Phil Sumbler
The Swans open up a New Year of football at home to West Brom still looking to complete a managerial search that started four weeks ago and, if some were to be believed yesterday, could come to a close today ahead of kick off.
Whether that happens seems extremely doubtful but the laughing has still not yet settled on the Trust statement yesterday that referenced a managerial search being “notoriously difficult to do” in a festive period which we can only assume they have been told to say to take some of the heat away from a Chairman who has done nothing to endear himself to the fans since he arrived in Swansea in the first half of last year.
That Chairman has also been very conspicuous by his absence from today’s digital match programme where the only notes given ahead of the game were from Alan Sheehan – the man who was given the temporary reigns of the managerial seat on that day four weeks ago when we decided to part company with Michael Duff.
It seems inconceivable to think that – as the Trust suggested – we put all our eggs in the Chris Davies basket when Duff left but whatever has happened the shambolic way that the club has been managed has allowed us to navigate that busy period fixture wise with a temporary man in charge.
The boxing Day shambles at Southampton was put a little out of the memory with a better performance on Friday night at Coventry that saw us secure a point thanks to a very late Liam Cullen free kick but the reality is those performances are too often lacking this season which just highlights our poor summer transfer activity where we were left lacking almost as much as we were last January when we made no signings.
But onto today. West Brom are definitely a team looking up the table. They go into a New Year in 5th place, 13 points ahead of the Swans but have three defeats in the last six despite that relative lofty position in the league. Unpredictable I think is the way we can describe them at the moment and we should not lose sight of the fact that the Swans have one more point in that last six game run then today’s opponents.
Looking ahead: Alan Sheehan “They are a good team with a lot of Premier League and international experience, so we have to recover and make sure we give the lads the best possible chance of putting on a performance and getting a result,” he said,
“We had a good result on home turf last time out, we will have to see how some of the lads are feeling with some of the sickness we have had in the camp.
“We will see where we are at, but the players have given us so much recently and I think there is a lot to take from that.
“People want to write you off in this game all the time, and this is a challenging time of year with the quick turnaround between so many games, but the players have responded.
“But the challenge is to dust ourselves down, see where we are at and get ourselves ready to go.”
Carlos Corberan: “It’s impossible to win games at this period of the competition if you don’t beat the fatigue and to play with an extra level of resilience and mentality.
“I remember a conversation I had with my squad in pre-season that the key to success this year in the Championship is extra mentality.
“There isn’t a single easy game. You play a lot of games in a row and if you’re not mentally and physically strong, it reduces your options to win a lot.”
The last three games between these two teams have ended with a 3-2 scoreline – West Brom’s win by that margin in October went some way to cancel out two Swans wins by the same scoreline last season and the last five games between the two sides have seen 20 goals scored, 12 of them by the Swans.
All those signs point to goals at the Swansea.com Stadium today which probably means a dull and drab 0-0 draw will open up 2024. Or will it?
Prediction: Swansea City 2-2 West Brom
