da dobrowin： Swansea City have prided themselves on being one of the Premier League’s best run clubs since their promotion to the Premier League in 2011.
da realbet： In the past 12 months, Swansea have acted upon decisions in untypical Swansea like fashion. The sacking of Garry Monk, the failure to strengthen in key areas added to the lack of worthy replacements for their best performers means the Welsh outfit could be set to lose their Premier League status.
When Brendan Rodgers guided Swansea to the Premier League, via the play-off final in 2011, they were tipped by many experts to immediately return to the Championship. Under Rodgers, Swansea went on to gain many plaudits for their passing style, high intensity and never say die attitude – something of which is not a similar site at the Liberty Stadium these days.
Clever signings in Swansea’s first couple of seasons have seen players like Michu, Wilfried Bony and Michel Vorm sign for bargain fees and reproduce at the highest level. When you compare that to the decision making currently underway at the club now it paints a scary picture for the Swansea fans. Jefferson Montero came and impressed during some high-profile games however the Ecuadorian winger fails to produce on a consistent basis. This is something that doesn’t bode well figuring the club are expected to be in a relegation scrap this season.
Jefferson Montero came and impressed during some high-profile games but the Ecuadorian winger fails to produce on a consistent basis. This is something that doesn’t bode well figuring the club are expected to be in a relegation scrap this season.
When Manchester City came calling Wilfried Bony left for a £28million fee in January 2015. The Ivorian can not be blamed for opting to swap mid-table Swansea for title challenging and Champions League side Manchester City. Huw Jenkins received a £25million up-front fee from the Manchester outfit but really failed to reinvest the money in adequate replacements.
Bony’s goals had helped Swansea establish themselves in the top half of the table and the momentum continued after his departure. Nonetheless, there wasn’t a longer term strategy to replace the Ivorian, and want-away forward Bafetimbi Gomis eventually replaced Bony as the club’s number one forward.
This is more evidence of Swansea looking at their short-term rather than the long-term – something that made them so successful at the turn of the decade.
When Michael Landrup was sacked in February 2014, veteran defender Garry Monk was given the job originally in a caretaker role. After some impressive results, Monk was given the job on a permanent basis and was allowed to assemble his own squad to enable Swansea to challenge for the Europa League once again.
An impressive 8th place finish in his first full season in charge during the 2014/2015 campaign was Swansea’s highest ever Premier League finish. A stunning achievement figuring the turmoil the club was in following the departure of Landrup just over 12 months previously. Clever signings, such as Gylfi Sigurdsson, Lukas Fabianski and Federico Fernandez were all signed to replace the departing Michel Vorm and Chico Flores who joined Tottenham and Lekhwiya in Qatar respectively.
The clever actions in the transfer market added with the backing from the board meant Swansea’s future was seemingly bright with the club going into the 2015-2016 season hoping to achieve similar success and challenge the league’s top six. Eder joined from FC Braga for a £5million fee whilst Andre Ayew joined on a free transfer from Marseille. The Ayew deal saw the Ghanaian pocket a £8million signing on fee which instantly showed his intentions rather than ambition.
Behind the scenes players like Gomis and Montero began to become ill-disciplined by arriving late for training and the results of their actions could be seen on the pitch. A good start to the 2015/2016 season saw Swansea record just one victory from October to December and surprisingly Huw Jenkins took action.
Instead of getting rid of troublesome players causing dressing-room unrest in the upcoming window, Jenkins took the decision to sack Garry Monk. Monk was sacked in early December with first team coach Alan Curtis taking charge of the side and was unaware of his own position at the club let alone anyone else.
It wasn’t the sacking but the manner of it which stunned the league. Swansea were a club who had a long-term plan in place and a clear directive of how they wished to achieve it. Alan Curtis was placed in control of first-team affairs whilst the club attempted to find a worthy replacement for Monk. By the time of his sacking Swansea had not approached any manager to take the club forward but they wished simply to sack Monk. It’s a move that was extremely unlikely during the first number of seasons in the Premier League.
Finally, a month later, 60-year-old Francesco Guidolin was appointed the new manager. It wouldn’t be harsh to say that 99% of Swansea fans had not heard of the Italian who had managed a grand total of 13 teams – not one of whom were outside of Italy. The decision to appoint Guidolin was totally against the club’s recent direction.
Young managers with a point to prove had all originally been installed before Guidolin come in with the objective to keep Swansea in the Premier League. Credit to the Italian, he did achieve survival but it came at a cost. The lack of ambition coming from the board added to the impending sense of doom surrounding the club at the moment and saw key players such as Andre Ayew and club legend Ashley Williams depart for West Ham and Everton respectively.
Where next for Swansea? Surely if the club continues to plan for their short-term future instead of the long-term it will ultimately see them lose their Premier League status. The sale of key players and recruitment of un-adequate replacements will surely backfire, especially with someone as unproven in the league as Guidolin in-charge.
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