Swansea City's rise up the Football League in the last 20 years has been nothing short of mesmeric, and they could soon be back in England's top flight.

At the start of the decade, the Swans were in the fourth tier of English football and were about to be promoted up a level, only to be relegated at the first time of asking in 2001.

They struggled until 2005 but then good seasons and success came quickly, and in 2011 they reached the promised land - three promotions in seven seasons culminating a somewhat fairytale story.

Especially in the last decade, Swansea haven't had an amazing amount of English players, as their move into the Premier League in 2011 naturally brought more foreign talent into the club.

That wasn't a rarity at the club - Roberto Martinez brought in a heap of Spanish talent during his time as manager but there's still been a mix of English talent over the years.

We've tried to rank the 10 best English players to play for the Swans in the last 20 years - let us know if you would change anything!

Despite only playing for Swansea in the Championship briefly, it couldn't be a top 10 Swansea list without including one of, if not the most skilful players to ever play for the club in Trundle.

Trundle's first four league seasons at Swansea yielded 78 goals in 146 games, better than one goal in every two games and his 22 goals in 2004/05 got Swansea out of the fourth tier of English football after a barren spell.

The striker did eventually move on in 2007 to Bristol City but he could replicate the same success - two years later he returned to the Liberty Stadium on loan and despite scoring five times in 20 appearances he wasn't the same player as before and spent most of the rest of his career in the Welsh leagues.

Quite a few of the players in this list spent a lot of time playing for Swansea, and Monk is no exception, having gone all the way up through the leagues with the club from League Two to the Premier League.

Monk hadn't had much regular football at all in his senior career before linking up with the South Wales side in 2004 at the age of 25, but he would find a home there and spend the rest of his playing days at the Liberty Stadium.

In 10 years, Monk made 224 league appearances and played a key part in all of Swansea's promotion campaigns, but only made 25 outings in three years when they were promoted to the Premier League but he's here on the strength of his achievements and performances in the years before.

Joining Swansea when they were in League One in 2006, Pratley was a midfield general whose best years came when the club were in the Championship.

Pratley ended up being a bargain buy at just £100,000 from Fulham - he was always a regular for the club and in his final couple of years he became a real goal threat from midfield.

Scoring seven times and nine times respectively in his final two seasons, Pratley played a big part in Swansea reaching the Premier League in the 2010-11 season, scoring from the halfway line in the semi-final of the play-offs against Nottingham Forest.

He did jump ship to Bolton on a free after the final victory over Reading, but there's no denying a big impact was made by Pratley.

He may have only played at the Liberty Stadium for two seasons, but the abilities that Mawson showed for the club not only made them a lot of money but he also received his first England call-up.

The Swans took a punt on Mawson from newly-promoted Championship side Barnsley in 2016, spending £5 million on the 22-year-old who had impressed in League One, and he seemed to make the step up to the top flight relatively comfortably.

Mawson played all 38 Premier League games in his second season with Swansea, but unfortunately despite his best work he could not single-handedly prevent them from dropping back into the Championship in 2018.

The player himself though remained in the Premier League with Fulham, making a £20 million move to Craven Cottage in a deal that represented great value for Swansea - Mawson's career has stalled since but there's no denying he was a top player for Swansea.

Having spent the previous four seasons in League One and the Championship for Carlisle and Watford, Swansea gave Graham a chance in the Premier League in 2011 after four consecutive seasons of hitting double figures.

You can't keep a natural goalscorer down and Graham looked to be one of those as he netted 12 Premier League goals in his first full season at the level, being one of the more important players behind Swansea's 11th place finish in the 2011/12 season.

Graham did only end up spending another half-season at the Liberty Stadium before Sunderland brought him back north in January 2013, but it's hard not to have the striker in here for the impact he had in his only full season at the club - it may be a contentious one but we think he did more than enough in-front of goal.

After being a bit-part player for Liverpool, Swansea brought Shelvey to Wales for £5 million in 2013 and for two seasons he was very influential in the club's engine room.

Swansea finished 12th and 8th in the Premier League in Shelvey's full campaigns at the Liberty Stadium, forming a good partnership with Ki Sung-yeung in the middle of the pitch and he was capped for England whilst at Swansea - becoming the first player to play for the club at the time to achieve such a feat.

Shelvey's time at the club did end under a bit of a cloud though - he rowed with a fan after an FA Cup defeat to Oxford in January 2016 and just days later he was sold to Newcastle for £12 million - a healthy profit on the midfielder but perhaps on the cheap side considering he was contracted until 2019.

There's no doubting that Shelvey had a great impact for Swansea - if he got his head down a bit more he probably would've been higher on the list.

The only player on this list to still be at Swansea at this very moment, Routledge had bounced from club to club after joining Tottenham earlier in his career but he made the Liberty Stadium his long-term place of residence in 2011.

The winger hasn't always been a regular in his later years but for the majority of the Swans' time in the Premier League, Routledge played in most games and was making an impact - even if his seasonal high of five goals in the 2012-13 campaign doesn't necessarily say he was a prolific attacker.

Routledge has offered more than just goals though to Swansea and he's still a useful option to have on the bench despite his advancing years - his effectiveness and longevity mean he ranks very high.

Another player who was at Swansea since the Championship days, Dyer was one of the unsung heroes over the years for the club and was a big part in their promotion story to the Premier League.

In their first few seasons in the top flight, Dyer continued to play a crucial part in Swansea's rise but then ended up making a surprise move to Leicester in 2015 on loan, where he was a part of the team that won the Premier League against all the odds.

Dyer returned to Swansea afterwards - he didn't have the same impact as he did in his earlier years at the Liberty Stadium but the past far outweighed his final couple of seasons at the club for everything that he did.

Sinclair may have only spent two seasons at Swansea but he was the catalyst for the club's promotion to the Premier League in the 2010-11 season, scoring 19 times in the league and that included a hat-trick of play-off final goals at Wembley against Reading.

His form continued into the Premier League as he scored eight times in Swansea's debut season in the top flight, helping them to 11th place in the table at the end of the campaign.

It was always going to be hard to keep Sinclair in 2012 with just one year left on his deal and when Manchester City came sniffing around late on in the summer transfer window it was the end of Sinclair's time at the Liberty Stadium - 28 goals in 82 league outings though was very impressive and of course the winger went on to be an iconic player for Celtic in their era of dominance in Scotland.

Swansea's best English player of the last 20 years could only go to one man and that is Britton.

A player with a big reputation as a youngster at Arsenal and West Ham, Britton never quite lived up to the billing at those clubs but with Swansea he was able to recognise his Premier League dreams eventually - although he went the long way about doing it.

Britton first played for the club on loan in 2002 before joining permanently, and he was a major part of their rise from League Two into the Championship until he joined Sheffield United in 2010.

The switch to Yorkshire never worked out for Britton though and he returned to Swansea months later and it was the best thing he ever did - he took back his place in the midfield and helped them into the Premier League, and then for at least the next two seasons he was a regular in the top flight.

Britton would appear sporadically towards the end of his career but still made 25 appearances as a 33-year-old in the top flight which is impressive and for what he achieved with Swansea in his 15 years at the club he's more than deserving of being at the head of this list.