{"id":87605,"date":"2023-09-20T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/?p=87605"},"modified":"2023-09-19T22:38:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T21:38:02","slug":"is-time-up-for-duff-it-seems-that-maybe-the-case-one-more-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2023\/09\/20\/is-time-up-for-duff-it-seems-that-maybe-the-case-one-more-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Is time up for Duff?   It seems that maybe the case &#8211; one more game?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Swansea City appear to be heading in several directions at the moment &#8211; the most worrying one is that its a team heading towards League One with the inevitable current position seemingly that we are heading towards another managerial change.\u00a0 Is Michael Duff&#8217;s Swansea City career to last just eight games.<\/p>\n<p>It is never said lightly that a manager is out of his depth but that is exactly what Michael Duff appears to be at the moment.\u00a0 \u00a0Last night&#8217;s team selection was odd at the very best and the inevitable eventually happened when QPR scored in stoppage time to deny us a win that really our football did not deserve.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='eG0vjtplTzpPhe7vxXqIPQ' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1691065705' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'eG0vjtplTzpPhe7vxXqIPQ',sig:'pyX_QpVX_1IJdfAdg3Y1rugTLArDgDpZtFwJxOuEnOY=',w:'594px',h:'397px',items:'1691065705',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>The display was the usual poor performance that has dominated this season so far.\u00a0 \u00a0An early goal may have risen the optimism temporarily but once again we failed to build on that moment and the game was summed up with that late goal and the crazy sending off of Ollie Cooper that followed not long afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>Seven games without a win is in itself not a disaster but what is is the lack of style, substance or passion that sits within a team which, coupled with the stories that Duff has lost the dressing room, tells us that a change has to happen and it has to happen fast.<\/p>\n<p>The league table is starting to take shape with seven games gone and that is showing right now that there are four teams who have amassed less than five points so far and without something changing within any of them soon then there is a real danger of being cut adrift.\u00a0 \u00a0 As we referenced on here on Monday <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2023\/09\/18\/the-blame-does-not-all-lie-with-michael-duff\/\">he is not solely to blame for the predicament<\/a><\/strong> that we find ourselves in but the performances on the pitch sees the buck stop firmly with the manager and they are now way past the level of being unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>Russell Martin had more than his fair share of critics but you could at least see what he was trying to achieve even if it was not always successful (we should never forget that for all his end of season good form we were dreadful for a large chunk of large season) but with Michael Duff it is impossible to see what he is trying to achieve &#8211; we are now so far from the Swansea way that we must have broken all the 20 mph speed limits in Duff&#8217;s hurry to get away from it.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Time for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Duff?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Duff<\/a> to go? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Swans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Swans<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; JackArmy.net (@swansnews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/swansnews\/status\/1704245498935144632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 19, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The fact that we are talking about a change so early into the season tells you all.\u00a0 \u00a0If this was a Retail purchase we would probably be entitled still to a full refund on production with a receipt and had we paid Barnsley by credit card then we would be entitled to our money back for the product not meeting the description that we paid for it.\u00a0 \u00a0 We can make jokes all we want on this one but the reality is that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2023\/07\/24\/84440\/\">despite our calls for patience earlier in the season<\/a><\/strong> we cannot afford to be waiting any longer.\u00a0 \u00a0If we do then it could be too late &#8211; winning is often said to be a habit but losing becomes a habit much quicker.<\/p>\n<p>When the Swans entertain Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday it is probably fair to assume that Duff is entering last chance saloon but is the reality that he has already passed that particular position?\u00a0 \u00a0A win on Saturday would maybe release some of the pressure on our league position but the reality is it will only serve to paper lightly over the very obvious cracks that have appeared in our structure.\u00a0 The Swans must simply own what looks like a pretty glaring mistake that they made in the summer and make the brave but necessary change.\u00a0 \u00a0Whatever it takes.<\/p>\n<p>The question now is whether the Swans hierarchy are ready to make that decision.\u00a0 \u00a0The rumour mill suggests that they are but we know that managerial changes cost money especially this soon after appointment but the simple fact is that whatever it costs, it could cost us much more to let it go and hope for the best.\u00a0 \u00a0Because the best on this occasion appears to be well short of our expectation.<\/p>\n<p>I have no idea where we go from here but this does feel like last chance saloon on Saturday even if for many of us that ship has already sailed.<\/p>\n<p>Sad times.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='hL47isPtRuJ8yAwlUPG7rg' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1676983531' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'hL47isPtRuJ8yAwlUPG7rg',sig:'VrgExGM_uUR32AxWJ7yJksIMr7sohK2SeK1SeNO8xNs=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1676983531',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swansea City appear to be heading in several directions at the moment &#8211; the most worrying one is that its a team heading towards League One with the inevitable current position seemingly that we are heading towards another managerial change.\u00a0 Is Michael Duff&#8217;s Swansea City career to last just eight games. It is never said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[293,49,203],"tags":[1524,1509],"class_list":["post-87605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-team","category-news","category-opinion","tag-michael-duff","tag-the-2023-2024-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87605","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=87605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}