Is Luke Williams time up at Swansea City – will Baggies links be the end?

Luke Williams’ clear reluctance to separate himself from the West Brom managerial vacancy is quite telling at the moment and has certainly put a very large block between himself and his employers that, even if the Hawthorns job doesn’t come up, may never be repaired.

Williams has had more than one opportunity to put a line in the sand and say he is not interested but it is clear that he is flattered by the links and would more than happily talk to the Baggies if/when they come calling and right now it is difficult to believe that Swansea City would stand in his way.

There can be little doubt at the moment that Chairman Andy Coleman will be more than a little miffed at the way his football manager has responded to the questions asked about the interest from the West Midlands.  From Sunday’s just bizarre comment about contacting his agent to the one at Fratton Park that referenced how they would have lost interest had they watched the abject display of the Swans in the 4-0 defeat.   They are certainly not comments of a man happy in his role and I don’t suspect that they will have done any more for Coleman then they would have done for the majority of Swans fans.

The only question now that really needs to be thought about is whether West Brom actually do make contact with the Swans and ask to speak to Williams – maybe they already have?  It is certainly the case at the moment that speculation is that an approach may have already been made for Williams although the claims are unsubstantiated but numoerous suggestions are there could be talks before the two sides meet on Saturday.  Should that happen it will certainly make for an interesting clash at the Swansea.com Stadium!.  Whether that contact comes or not remains to be seen but I would imagine that Williams is, as a minimum, heading for talks with Coleman over events of the past few days.

It is hard to believe that just a week ago as the Swans brushed aside QPR at the Swansea.com Stadium any of this would happen and whilst there has been suggestions that Williams was of interest to West Brom before the departure of Carlos Corberán it is difficult to believe that is anything other than twitter speculation?   As the news broke on Sunday that Williams was “of interest” to the Baggies it has spiralled since that moment with Luke installed as the bookies favourite partly fuelled no doubt by his odd choice of answers to the local press.

So now we come to what happens if West Brom don’t show an interest?   There have already been rumours that things are not good behind the scenes although there is nothing concrete to back that up to anything other than rumours.  There have also been suggestions that Williams is making his job here untenable with his comments and you can certainly understand where that rumour is coming from.   The question here is therefore how much damage Andy Coleman believes that Luke Williams’ comments have caused.   I certainly don’t buy the argument that he had made his position untenable but he has certainly made it very difficult as a relationship would almost need to be rebuilt and everyone knows that a relationship between a Chairman and a manager is essential.

As we put to bed yesterday’s 4-0 defeat at Portsmouth our thoughts for 48 hours turn to the management speculation and we sit back and wait with interest what happens next but whatever it is everyone knows that Luke Williams has done himself no favours this week and for that he only has himself to blame.

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Performance and results continue like today, it takes pressure off making a quick decision regarding a new manager.

Talks are planned to continue tomorrow with names already mentioned 👍

Let's see how it pans out.#WBA@talkwba@WestBromXtra

— DOOD-WBA (@EyaWeGew) January 1, 2025