Planet Swans ArchivesI have to confess I have moved to the position of not really worrying whether the manager stays or goes at the moment I just know that all the posturing and muck raking (which is exactly what it is) is not helping anyone – manager or club.
It really depresses me to read all this stuff after our greatest season ever that saw us finish in the Top 10 of the Premier League and pick up our first major trophy in a 100 year history. Sure the end of the season was a little bit low with few points collected since the Capital One Cup win but that shouldn’t take the gloss off what was a phenomenal achievement.
Yet three weeks after we have the manager berating the board for not achieving their transfer targets yet (I have been told there have been only 10 transfer deals done in the Premier League since the season ended?) and the club needing to deflect some of the opinion written by papers on the back of what they have been told by an agent.
Clearly something is not working at the moment but the club haven’t failed us yet on transfer targets and we now know that they have offered up a budget that the manager is happy with. We appear to have lost out on Aspas (he won’t be the first and won’t be the last person we miss out on) and other players are saying they want Champions League football or in the case of Lukaku we don’t know Chelsea’s intentions on him yet.
I was told yesterday that part of Laudrup’s frustration is also driven by the fact that we missed out on Jamie Mackie and Kenwyne Jones in January but I can’t really believe that one of the greatest footballers ever has become disillusioned because we missed out on two average strikers? That just doesn’t add up surely?
The manager insists that the targets he has lined up are within the club’s budget for both transfer fee and salary (bar one allegedly) and that he has just hoped for good news. And as much as he re-iterated his desire to stay at Swansea next season you can’t help but think that his comments were paving the way for his exit should a better offer come along? (or is that just reading too much into what he said?)
I have to say that I am not surprised that transfer moves are minimal – they always are this time of year. It is naive to believe that if we made moves now we would get players ahead of other clubs who may be interested – most players know exactly where all the interest is when they are looking to move so they aren’t going to just sign for the first club that comes knocking surely?
I’m very much now in a position that if the manager walked away tomorrow I wouldn’t be surprised or actually worried. The club has survived before and will survive again and it’s a little bit naive to suggest that we will be doomed for relegation which appears to be the growing belief at the moment because we haven’t signed anyone in three weeks.
Our board isn’t perfect – and to be fair they have never claimed to be – and there are still things that could work better at the club on and off the pitch but the one thing they have done for every manager since Kenny Jackett was allowed to buy Rory Fallon (!) is to back them with transfers and deliver the players that we can. We have always missed out on transfer targets and will continue to do so but we also land a good number of them. I can’t remember who told me once but they said that Swansea always find it harder to secure some players as we are perceived to be out of the way. That was as relevant in League Two as it is in the Premier League like it or not.
I still want the manager to be here in August, I just don’t know if it will happen. if it doesn’t we will have a fair number of people wanting to fill his shoes and maybe even next time it will be another upgrade. It’s possible you know.
Onwards…
