The judgement is in – Coleman and Watson’s actions fall well short of Swansea expectations

The dust is settling on the Boxing Day humiliation at Southampton but the anger is not dying down as the Swansea City ownership oversee what is another disaster of a season showing just how far out of their depth they appear to be running a football club in the EFL.

We are closing in on four weeks since we parted company with Michael Duff and Alan Sheehan is trying to do his best but he is working with the poor hand dealt to him by the recruitment policy of the summer that it is shown learned none of the lessons from the poor transfer windows of the past.

We made it clear when Duff went that Chris Davies was our first target as manager and we got nowhere with that whether it was through our choice or his but the simple fact is yet again the ownership group have failed to get their target over the line and the pathetic capitulation at Southampton is a direct result of the dreadful way that we are managing a football club.

When Andy Coleman arrived in Swansea almost eight months ago he asked to be judged by his actions and not his words with the reality now being that both is actions and words are as bizarre as each other.   His statement last week on the managerial hunt told us much about the fact he seems to be floundering as Chairman and when he started talking about data programmes then you just had the clearest evidence you needed that the understanding of the football industry in this country is severely lacking.

A few weeks back his trusted sidekick – another arrival in SA1 at the expense of the football club – talked about how his “background has mostly been in politics and policy development in Washington D.C.” would benefit the football club with the simple reality being that there are no synergies with those kind of roles, no synergies with football and there is nothing that Gude has delivered since he has been here that has given us any benefit.

Just a week back we were told of the season ticket increases for next season, of course highly backed by the Trust (who contain board members who tell us “things could be worse”) with the stark reality that there is every chance that next season could see the lowest season ticket sales certainly since the club was promoted back to the top two divisions back in 2008.   That is on your watches Mr Coleman and Mr Gude.

And then we come to the recruitment under the new head honcho in that area in Paul Watson.   A man who left Luton before they won promotion to the Premier League but nobody can actually see what he actually did there.   There was much excitement around his appointment but it is difficult to see just why.   And on the evidence of what it is delivered since he has been in the role it is even more difficult to see exactly what he bought to the table.   Between him and Coleman these are the people who sanctioned in excess of £2m transfer fees for Jerry Yates and Josh Tymon.   That is in addition to a host of loan players, many of whom we never see play and then the desperation that saw us take a 34 year old winger on a short term loan this month.   Ironically he has probably been one of the high spots of the last month which tells you more about what came before him rather than what he actually brought with him.

Watson was allegedly signed by this club so we could learn the lessons from last January’s transfer window but all that happened was that we signed thirteen players for the squad but there are very few that have actually made us better as a result of that recruitment.    The blame for that sits firmly at the door of Paul Watson.

The worst part about the Boxing Day defeat was that it was even barely a surprise.   The match preview on here predicted a 3-0 defeat and when it got to 5 at the end of the game I don’t suspect there were too many Swans fans who raised an eyebrow.   The only thing that made it feel worse was that it never felt like Southampton hit top gear, probably the only thing we can feel thankful of the morning after the afternoon before.

The management of Swansea City (certainly off the pitch) this season has been the worst we have seen for more than a quarter of a century.   The ownership group are running roughshod over the club and making poor decisions all round whether that is through staff appointments, managerial appointments (or the lack of them) or a recruitment policy that takes us further and further away from the Swansea way with almost every signing.   Rearrange these words into a popular well known saying – depth out totally their of.

It is difficult to know where we go next but the one thing that is certain at the moment is that the feelings of the fans will start to increase.   Jamie Paterson’s last minute winner on Friday night prevented what would have been a toxic view from those who were left at the end and a defeat on Saturday could mean it is anything but a Happy New Year at the Swansea.com on New Year’s Day when West Brom arrive in SA1.

People have been voting with their feet for some time and this will only continue as we lurch from one disaster to another and it is difficult to see that it can be turned around off the pitch although I guess there is some hope on the pitch if we could – by some miracle – make a decent managerial appointment.

So when someone asks you to judge them by their actions rather than their words you take that request at face value but the sad part is for Andy Coleman and his team around him those actions are well short of what is expected.   Simply nowhere near good enough.