Phil Sumbler
There has been much talk about relegation over the course of the last few days, fuelled by a run of form that has seen us take just one point from the last twelve and slip to within five points of the bottom three.
Those fears have not been helped by the upcoming fixture list which looks a little tricky to say the least – home games with promotion chasing Leeds and Ipswich take up two of the next three fixtures for Luke Williams’ side.
Many are quick to point out that losing the next half dozen games could see us head into a battle where the players will require to be “u for the fight” and evidence of recent games suggest that we have more than just a few players where their desire to show that fight can be rightfully questioned.
As referenced yesterday on these pages, the short term planning of the Swans board has hit hard this season and the regression of the football club over the past four years has been plain to see. From a side that made back to back play-offs under Steve Cooper we have made a long series of bad decisions in transfer windows and every summer we end up bringing in players who do not have an impact in the side and our use of the loan system has largely been awful with very few players actually making any impact for us during their time here.
It was something summed up by Andy Robinson when talking to the BBC after the latest of our defeats – 1-0 at home to Plymouth on Saturday. The former Swans midfielder said “I’ve watched them many times this season and the more I see them, the more I’m concerned,
“The worrying thing for me is that Swansea are falling towards a relegation battle because the players they’ve got are just not enough at the moment.
“For me personally, I don’t think the window was a great one – it was like for like.
“I think the manager’s come out and spoken about having pace – I’ve been saying it’s been lacking in this squad for weeks now, so he’s got that.
“But it’s all a massive knock-on effect from the start of the season and the poor recruitment under Michael Duff [last summer], and now it’s just playing catch up.”
Those few lines of words sum up why we are currently in the predicament that we are in but I still believe that, despite that, we have more than enough to get the 4-5 wins (or relative points from those wins) to secure our place at this level next season.
Luke Williams is having an impact on the team and the squad and his introduction of pace during yet another poor window will help us no end. I didn’t get to see Saturday’s game but heard enough to know that we should have got something out of that and whilst the next run of games looks tricky I am not sure that the likes of Hull, Blackburn and Sunderland should be games that we look at completely with a defeatist attitude in our minds. Even the home advantage against Leeds and Ipswich could count for something despite our terrible home form this season.
That belief that we will get enough though does not change a viewpoint on what was yet another poor window for the Swans and one where Robbo again sums up the problems.
“We hear people speak about patience but there’s been patience for four years as a club in general,” added Robinson “Under Russell Martin and then him leaving.
“How much more patience does the board want? They needed to go and bring in players that can make an impact now. There’s no point bringing players in to just be squad players.”
I firmly believe that the Swans will break the 50 point barrier this season. We have been largely poor since the start of it and yet we are on a trajectory to get past that level and I do believe that Williams will slowly get a better tune out of this team. It does require certain players to change their mindset and it does require us to start using the pace that he has injected into the team but I also think that will happen.
What worries me though is what happens between this season. For our last few years in the Premier League we talked about how you can see sides that are heading on an overall downward trend. When the likes of Sunderland, Aston Villa and us got relegated it was not a surprise as each season they flirt too closely with relegation and, unless they totally change their mindset, then it will only ever have one outcome.
Unfortunately, for me, we are doing that again at this level. We continue to make the same mistakes, we continue to undertake poor transfer windows and, worst of all, we continue to blame others for our own shortcomings when we make these mistakes. Until we accept that things need to change on all those levels then we will continue our regression as a football club. And eventually we will lose our status in the top two divisions of the structure.
So whilst my belief is strong that we will be a Championship club next season I do not have anywhere near the same level of confidence for next season unless we totally make the changes we need in our overall management (off pitch) mindset and, considering how we repeat the same mistakes again and again, I have no real belief or confidence that this will happen.
