Last season, while the World Cup was capturing the attention of the footballing public, Chelsea flew under the radar and snapped up Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas. They had their shopping done long before anyone else and they already looked like a team to be feared with some of the players they had already. Sure enough, the won the league at a canter.

The season before that it was Manchester City - Fernandinho and Jesus Navas came in very early in that transfer window. Again, they were the team to go on and win the league.

And the club that has been busy the earliest so far this year has been Swansea. They’ve brought in Franck Tabanou from St Etienne and Andrew Ayew from Marseille in some wonderful business. By trade they’ve signed two wingers. Ayew an explosive, direct player with Champions League - even World Cup - experience. And Tabanou is also quick but a much more measured player. He has a good left foot and a trick up his sleeve, but his main skill is his head. He has a wonderful attitude and his ability to read the game has seen him turn into a left back over the last season - that and his love of defending one on one.

I’m not saying that Swansea will win the league! They aren’t at the level of City or Chelsea obviously, but I think they will benefit from the same things after doing their shopping early.

Firstly, getting the signings in quick shows that you know what you want. Garry Monk must have identified those positions as ones where he needed to strengthen, then he’s identified his players and then he signed them. Simple, really, but if you know what you need it really can be that simple - especially if you get in there early.

And the second thing that will help Swansea this season is the fact that these players are coming into the side before pre-season. The new signings will have had time to sort out personal stuff like finding a house and settling into the area before the gruelling pre-season starts in earnest. Once they meet up with the squad, integration will be that much easier, and they’ll get a full, undisrupted pre-season under their belts, which is always important.

It’s that bit easier when it’s not a World Cup year, of course. Chelsea showed it’s not impossible even when there’s a competition on, but this season clubs really could have done their shopping early, and most haven’t done much yet.

That’s not to say they won’t - the transfer window isn’t even open yet. And there’s always the domino effect that transfers have. One club won’t sell until they get their replacement sorted, and then the next club won’t sell the replacement until they get their own replacement sorted.

But Swansea, and in recent years Chelsea and Manchester City should serve as lessons to clubs. Conversely, the Arsenal team of 2011-12 should serve as a warning. After that 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford in August 2011, Arsene Wenger had to panic-buy somewhat. Andre Santos, Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta came in on deadline day and that sort of pacified the Arsenal faithful. Mertesacker and Arteta turned out to be decent players for the Gunners but they didn’t have their best season and just about managed to scrape into the Champions League, only a point above Tottenham in fourth, but that season Chelsea won the Champions League depriving fourth place of a Champions League spot.

It wasn’t that Arsenal signed dud players - though they hardly signed top quality on deadline day. It was that those players didn’t have time to bed in, they didn’t have time to move their lives to London before having to get straight down to the football. They didn’t have a pre season with their new teammates and they didn’t know enough about the style the team was playing in to settle right away. They were always playing catch-up.

And that’s what Swansea have avoided by bringing in their new players before the season started. It’s what Manchester City and Chelsea avoided those years ago too. And this summer other clubs around the Premier League should be wary not to let their shopping drag on towards the deadline. It always pays to do your shopping before the big rush.

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