Swansea City are currently on a seven-day tour of Spain which takes in games against Espanyol, Palamos, Peralada and Barcelona B. And as Roberto Martinez prepares his troops for the forthcoming Championship campaign, our official website team will be keeping you right up to date with a daily diary that get right up close and personal with the squad.

Day 2

Alan Tate is keeping a low profile when the Gaffer (Roberto) is around after a copy of football magazine FourFourTwo appeared in the team hotel.

In an interview from Tatey on Swansea's promotion, the defender slipped up by having a pop at the manager's choice of brown shoes last season.

Asked if they brought him luck, Tatey explained: "I doubt if they bring him any luck because they are awful.

"He's always getting stick off the lads about them . . . we even bought him crocodile shoes at Christmas as a joke. He said he'd wear them for the final game at Brighton, but in the end I think he bottled it. We expect him to wear them at some point next season!''

Roberto's more likely to feed Tatey to the crocodiles though.

Gary Monk's motley crew just managed to escape a fine after turning up for dinner late - although they did have a good excuse.

Monks, Bussy (Guilem Bauza), Albert Serran, Fede Bessone, Marcos Painter and Kristian O'Leary all trailed in late.

But assistant-manager Graeme Jones let them off when their excuse was confirmed by the hotel staff.

All six had been stuck in the hotel lift for 10 minutes before someone finally answered their alarm call.

"Let me tell you something, you don't want to be stuck in a lift with Marcos Painter,'' joked Monks afterwards.

It's the stairs from now on for that lot as physio Richie Evans ordered new body fat tests.

Quote of the tour so far goes to Darren Pratley as he looked out over the hotel balcony following Tuesday night's earthquake, measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale, which shook the building.

He was overheard stating: "God, it's not like England here is it?''

It's reminiscent of Ian Rush's famous quote while playing for Juventus, which went: "Italy? It's like living in a foreign country.

At least Prats is in good company now.

Despite two training sessions a day, some of the squad still can't get enough of the ball as they prepare for Friday's crunch game against Espanyol.

Away from training, Ferrie Bodde, David Cornell, Stefan Morrison, Matty Collins, Chad Bond and Joe Allen held their own 'keepy-uppy' competition at the side of the pool (pictured above).

The loser in each round got their ears slapped heavily or flicked hard by the other members of the party as punishment.

Young Joe Allen came out the worst, just ahead of Matty Collins, and his bright red ears could be seen glowing as far a field as Barcelona.

And finally, having revealed in yesterday's diary that young goalkeeper David Cornell had failed his driving test on the morning the Swans flew out to Spain, he let slip another fact that has earned him more stick from the squad

His father is actually a driving instructor.