Happy New Year to all Swans supporters and welcome to our first game of 2025 at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Today we host West Bromwich Albion and hope to avenge our 1-0 defeat in the corresponding fixture at The Hawthorns last August.
The hallmark of our season so far has been inconsistency. While visiting Swansea in December I saw examples of our best and worst performances, notably the disappointing 3-2 home loss to Sunderland and our dominant 3-0 home win over QPR on Boxing Day.
These games illustrated the importance of factors that the best teams, and captains and managers in particular, consistently get right – mentality and determination, concentration and focus, confidence and belief, assertiveness and adaptability to changing circumstances during matches.
Our poor performance and heavy defeat at Portsmouth on New Year’s Day, coming soon after our thrilling home win over Luton, serves as the latest reminder that as a club we have a number of areas for improvement.
Player quality and squad depth of course play a role. With the transfer window now open there may be opportunities to strengthen the team in a financially responsible manner, amid the inevitable rumours and speculation about incomings and outgoings.
With games in the Championship coming thick and fast, consistent performances can build momentum and quickly change perceptions and league position. A positive run of results in the coming weeks will place us within touching distance of the play-off places, which will feel a lot better than finding ourselves sitting near the drop zone.
So there is plenty to play for this season and we as supporters should never underestimate the important role we can play as ‘12th player on the pitch’ by being loud and proud in supporting the team.
We have plenty of memorable history against WBA. Many of us will remember our masterclass under floodlights in November 2012 in the Premier League, when Michael Laudrup’s team ripped the Baggies apart with a stunning display of attacking football, during a season when we won the League Cup.
The first half was one of Swansea’s best 45 minutes of football ever, with Michu opening the scoring and Wayne Routledge netting twice, and the final score of 3-1 did not do justice to our superiority.
Further back in time, in September 1981 we experienced a 4-1 ‘welcome to Division One’ defeat at The Hawthorns at the start of our first-ever season in the top-flight. John Toshack’s team rectified that result at the Vetch later that season in April 1982 when we came from behind to secure a fine 3-1 win, with goals from Chris Marustik, Alan Curtis, and Bob Latchford, on the way to our highest-ever top-flight finish of sixth position.
Looking back at 2024, the most significant event for the football club has been the changes within Swansea Football LLC, the majority owners of the club.
These changes, which the Trust views very positively, have resulted in far greater decision-making authority residing in Swansea in the hands of chairman Andy Coleman, who in 2023 demonstrated his significant personal commitment to the club by relocating from the USA with his family to live in Swansea.
The Trust continues to effectively fulfil its role in representing the interests of Swans supporters through ongoing engagement with Andy and senior club staff on all key matters related to Swansea City.
The Trust has a range of projects, events and activities planned for 2025 in conjunction with local stakeholders, building on the progress and successes of 2024.
These include the Matchday Experience Working Group, our Swans Heritage work, and the updated Trust Strategy. Trust members will hear more in the coming weeks.
I encourage you to join the Trust at
www.swanstrust.co.uk to receive our regular communications to members, or to become directly involved in the work of the Trust.
All the best for 2025!
Rupert
