Another Season Done and Dusted.

It was a disappointing end to The Swans’ fourth successive season in the Premiership. Having secured  a respectable 8th place they lost the final two games of the season. The 2-4 defeat to Manchester City was grudgingly acceptable, but their performance in losing 0-1 to Crystal Palace was intolerable. Gary Monk made a number of changes to his regular line up, but they didn’t have one shot on goal and generally appeared totally disinterested in proceedings.

Don’t get me wrong (was that the Pretenders.) There were more highs than lows for supporters to savor over 10 months . This was Gary Monk’s first full season as manager and his team accumulated a club record 56 points in the Premiership while achieving the double over the mighty Manchester United and the gargantuan Arsenal.

Monk made some shrewd signings in the summer by exchanging Ben Davies for the Icelander Gylfi  Sigurdsson, acquiring the Argentinian defender Fernandez, goalkeeper Fabianski, and the  Ecuadorian Montero. He brought back Ki Sung-Yeung from loan at Sunderland and convinced him he had a future at the club. Ki returned the favor by having an outstanding season and was voted the club’s player of the year. Monk overcame the loss of his top goal scorer, Wilfried Bony in the January transfer window who was reluctantly sold to Manchester City for 28 million pounds. He signed Jack Cork in the  transfer window to stabilize a creative midfield, but with defensive shortcomings.

Gary Monk more or less stated that finishing 8th in a very competitive and demanding league is tantamount to receiving a poisoned chalice. He wonders how a club with modest means can compete with the big spenders and continue to improve next term. The top six clubs  Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Man United, Spurs and Liverpool have far greater resources at their disposal, so can the Swans seriously expect to improve on this season’s performance? Probably not, but they can give a better account of themselves in the Cup competitions particularly the FA Cup.

The more I write, the more I need to savor the Swans’ exploits and place the two defeats in the final games in perspective. There are several bigger clubs than Swansea currently languishing in the Championship who are desperate to extricate themselves from their plight and return to the Premiership. Wolves, Leeds United, Ipswich, Derby and Nottingham Forest were power houses in  British football during the latter half of the 20th Century. Forest won the European Cup (aka Champions League) in 1979 and 1980. Blackburn Rovers won the inaugural Premiership in 1992. Blackpool and Wigan  were recently in the Premiership only to find themselves relegated to League One at the end of the current season.

Now the trade rumors begin. Some of the media has declared that the Swans will find it difficult retaining their best players. Several Premiership Clubs are showing interest in Fabianski, Fernandez, Sigurdsson, Ki and Montero. Gary Monk could also be tempted away. Sunderland and West Ham have already expressed an interest in him, and its no secret that Swansea is a successful breeding ground for aspiring young managers.

Assuming Monk remains manager for the foreseeable future he will need to take a close look at his current squad and determine whether it is time to place old stalwarts of the squad out to pasture. Angel Rangel, Nathan Dyer and Leon Britton spring to mind. There are other members of the squad who are quite simply not up to Premiership standard and Jazz Richards and Kyle Bartley are  cases in point. Whatever happened to Rory Donnelly, the much vaunted striker from Northern Ireland with so much potential?

Congratulations to Gary Monk, his staff and the players for a marvelous season. Long may it continue.

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