Swansea City won their first game in six matches last Saturday which gives their beleaguers supporters a glimmer of hope of avoiding the dreaded drop into the Championship. Unfortunately fellow strugglers, Hull City also won with a convincing 4-2 victory over Watford.
Middlesbrough and Sunderland appear to be heading for relegation, and either Hull City or the Swans will accompany them, as three teams are relegated from the Premiership at the end of each season. Hull City have two more points than the Swans, and each team has four games remaining in which to save their season.
The Swans four fixtures are against: Man United (a) Everton (h) Sunderland (a) and WBA (h.) Hull City play Southampton away on Saturday followed by Sunderland (h) Crystal Palace (a) and Tottenham Hotspur (h.)
Taking into context the teams’ positions in the Premiership Hull and Swansea have to play the Swans have a more difficult run in than Hull. Ironically both teams have to play Sunderland who are languishing at the bottom of the table. The Swans play Man United on Sunday who are lying 5th, Everton are currently 7th and West Bromwich Albion are 8th.
Hull’s opponents on Sunday, Southampton, are currently 9th, Crystal Palace are 12th and their final fixture will be at home against Spurs who will finish at the minimum in 2nd place and could be vying for the title in the final game of the season.
To say that The Swans have endured a traumatic season is an understatement. Not many teams survive when three managers have been at the helm at different stages of a season. Paul Clement succeeded American Bob Bradley who was clearly out of his depth and was only hired by the new American owners on a nepotism ticket. Bradley had replaced Italian Francesco Guidolin who according to rumors was glued to the TV monitor watching the “Tour de France” rather than taking his players for a training session. Guidolin received news of his dismissal on his birthday!
Paul Clement was appointed in January, and arrived at the Club with a great resume as assistant to Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively. His stint as manager of Championship side, Derby County, was not so stellar and he was subsequently sacked and returned to assist Ancelotti at Bayern.
He initially had great success in his first couple of months at the Liberty Stadium, but somebody should have warned him: ” Beware the Ides of March.” Beginning with a loss to fellow strugglers Hull City on the 11th March, they lost five games and could only muster a single point against relegation threatened Middlesbrough until securing a win against Stoke last Saturday. Clement had guided them from the ignominy of the bottom three to comparative safety, and subsequently back to the Premiership basement.
Quite frankly, the team lacks the quality to be a Premiership team. Only the Icelandic Gylfi Sigurdssson would find a home in another Premiership team. I am hoping for the best in their final four fixtures, but I am not expecting too much. Hope does spring eternal, and football is a funny game, so you never know.
