfielder eluded to facing his now current manager Russel Martin last season when he was managing MK Dons as a blueprint as to how possession football should be played.

As per Dai Sport, Downes stated: “When we used to go to MK Dons, the boys used to say, ‘Oh no, we’ve got to go to the Camp Nou today! We’re playing Barcelona!' That is literally the reputation the gaffer has got. It’s horrible to play against – just horrible. You literally can’t stop it. It’s crazy."

Swansea started their 2021/22 league campaign with a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Blackburn. However, the Swans bounced back in the Carabao Cup, knocking out Reading, and on the weekend recorded a 0-0 draw against recently relegated Sheffield United, who are heavily tipped to return to the top flight of English football.

With 64% possession in that latter fixture, it has become abundantly clear that Martin will bring his brand of possession football to the Swans; finding the net remains to still be an issue as they only managed one shot on target against Slavisa Jokanovic's side, and only one goal in there opening two league games.

Downes feels that both sides will be fighting at the upper echelons of the division this campaign.

He continued: “Basically, we were playing a Premier League team, who haven’t lost many players since last season, but I thought we dominated and had the better chances."

The appointment of Martin has signalled a great intent to go one better then last season's disappointing play-off final defeat to Brentford and if Martin's brand of football is anything to go by, opposing teams will have to remain patient as they may not be getting much of the ball.

The verdict:

These are very ambitious claims that Flynn Downes appears to be making, trying to emulate the might of Barcelona.

However, there is no reason to suggest the Swans can't look to improve on their impressive league campaign last season that saw the Jack Army finish fourth and get to a play-off final, albeit ending up losing in heartbreaking fashion to Brentford.

When you think of previous Swansea teams, what springs to mind is the possession-based football spearheaded by Roberto Martinez and then Brendan Rodgers to great effect. If the Swans are to get back to to the holy grail of English football, Russell Martin will need to get the swans ticking in the same vein as the likes of Martinez and Rodgers and, if his brand of football is anything to go by, the signs are looking promising.