“We need to move on” – Coleman takes a swipe at former owners as club is sold

As the Athletic report that the club is about to be sold, club Chairman Andy Coleman has admitted that he will be taking charge and takes a swipe at the previous owners when contacted for an opinion.

“It is critically important for Swansea City to move on from the previous owners,” were the words from his mouth when the Athletic contacted him for a viewpoint before he admitted that he wanted “to thank Brett Cravatt, Jason Cohen, Nigel Morris and our partners for coming together to make that happen. Together we are bringing more than £20 million directly into the club. This gives us a great foundation to drive Swansea City forward.”

The news that Kaplan and Levien have finally relinquished control of the club will be music to the ears of Swansea City supporters who have been critical of the ownership group for a long time not least from the controversial way in which they took charge of the club right the way through to their total desire to have control over decisions despite being absent from the club pretty much since relegation from the Premier League was confirmed.

Eight years of ownership will not be remembered for anything other than a systematic destruction of many of the things that made Swansea City a club to be proud of as we rose through the ranks from the foot of the football league to the Premier League and Europe.   Relegation came after a series of incredibly bad managerial and transfer decisions from which we have never really recovered despite a couple of play off misses since that relegation in 2016.

“I can confirm Andy Coleman, Jason Cohen, Nigel Morris and I are acquiring the outstanding shares from Jason Levien, Steve Kaplan, and all their investors, pending EFL approval, ” said Brett Cravatt also to the Athletic.  “In addition, our collective group, including new strategic partners, is making a sizable investment into the club. Andy Coleman is running the club and we are all united behind his leadership, and excited for this new chapter for Swansea City.”

Quite what that ‘sizeable investment’ is remains to be seen as does the exact make up of the new ownership group who have obtained an estimated ninety per cent of the club with Morris personally owning ten per cent and the remainder eighty between them.  The Supporters Trust retain their small share in the club with other investors – still likely to include Huw Jenkins and Martin Morgan are believed to have retained their stake in the club.

It will be interesting over the coming months to see exactly what this does mean to the club.   Does it mean a total change of policies particularly around the investment into the football side of things that many fans have said has been sadly lacking in recent years and largely responsible for our indifferent form that has been so evident over the past three seasons.

The departure though of Kaplan and Levien is one to be celebrated and they certainly won’t be missed.  Not that they were ever really present by anything other than control