There comes a time when every football club has to be honest with itself and take the kind of tough decisions that secure its future.

That’s the point Swansea City has reached. The decisions taken since relegation was confirmed have not been easy ones or ones necessarily supported by the fans. But they are ones designed to safeguard the long-term health of the club.

After seven years in the Premier League, relegation was a bitter pill to swallow. Revenues decline dramatically - even when you factor in parachute payments - and you are inevitably left with players determined to leave the club.

In our case, matters were made worse by transfer mistakes we made in an attempt to survive in the Premier League. We are quite literally paying for these now.

But we cannot afford to feel sorry for ourselves because that will be be perceived as a point of weakness that other clubs will try to leverage against us.

Relegation has to be seen as a rebirth for Swansea - a chance to press the reset button.

Instead of constantly being on the back foot fighting for survival, we want to be rebuild our club on a strong financial footing with an exciting brand of passing football and players who are eager to improve and hungry to achieve.

In Graham Potter, we have an innovative coach who has already shown an ability to play an exciting style of high-quality football with players determined to be successful. Graham and Kyle Macaulay have done a tremendous job bringing in young and talented footballers.

We understand fans have expressed disappointment and frustration with the transfer window but there had to be a cultural change.

The squad was in need of an overhaul because we had players who simply were not going to be part of Graham’s plans and players who made it clear they did not want to play for Swansea City in the Championship. To try to keep those players has a corrosive effect on the club as a whole.

We had to make hard decisions and we did. Every decision taken, though, was for a strategic reason as part of our restructuring. As a result of this window we have improved our financial footing and have positioned ourselves for a stronger and more secure future.

There is still work to be done because the loan market is still open and we will do everything we can to support Graham and Kyle in the immediate weeks before the market closes.

In terms of recruiting players, again we had to be disciplined as we could not - and would not - put the club in a position where, in our view, the fees and wages demanded were not in the best interests of Swansea City. All money received from player sales has gone back into the club.

We have brought in young players who want to be part of Swansea’s future and we believe there is a nucleus of talent and desire here now.

We don’t expect everyone to appreciate these words or the decisions taken and there will be negative views out there.

We understand this has been a hugely painful time for everybody associated with Swansea City and there can be no denying that. Our response is to fight and try to build for the future.

Graham asks his players to be brave, to rise above the culture of fear of mistakes and to work hard to constantly improve. We must ask nothing less of ourselves.

Stephen Kaplan & Jason Levien