Rodgers: Swansea realise Welsh honour

Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers hopes to do the country of Wales proud in the upcoming English Premier League season.

Swansea will be the first Welsh side to ever play in the Premier League when they open their campaign at big-spenders Manchester City on Monday.

Rodgers is aware that it will not be easy for his side, but said his men will fight for their life to avoid relegation.

“We had an incredible season last season, where the club and the whole city came together,” Rodgers said.

“We’re very honoured to be the first Welsh club to get into the Premier League and we hope that we can do the badge and the country as a whole very proud. We’ll fight for our life to try to compete in the league without giving away our soul, which is very important.”

The Swansea boss knows his side’s trip to the City of Manchester Stadium is a tough ask, but said it is one that his side will approach positively.

“It’ll be a massive challenge,” he said.

“When you look at Manchester City it’s a club which is really moving forward. They’re a club that’s looking to be one of the super powers in European football (with) the finances that they have.”

“But for us, we’ll try to do what we’ve always done, with big respect for every opponent that we play, but the idea really is to focus on our own strengths and hopefully cause Manchester City problems.”

“We understand the scale of the task. Not only (on) Monday, but throughout the course of the season. We will look at it and take every positive that we can from our own game and hopefully cause problems to the other teams also.”