The lack of ambition from upstairs plays its way through on the pitch

It was the summer of 2016 when the ownership changed at Swansea City.   After fifteen years of unparalleled success the local ownership group that had steered the club from the edge of bankruptcy to a first major trophy and five years in the Premier League handed over the keys to a group who promised much.

The words, not long after that takeover was confirmed, will never be forgotten with co-owners Stephen Kaplan and Jason Levien releasing a statement which said “We will be relentless in our determination to continually improve this club, and we do have the financial resources to do so.

“We will be competitive and we will outwork our opponents on the pitch and in the boardroom”   Words that were published on 19 August 2016.

We now stand more than eight years on with the club in a seventh season outside of the Premier League with a squad that almost everyone that looks at it will tell you lacks depth and a feeling of disillusionment that runs throughout the fanbase.   We are on the back of a series of transfer windows that have underwhelmed in terms of delivery of both quality and quantity of players and those two co-owners who were so visible in the days of the Premier League have probably even forgotten where Swansea is.

Through Chris Pearlman, Jake Silverstein and the current charge of Andy Coleman they have sent people to try and build a relationship with the fans but each of them have been a  part of the club’s history that has seen a series of dreadful decisions made which now see us in the place where we have a fifth permanent manager in the six and a bit years of Championship football and a place where each of them appears to be dealt a gradually weaker hand on the pitch.   When you look back you remember that Graham Potter had the benefit of the immediate aftermath of the Premier Leeague, Steve Cooper was aided by the last remnants of that top flight squad and Russell Martin was blessed with Joel Piroe who scored more than forty goals in two seasons.    Michael Duff was a mistake that equalled the mad decision to appoint Bob Bradley to the club and we move to Luke Williams who is hampered by the position that we have now pretty much sold off all the crown jewels and replaced them from the jewellery section of B&M Bargains.

The squad lacks depth, the squad lacks pace, the squad lacks creativity and the squad lacks goals.   Luke Williams isn’t getting a tune out of the squad but there will be nobody out there who can convince me that we have anywhere near a squad that can compete on a frequent basis in this division.   After the weekend defeat to Millwall, Captain Matt Grimes said “We know we can do it, we have shown enough this year to show we can be a really good team but it’s not quite falling into place at the moment. We have to keep at it.”   He is right, we can show that we can be a really good team but his words completely overlook the fact that we simply cannot do it week in week out and have not done that since Steve Cooper led us to back to back play-off appearances in 2020 and 2021.  That squad was on the edges of a return to the Premier League, this squad is heading in the opposite direction.

The strength in depth is not in this squad.   You could construct an argument that, when fully fit, our first choice eleven is probably good enough but the simple fact is as soon as we need to look deeper into the squad we are looking at average players and certainly a group of players who would struggle to get into squads at many Championship clubs.   Our lack of ambition means they get good appearance stats and that tells its own story.

The words made in that statement in August 2016 are as hollow now as they probably were back then.  Our improvement of this club have seen endless players leave who added much to our squad and been replaced by players who have even struggled for game time.   The summer window of 2023 was as close to a total disaster that you can get and the signs are the one from 2024 was very little different.   Those are the summer ones where we have several months to do our work, you can only begin to realise on that basis that the January ones are even worse.   And that takes some doing.

Former midfielder Owen Tudur-Jones called it on BBC Radio Wales yesterday “I think Swansea’s lack of depth in the squad is starting to show,” he told their breakfast show.

“I think the fact they lost the winger Eom Ji-sung has been a problem. I think the 11 that start games and a couple in reserve, Swansea have a strong 13 or 14 players. Anything beyond that and I think the weakness is showing itself.

“I think that comes down to investment in the summer. Those attacking players who provide and score plenty of goals in the season, they’re few and far between.

“The fact that Swansea have been unable to attract those sort of players, for financial reasons probably, is starting to show itself.”

In the eight years of this ownership group, the whole approach to transfers and player negotiations has been an unmitigated disaster.  Just look back at the transfer fees received, the contracts that have expired and, in a true definition of insanity, we are now playing a game of jeopardy it seems on the contracts of Cabango, Darling and Cullen.  The sheer fact that yesterday Luke Williams admitted when questioned on whether there has been progress that bridges need to be rebuilt suggests that our normal style of negotiation leaves much to be desired.

“There has been for sure,” said the Swans boss when asked if there had been any talks.  “I can’t tell you more than that, other than there has been significant contact since we last spoke in an attempt to get the ball rolling.

“I’ll be honest, I think that because it went so long, there’s some bridges to be built to engage with them again, with their agents and that as well.”

In the early days of this ownership group’s tenure they firmly believed that they could negotiate the same kind of deal that Manchester United or Liverpool demanded and through almost every negotiation since then they have believed they hold the aces.   However, when aces are held by jokers then there is only ever one result and our current predicament is the outcome of that.

The competitiveness and outworking that we were promised back in August 2016 has proven to be anything but.   We are not competitive on the pitch and we are not competitive off it.   And we certainly do not compete in the boardroom.   It has been suggested several times that to some other clubs who have had dealings with us in recent years that we are maybe seen as the amateurs in the negotiation stakes and it is difficult to disagree.  It was certainly let slip to several people when we sold Joe Rodon to Spurs that they had  more money earmarked for that deal but we folded quickly.   It won’t be the first and won’t be the last time either.

It is difficult to see that anything will change within the club whilst these people remain calling the shots.  Andy Coleman has proven himself to be vastly out of his depth in the same way that the previously named predecessors were.   Trevor Birch appeared to buck that trend as he came in with a football background but his time at the club was short lived.   I suspect trying to work with two hand tied behind your back probably isn’t the easiest thing in the world.

Andy Coleman will eventually move on and no doubt be replaced by someone else.   He doesn’t make the decisions, he may have more “skin in the game” than someone like Pearlman did but ultimately he is as hamstrung as anyone else who has to deal with the control that is demanded from the other side of the Atlantic.   That doesn’t change and won’t change.   Unless they move on but even if that happens – as it widely speculated – does that make it any better?   The balance to that is it is a struggle to believe it could be any worse.

Until then though our lack of ambition, competence and coherent plan will be there for all to see both on and off the pitch.