Hayley’s Comment

Hayley’s Comment

This time of year is around again, the time when Swans fans wait anxiously to find out who will be donning the white jersey for next season. The players whose futures were in the balance were Roger Freestone, Kristian O’leary, Michael Howard, Jonathan Coates, Kevin Nugent, Stuart Roberts, Stuart Jones, Karl Connolly and Layton Maxwell. As we all know, Connolly and Maxwell were told their fate earlier last week so it was just the remaining players who had to wait.

When the news broke it was no huge surprise that Howard and Coates were on the list. Both players have been at the club a long time (5/6 Years and 10 years respectively) and have both been good servants to the Swans, even if they have had several frustrating seasons. Another player who is departing us is Stuart Roberts. After his arrival for his second spell at the club, he was expected to be a success and made a lot of fans happy (me for one!) but he has struggles to make an impact and it’s only fair to release him. We all know he has talent but sadly, he doesn’t seem to be using it at the moment.

I honestly don’t know how to react over the decision to release Kevin Nugent. Kevin is a player who can change a game and can be a thorne in the side. If he had stayed then I wouldn’t have been disappointed but also I’m not disappointed he has left. There are a lot of players out there available who are younger than Nugent, so maybe that position can soon be filled. Now time to talk about the “Swansea Legend”. I can say a lot about Rog but I haven’t got enough room on here, so I’ll make it as brief as I can ;-). No one can deny that Roger is a fantastic professional who would make any club he is at proud. He has gone through some bad times and experienced some great memories throughout his time here. The timing of the decision slightly disappoints me because the big man deserves a huge send off and Saturday’s home game against York would have been an ideal time. I’m gutted he has gone and our loss is somebody else’s gain :(.

Those are the player’s who are not part of Jacket’s plans for the future, I would like to thank each and every one of them for their time here, whether it be short or a long time, I would also like to wish them all the very best for the future in whatever they decide to do. Onto the retained players, Jones and O’Leary. I can honestly say that I am suprised at the decision to keep Jones and slightly disappointed. He started his Swansea career off well and was a promising player until Duffy broke into the side which meant Duffy was ahead of Jones in the pecking order. It’s fair to say he is playing out of his preferred position which is CB, where he is playing RB, but surely everyone (Including himself) can see that he has no future here as a CB, so why keep him as a RB when he is poor there? I hope he proves me wrong.!

O’leary…..what can I say? He has done it again! Play poor for most of the season but then somehow manage to get a new contract by putting in a few good performances at the end of the season. Another player who has been here for a long time, who I feel needed to go in order to play first team football week in week out, something I feel he won’t get here. Lets not forget that Jackett is the manager and HE is the one who needs to make decisions. Whether we agree with them or not, I think they should be respected and lets hope that none of the decisions come back to haunt us! Next season I really fancy us for promotion whether it be automatic or via the play off’s, I’m really confident that we will be sitting (standing! ;-)) at White Rock watching our boys play second division football. If Jackett can get the player’s fitness levels at an acceptable level and maintain that all throughout the season, along with a few quality signings, who’s too say we cant get out of this league and push on?!

The future is Bright! The future is black and White! KENNY JACKETT’S BARMY ARMY! That’s all from me, I don’t want too bore you anymore! ;-). I hope you have enjoyed reading my article and feel free to agree/disagree with anything I have said…………………. Hope you all have a great summer. Ciao for now!

Why not check out the latest Vetch Verdict on the BBC site?