Foundations now in place at Swansea - Gorringe
Tom Gorringe was formerly chief executive of Bristol Rovers
- Published
Chief executive Tom Gorringe says Swansea City head into the new season with the right "foundations in place" for the first time since he arrived at the club 18 months ago.
Swansea begin 2026-27 with am EFL Cup tie against Birmingham City on Saturday before their new ninth successive Championship campaign starts at Stoke City the following weekend.
Gorringe joined Swansea as chief operating officer in February 2025 before being promoted to chief executive just a month later.
He says the Welsh club are now on track to compete for a return to the Premier League thanks to work done on and off the pitch during his tenure.
"Before I joined I came here for a game against Sheffield Wednesday at home," Gorringe told a fans' forum at the Swansea.com Stadium on Wednesday.
"Luke Williams was still the manager at the time, the stadium was half empty, we lost 1-0 from a mistake. It was two awful teams, it was an awful game of football.
"You could feel the apathy in the air. This club had drifted far too far away from where we want to be."
Swansea were beaten 1-0 by Sheffield Wednesday in February 2025, in what proved to be Luke Williams' penultimate game in charge
Swansea ended 2024-25 in 11th place after an upturn in form under Alan Sheehan, only for the Irishman to lose his job last November after another difficult run.
The Swans then enjoyed another improvement under Vitor Matos, who delivered the same 11th-placed finish.
The club appointed a new sporting director, Ben Stevens, in June and have been active in the transfer market for the second summer in a row.
"I came in with my eyes wide open [about] what we wanted to do, to give everybody hope again, to make everybody believe that we can be a force, that we can be true to our past, do things the right way and ultimately that we can move up the leagues and compete at the level we want to compete at," Gorringe added.
"In order to do that we have to make a lot of decisions, we had to make a lot of changes. We had to make sure we brought the right people in.
"I can sit here today, probably for the first time since I joined, and say now all of those foundations are in place.
"Everything is here that we need to really kick on and improve. We have got the right people in the building."
