By Tony Leighton

Swansea City manager Roberto Martinez famously made his name in England as one of Wigan Athletic's 'Three Amigos,' playing alongside his fellow Spaniards Jesus Seba and Isidro Diaz in an exciting Latics line-up during the late 1990's.

Now the former FC Balaguer, Swansea and Chester midfielder, who is building a big reputation as a manager after leading the Swans to the League 1 title last term, is making full use of his Spanish connections as he looks to establish his team in the Championship.

The Liberty Stadium now boasts not three but six amigos following the summer signings of midfielder Jordi Gomez (on a season-long loan) and defender Albert Serran from Espanyol plus striker Gorka Pintado from Granada.

They join Spaniards Angel Rangel, Guillem Bauza and Andrea Orlandi in a squad that ran away with the 2007-08 League 1 title - the Swans finished eight points ahead of second placed Nottingham Forest and 16 clear of the Play-Off places.

As they step up to Championship level for the first time in 24 years, however, Martinez insists that he looks far wider than the country of his birth for new recruits - as the club record £400,000 signing of Stockport County defender Ashley Williams demonstrates.

The manager says: "We look at the Scottish and Dutch leagues as well as in England and Spain, and the players we have signed in the close season were the best available in the positions we wanted to fill.

"It's important that the people we sign have good backgrounds and these three Spanish players have had a fantastic footballing education at big clubs. We have been following all of them for a long time and I'm confident they will settle in well with us.

"We've signed six players in all so far, but I am still looking to strengthen in two or three areas and in the next few weeks there could be some new faces coming to the club because we have to be strong in all areas for the challenge of the Championship."

With so many new players heading to the club there could be some settling in problems, but the Swans easily overcame that situation last year after bringing in 10 signings ahead of what was Martinez' first full season as a manager.

"It will certainly take time for the team to gel," says the manager. "That happened last season, but once we got going we had a great level of consistency and we have to aim to match that this season.

"It would be foolish to talk about another promotion because the club have been playing below Championship level for over 20 years and we have to adjust to the new environment. But we'll be going all out to win as many matches as possible."