Desperate John

A step in the direction or a stroke of good luck?

Let’s face it from the start, at the moment we are not very good. Not very good at all. The shine from the 3rd division trophy that sits in the cabinet at the Vetch has long since diminished but then again we weren’t very good last season either. We were just the best of a bad bunch and a team that was built around one of the strongest defences I have ever seen in a Swansea City team.

We have a man in charge in John Hollins who I believe is desperate. Very desperate. A man that seems to the average football fan to be devoid of any tactical sense. I mean, if you were managing a team that was staring relegation in the face and needing to win at least 7 from your last 9 games, would you leave your leading scorer on the bench? Nope, nor me.

Would you have let your ‘battling ball winning midfielder’ leave on transfer deadline day and then declare a few hours later that what you really needed was a ‘battling ball winning midfielder’? Nope, nor me.

If you had played for two of the countries top teams during, in fairness, a distinguished career, would you have some contacts there to be able to bring in a couple of youngsters like previous managers did with the likes of Frank Lampard jnr? You would think so.

Not our John though.

For as much as I am happy that we won on Tuesday, let’s not take away the fact that for 75 minutes we were the same poor footballing team that we have been for the large proportion of this season. And then all of a sudden a few things clicked. We have been through too much this season to believe that it will be the same Swansea performance that finished Tuesday on Saturday. In all probability we will go back to the same Swansea City that has played for the most of the season.

Now, we have proved we can do it so why don’t we do it more often?

It has to be down to the manager surely? He is the one that selects the eleven players that will take the pitch and he is also the one that decides what game plan we will play. Trouble is, I don’t believe that he knows what that game plan is. I believe it is a case of mix n match until something works. And what works one day may not work the next.

I would not be at all surprised to see the starting eleven on Saturday match the finishing eleven on Tuesday. Not surprised at all, in fact it may be worth a fiver at Jack Brown’s. Will it work? We can hope so, Hollins does. He lives on hope not knowledge.

So back to the original question. Will the real Swansea City please stand up? Under Mr Hollins there is not a real Swansea City. There is the one that now and again will gel and look the part but most of the time they do not gel and the ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ chants stop – the sad part is they are probably right.

I have always believed that we have the right ‘soldiers’ to do the job, it is the ‘general’ that is wrong. Eleven and more players that are capable but lacking the right direction.

John, we have had some good times but the bad times far far outweigh them, thanks for the effort but the time is there to part. Enjoy the next 3 or 4 weeks John, it may be some time before you manage a football club in league football again?

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