Phil Sumbler
Luke Williams will make his first league managerial appearance for the Swans at the Swansea.com Stadium today as the Swans welcome Southampton to SA1 looking to get one over on someone Williams knows well.
And the new Swans boss has spoken openly to the club’s matchday programme about the emotional connection he wants to get with the supporters having seen the power of that in his previous time at the club.
Williams was, of course, assistant to the man who will sit in the opposition dugout today in Russell Martin before he departed the club at the start of 2022 eventually taking charge at Notts County. His record at Meadow Lane speaks for itself with promotion to the football league followed by a charge for the play offs this season, a record that of course led the Swans to recruit him as a replacement for the recently departed Michael Duff.
Williams today will witness a first league game as manager at Swansea and the twist of fate that sees his former boss in the opposition dugout will not be lost on anyone as he looks to secure a first league win as Swans boss having come so close at Birmingham last weekend.
“I want us to have a team that the fans connect with emotionally,” he said in the matchday programme.
“When you play football in a certain way that excites people and it makes them feel emotional, that is when those connections are made.
“When you have a team that is positive and wants to score a lot of goals, and a team that has players working hard for each other, making big recovery runs and hunting for the ball, it gives a real energy.
“I believe when people see and feel that, it is very powerful.
“I remember from my first time here, beating Cardiff 3-0, and the way we played. When you do that, it’s impossible not to connect with the supporters.
“When we scored the third goal that day, I turned round and was shouting ‘Come on’, and locked eyes with a fan behind the dugout who was doing exactly the same thing.
“Those are the feelings we want people to have, and the connection we want to have.
“We need to work really, really hard to ensure we make everyone proud of the team. That’s our mission here.”
As he prepares his side to face his former boss today he was quick to deflect any thoughts that people may have that Russell Martin MkII was in the building “We have some shared ideas, but we will have moved on from when we worked together because you constantly learn and evolve.
“There is always evolution, they say a week is a long time in football so imagine the difference that can happen in the 18 months since we worked together.
“Everything we have done since we worked together has given us different outlooks and tools to do the job.
“I had been coaching for a long time before I met Russell, I met Russell on week two of his coaching journey.
“He had great ideas, but I had been working at a number of different levels previously.
“We shared a lot of ideas, we spent a lot of time together as were living in the hotel at the stadium at MK.
“We spent a huge amount of time together talking about our ideas. It had a positive influence for both of us, and that’s the most important thing.”
Williams will not be judged on the result of today given that Southampton arrive in Swansea on the back of a twenty match unbeaten run. After the few months that Michael Duff was here the next few months should be seen as somewhat of a free pass for Williams to stamp his own authority on the squad and the style of play.
But you just know that three points today will feel very sweet in the Williams household this evening.
