Patience is needed as the Swans plan ahead for the new season

The reaction, or rather over reaction, to Friday’s friendly defeat at Oxford was as incredible to watch as it was unbelievable at the same stage.   The simple fact is it was a pre-season friendly game that has no impact at all on the league results that will follow in two weeks time.

Nobody can claim the performance was a good one – not even sure our manager tried – but to see people already deciding that Michael Duff is not the man for the job is, no real other word to describe it, but madness.

For some they didn’t even wait until the final whistle blew but they started within ten or fifteen minutes of a game that has no bearing on anything when the season comes around.

This season could be setting itself up to be a long one if we get the next nine months of people bemoaning the departure of Russell Martin in the same way that much of his first season was spent by some shedding tears over Steve Cooper.   Both those Swansea City managers felt that they needed to move onto further their careers as they felt that they had taken their current job as far as they possibly good.    Stuart James noted on the weekend that ten players had left the Swans since the end of the season (rightly noted as a variety of importance to the club) which is very similar to the position that Russell Martin found himself in two years ago.

That takes time to work in the right players and, as we noted yesterday, when some of your targets are loan targets they don’t tend to arrive at the beginning of July, that tends to happen at the start of August.

It was posted on Twitter during Friday night’s game that there were some who decided that to boo at half time was appropriate for the game and also ironic cheers when Andy Fisher caught the ball during the game.   I don’t get it at the best of times.  I get it even less when its a pointless pre-season game against Oxford or anywhere else for that matter.

In the same way that everyone insisted that Russell Martin deserved time when he arrived in SA1, Michael Duff deserves exactly the same respect.    For everyone who is talking up our form at the end of last season an expecting it to run naturally into this season I urge you to remember the twenty-three games that preceded that end of season run where we were nothing short of dreadful for most of it.   They don’t necessarily balance each other out but they add some level of reality to what last season was about.

We have a new manager at the helm and tweaks to the way that we play the game.   That simple fact will mean that it takes some way to adjust for fans and players alike.   We have seen three new additions in the squad already (all of whom we assume will feature on a more than regular basis this season) and there are three more lined up to come in and I strongly suspect there are more transfer dealings to be done beyond that.   This is another team in a transition period and there is nothing that we can do to change that.  Decisions were taken by many which dictated that this were to be the case.

Duff has already talked about the need for us to be as one and united together and it is disappointing that those words have been dismissed within the first point of action where fans are in the ground.

“We need that one team mentality,” said the Swans boss when he arrived in SA1.  “The players, staff, fans, and board. Everyone needs to pull in the same direction because that’s the only way you’re going to achieve success.”

It was quite depressing to read the number of Swans fans who have written off the manager and the team at this early stage.   Duff himself admitted that there was work to be done after Friday night but the one thing Friday night should tell you is that nothing has changed from the game that wasn’t a ‘thing’ before it.

Many times on these pages have we talked about this season being a summer of change and that is as much on the pitch as it is off it.   Yates, Key and Ginnelly have all arrived and there are more to follow.    Piroe will likely leave but we have plans in place for that eventuality – the work and planning of Paul Watson should not be overlooked here.   The Swans appear to be doing some solid business in the background and the team doing that work deserve some faith that they are doing the job they were hired to do.  Certainly more than one pre-season friendly anyway.

Michael Duff is a month into his tenure at Swansea City which tells you all you need to know about the madness of those writing him off although part of that is, without doubt, driven by the sheer fact that he isn’t Russell Martin.   The bad news is for those who use that as criteria he will never be Russell Martin.   As said earlier, the former Swans boss moved on as he felt he should do better.   That isn’t the fault of Michael Duff.

The new manager needs, and deserves, time at the helm to embed his way of playing with the players that we have and the ones that he brings in.   It may take some time but that is the time that was afforded to the previous manager (and others before him) so this should be no different.

It is the only way to success.