{"id":54241,"date":"2022-02-03T08:13:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T08:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging28.planetswans.co.uk\/?p=54241"},"modified":"2022-02-03T08:13:45","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T08:13:45","slug":"martin-is-the-man-for-swansea-we-need-to-trust-the-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2022\/02\/03\/martin-is-the-man-for-swansea-we-need-to-trust-the-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin is the man for Swansea – we need to ‘trust the process’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The words of Russell Martin this week have been as interesting to listen to as they have been to look into in more depth and, whilst none of us want to be 19th in the league table at the beginning of February, we have to be careful not to make knee jerk reactions and decisions based on that alone.<\/p>\n

We also have to understand why Steve Cooper moved on when he did.\u00a0 \u00a0He moved on because he knew that, after two good seasons results wise, the challenge to repeat that again for a third was one he did not feel he wanted to undertake.\u00a0 \u00a0That is not a criticism against him before anyone states it as such but a simple fact that one manager, with two play off appearances in his two seasons under his belt, wanted to make the most of the opportunities that would afford him.\u00a0 And he wanted to do it with a budget that he felt his achievements warranted.\u00a0 A budget that simply would not be available to him at Swansea City.\u00a0 \u00a0No blame on him for that.<\/p>\n

So then we come onto Russell Martin.\u00a0 The Swans put their faith in him during the summer and it was clear that he is a man with a vision and a belief that he can deliver what Swans fans will want him to deliver.\u00a0 It was not his fault that he was appointed exceptionally late in the summer window or that the January window is normally such a difficult one to get new players in.\u00a0 However, he has been backed by those who need to back him and we should lose sight of the fact that we added five new players in the January window, all of whom are anticipated to play some part in Saturday’s game with Blackburn Rovers.\u00a0 \u00a0That tells you a story, this is turning slowly into Russell Martin’s team but we also have to accept that in some places and positions we don’t necessarily have the right players in the right positions.\u00a0 \u00a0That still takes time and the summer transfer window will give us time to make the difference in that area.<\/p>\n

It is really easy at the moment to point to the league position and compare it to a side that finished in the top 6 for the past two seasons.\u00a0 \u00a0However, it is also a very short sighted comparison when it doesn’t allow for the simple fact that seven of the eleven players<\/a> who started last season’s play off final against Brentford are no longer at the club.\u00a0 Again, that tells its own story when you are comparing two successive seasons.<\/p>\n

The results of late have not been good and Martin will be the first to accept that but, again with a bigger picture in view, many of those games could have been completely different.\u00a0 \u00a0Reading at home we threw away with sloppy mistakes, Huddersfield we had more than enough chances to win a game and even Tuesday we rued missed chances and could have\/should have won?\u00a0 \u00a0Add eight points to our tally now and the league table looks different.\u00a0 \u00a0Fully appreciate at this point that it is a viewpoint of ifs and buts and the simple fact is instead of nine points we got one but it shouldn’t be completely avoided that it could have been very different with a better finish or a bit of luck at the right time.<\/p>\n

So when Martin says – as he did after the defeat to Luton – things like this we can relate to it and take heed from the words. “We are not here to have a smash and grab season where we win and we don\u2019t understand why or we just get lucky or we have one player who is on brilliant, brilliant form.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re here to develop a team of players that improve over a long period of time. I was really honest with everyone that this wasn\u2019t going to happen quickly. It doesn\u2019t change my belief of what we\u2019re doing here”<\/p>\n

Time is a precious commodity for a football fan especially when we all remember fondly a seven year stint in the Premier League but time remains very much on our side.\u00a0 \u00a0The work that Martin has done will not see us relegated this season and with a necessary rebuild of more than half of a first team squad that in itself is no mean feat no matter which way you want to look at it.\u00a0 \u00a0But it is that work that means we do have time on our hands and we need to ensure that we don’t flinch from the strategy and plan we have in place,\u00a0 if we trust the process then we should not waiver from it when we are only a little over halfway through the season.<\/p>\n

Fans will point at changes in managers working at other clubs and it is true that it can do but look at many of those clubs who change managers at the first opportunity (or moments of grumbling) and they do it frequently.\u00a0 \u00a0We did it ourselves in the closing stages of our Premier League years – we changed managers in December quite often – and it did us no good at all.\u00a0 \u00a0Maybe we are even still paying the price for that part of the strategy.<\/p>\n

We should also not lose sight of the fact that we built our success in the first place over faith in young (largely unproven) managers who had a vision and made the club stronger.\u00a0 \u00a0You know who they are but pretty much every appointment between Flynn and Laudrup made us better and even Garry Monk led us to a highest finish before he started to undo all the hard work.\u00a0 The progress of Swansea City should be seen as a longer term plan and not dictated by a few results 20-odd games into a managerial career.<\/p>\n

In the summer we were all convinced that Russell Martin was the man for Swansea City and he reminded us of what he wanted to achieve when he spoke on Tuesday night:\u00a0\u201cWe came in four days before the season start. There were many people not up for the challenge, we\u2019re really up for the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year was always going to be about trying to develop and create something that the supporters want at this football club.”<\/p>\n

The last sentence was clear and I firmly believe that Martin is on the road to do just that.\u00a0 \u00a0Results are not good, performances sometimes can appear lacking but at the same time you can’t change a playing style overnight.\u00a0 Fans will point towards Martin’s reluctance to change his shape to accommodate the players but that is where he is coming from when he talked about “Winning games when we don\u2019t understand why” – maybe a criticism of his predecessor there as well but let’s wash over that bit.\u00a0 \u00a0Martin is a man true to his beliefs in the way he wants his teams to play and the more he has the players he wants at the club, those he is bringing in, then the benefits of trusting the process will be seen.<\/p>\n

Flynn Downes, Jamie Paterson, Cyrus Christie, Ethan Laird were all Martin signings and they all command regular first team slots.\u00a0 \u00a0Andy Fisher and Hannes Wolf have already appeared since joining the club and gradually we start to see a side having much more of a stamp of a Russell Martin side.\u00a0 \u00a0On Saturday we could easily see 6 or 7 of the side that Martin built on the pitch and that is where he starts to really be able to assess (as will we) the progress of what he talked about ‘developing and creating’<\/p>\n

The groans are understandable, the frustration over a low league position is understandable but this is a time when we need to stand firm, hold our nerve and support the backing that Martin has been given and realise that he is as much the man for Swansea City now as he was when he was appointed last summer.<\/p>\n

Trust the process remember?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The words of Russell Martin this week have been as interesting to listen to as they have been to look into in more depth and, whilst none of us want to be 19th in the league table at the beginning of February, we have to be careful not to make knee jerk reactions and decisions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[293,49,203],"tags":[636,608],"class_list":["post-54241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-team","category-news","category-opinion","tag-russell-martin","tag-the-2021-22-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}