No Truth In Monk Stories

The Swans are in a bad run of form there is little doubt about that with just one win recorded in our last ten outings against the side currently propping up the Premier League.

Saturday’s performance was another one that was below the standard which we have grown used to accepting but also one that we now expect. Nobody will be aware of that any more than Swans boss Garry Monk or Chairman Huw Jenkins but it does not seem at the moment that there is any appetite for the club to consider a change of management.

Two weeks ago we were told that Monk was on the verge of being sacked after defeat at Norwich and last night there was an article on the BBC website that suggested his future was under doubt.

I think it is fair to say that neither of these stories had any substance nor came from anyone who has any reliability. When you add in the one about Monk missing training on the day he was photographed it and you do wonder if the Chairman has a point even if it sounds like a totally paranoid one.

I have little doubt in my own head that should we continue on the run of form that we are currently on then the position will change but as it stands at the moment I am struggling to see that there will be a change of management at least this side of Christmas, and that is if it happens at all.

Garry has earned the chance to prove that he can turn it around and asking any manager to change it within nine league games seems a little but unfair on someone who led us to the record breaking finish of last season.

Of course it is simple, and true enough, to say that things need to change and quickly but the myth that a new manager will automatically do better is nothing more than what it has just been called – a myth.

We know that the Swans board (which incidentally Mr BBC journalist has no senior members) will not be enjoying the current run of form any more than the rest of us but what appears to be the case at the moment is that they have faith in the manager that they appointed to do the job. It also appears that the majority of the fans do have the same faith (reference the two polls we have referenced before) and that Garry will spend the next 7 days preparing his side for the tricky trip to Liverpool next Sunday.

The Swans will not be expected to get anything out of that game given the form of the home team at the moment but I suspect that everyone will be looking for signs that we can turn the form around in the three home games in the next four that follow where we have a chance of making a real difference to our league position. The wrong results and performances in those games may change the board’s view of things as they are but for now it does seem that Monk is here to stay.

I really hope that he does turn things around and believe that he has the ability to do so. Some of the comments aimed at him in the past few weeks have been terrible to read but passions have run high but Garry earned the chance from his first 18 months in the job and therefore deserves at least a little longer to prove that we are the team everyone (players and management) says that we can be.

If that is blind faith then so be it, let’s talk again after Boxing Day?

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