West Brom midfielder John Swift has set his sights on the Sky Bet Championship play-offs and is dreaming of facing former club Chelsea in the Premier League next season.
Swift has made 33 league appearances this term, with the Baggies sitting seven points off a top-six place ahead of their clash at home against Wigan on Tuesday.
Albion’s form drastically changed after the sacking of Steve Bruce in October – which saw them rise from 22nd to mid-table – a turnaround Swift attributes to manager Carlos Corberan.
“We do a lot of video work after the games, before the games to look at the opposition and work out where their strengths are and weaknesses are so when we go into the game, we know exactly what we need to do on and off the ball,” he told the PA news agency.
“He’s very strict in training, makes sure everyone’s working hard and everyone’s fitness is up and there’s no dropping off in training.
“If we get anything less than that (play-offs) it’s not good enough from the players, the staff, the fans, everyone wants to be in the play-offs and that’s our end goal.”
Swift was contracted to Chelsea, where he made one Premier League appearance off the bench against Cardiff in 2014, for nine seasons before joining Reading permanently in 2016.
“It would be nice to go back to Stamford Bridge and play against a team I grew up with,” said the 27-year-old.
“Some of the players that are still there I would’ve played in the youth teams with, and most of the staff are still the same so it’d be nice to see them as well.
“There’s a lot of young players that leave Chelsea that want to go back and prove themselves at that level, so for me (it would be) a dream to go back there and get a chance to play in front of the fans at Stamford Bridge.”
Having scored three and assisted six so far in the league, Swift reflected on his debut season for West Brom off the back of a career-high last year with the Royals where he picked up 24 goal contributions.
“I want to perform to my best ability and I think when I’m playing I’m trying to do that, I’m trying to get as many goals and assists to help the team,” he added.
“But personally I think it’s more just doing what I can for the team on and off the ball to get the three points at the end of the game.”
The 2022-23 campaign is West Brom’s second in the Championship since being relegated from the Premier League in 2021.
Swift said: “For me and some of the other lads that haven’t played there (in the Premier League), we would love to play there.
“That’s the main reason why I wanted to come to West Brom because I felt the squad and everything that comes with the club has a good chance of getting there.
“We didn’t start great, which obviously hasn’t helped us now, but hopefully we can turn that around and get into the play-offs and give ourselves a massive chance to get ourselves to where everyone in English football wants to get to.”
