Planet Swans ArchivesStarting with a tough test at Charlton on the opening day and with many sides in the division having played in the Premiership, Monk knows it will be tough and that the Swans will have to go and earn the respect of their fellow teams – the title of League One champions means nothing in the pecking order for next season.
The Swans ended last season 10 points clear of the chasing pack and without a doubt are in the Championship on merit but with some big names lined up to grace the Liberty next season it is not going to be easy. Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday are the first two league visitors to Swansea – both having played Premiership football as well as gracing cup finals in the recent past but that – much like our current trophy – counts for nothing as the new season looms.
Speaking to today's Wales on Sunday, Monk said “When you look at the games, even in the first few weeks, it shows what kind of challenge we face.
“But, at the moment, all we’re looking at is a list of names and there’s no point fearing names – names don’t win anything.
“This is a big league where there are plenty of big clubs with a lot of history with trophies, but, as good as some of the players are in the division, they aren’t the players that gave these clubs their history.
“All that counts is what you do now and from the first week we have a chance to make that count for ourselves.
“We can’t keep patting ourselves on the back over last year because it’s gone now.
“What we did was brilliant, but the aim was to get here – now we’re here the hard work starts.
“It’s a challenge for us all, but we have to go and earn people’s respect because we’ve come into the league new and you can imagine a few teams are eyeing us up as a bit of a soft touch.
“But the only way we go and change that perception is by going out and giving teams a proper game and earning some respect.
“That starts with the first game and our first test. Charlton are a strong team and one of the favourites to go up and we have to go to their backyard straight off.
“That’s a great yardstick for us and first games in a season are always good to win, but it’s probably more important in terms of how you perform.
“We lost the opening game last year, but the way we played was a big plus for us in going on to do what we did in the way we did it.
“When you look at the games, even in the first few weeks, it shows what kind of challenge we face.
“But, at the moment, all we’re looking at is a list of names and there’s no point fearing names – names don’t win anything.
“There’s big clubs and big games all the way through and right now it’s hard picking out certain games over the others.
“But I watched a lot of games in the Championship last season and the standard wasn’t miles away from what we were playing.
“We’re going to come up against strong sides full of quality every week, but we have every right to be here and we will show it.”
