Swansea City supporters will have loved one aspect of Leeds United beating Cardiff City on Saturday | OneFootball

Seeing your biggest rivals suffer a heavy defeat is always satisfying, but Swansea City supporters would have enjoyed Leeds United's recent victory over Cardiff City more so than usual.

Leeds ran riot at the Cardiff City Stadium, beating the Bluebirds 3-0 in a one-sided encounter on Saturday afternoon.

While Swansea supporters will always enjoy seeing their nearest and dearest suffer heavy defeats, they'd have had even more reason to smile on Saturday thanks to the number of ex-Swansea players in the Leeds team.

Joe Rodon and Dan James, who started for Leeds on Saturday, both came through Swansea's academy before making their first-team debuts in 2018, while Joel Piroe, who was used as a substitute, spent two years with the Swans before joining the Whites in the summer.

Leeds' captain on the day, Ethan Ampadu, also has links to Swansea thanks to his father, Kwame Ampadu, who spent four years with the club in the 90s.

Leeds thrash Cardiff

Leeds needed a last-minute goal to steal a point from Cardiff at Elland Road in August, but it couldn't have been more different on Saturday.

Leeds dominated from start to finish on Saturday in the Welsh capital and Cardiff should be thankful that it was only 3-0. The away side had seven shots on target, compared to just one from the home side.

There were two former Swansea players in the starting XI, with regular starter Piroe missing out and Daniel Farke favouring Patrick Bamford.

However, the ex-Swans managed to get themselves on the scoresheet with winger James scoring after 31 minutes at the Cardiff City Stadium. Meanwhile, Rodon, who's from Swansea and joined the club's academy at eight-years-old, was in fine form at the back, keeping a clean sheet and continuing his great run.

Piroe, who scored twice in three appearances against Cardiff during his time as a Swansea player, came on with just one minute left, so wasn't able to make the desired impact but would have enjoyed the win nonetheless.

While it's great to see their former players doing well, particularly against Cardiff, it must be hard for Swansea supporters to look at their former players without thinking about what could have been.

Despite being homegrown players, James and Rodon only managed 93 appearances for Swansea between them before moving to Manchester United and Tottenham respectively. Whilst you can't blame them for leaving for bigger clubs, it must be hard to watch their star academy products playing for another side in the Championship.

James managed just one season as a first-teamer before leaving, while Rodon managed two, albeit they were disrupted by injuries and the pandemic.

However, while it's tough seeing your best players leave the club, Swansea received £15million for James, according to Sky Sports, and £12million for Rodon, according to TNT Sport.

This means that Swansea received £27million in total for two academy products, which allowed them to remain on a solid footing financially after their parachute payments ended in 2021.

Swansea should be grateful to the pair of them and should wish them all the best in their quest for promotion with Leeds. After all, Swansea won't want to be facing players of their calibre in the Championship again next season.