You Can’t Make a Silk Purse from a Pig’s Ear.

I guess my favorite topic appears to be Swansea City AFC, appertaining to the vast number of posts I’ve written on the subject. Well, It was a unique experience for my home town team to climb from the depths of the football league to the elite of the Premiership and survive 6 years.

Unfortunately, the last 18 months have proved to be a bit of struggle. In 2016 we were lying 15th around Christmas and decided to part company with Gary Monk who had led the club to 8th position in their previous season. We subsequently finished a comfortable 14th under the tutorlage of Alan Curtis and Francesco Guidolin. This time last year we were languishing at the bottom of the table. The American, Bob Bradley, who replaced Guidolin two months into the season, was sacked after a disastrous few months. Paul Clement was hired to perform a miracle by walking across the River Tawe into the Liberty Stadium and duly saved their precarious Premiership status.

It was clearly obvious to anyone that followed the Swans that the squad was not good enough to survive another season in the Premiership. They had two outstanding players in Sigurddson and Llorente who could walk into any other team in the Premiership, and Clement was anxious to strengthen the squad in the August transfer window. However, Sigurddson did not want to endure another season at the bottom end of the table, and made it perfectly clear that he wanted a transfer.

Everton made a sizeable offer for his services, but the Club haggled over the transfer fee for weeks until he eventually signed for Everton. However, Clement was given little time to find a suitable replacement, and to make matters worse, Llorente was sold to Spurs on the transfer deadline.

Clement had ratified the signing of Roque Mesa from a Spanish club who performed adequately in La Ligue, but has underwhelmed in the Premiership. Former fan favorite Wilfred Bony was purchased from Stoke City, but he hadn’t played regularly for 18 months, and one TV pundit claimed that “his legs had gone.” I tend to agree. I believe he has scored one goal in the Premiership this season. Hull City was paid 15 million pounds for Clucas’ services which brought the number of players in the squad  who had been relegated with their former clubs to four.

Clement acquired the services of two young players on loan: the much heralded Sanchez from Bayern Munich and Tammy Abraham from Chelsea who last season scored 24 goals in the Championship for Bristol City. Neither player has adjusted to the rigours of the Premiership which at the same time has not affected their over inflated egos!

Okay, to recap let’s take an overview of the nucleus of the squad:

  • Four players, Fer, Olsson, Ayew, and Clucas were with previously relegated clubs,
  • Two players, Carroll and Naughton, were Spurs reserves,
  • Two players, Sanchez and Abraham, who are on loan are immature, flatter to deceive and not effective in the Premiership,
  • One player, Mawson, showed promise last season, but appears to have regressed,
  • Two players, Ki and Bony, are injury prone,
  • Two or three players, Britton, Rangel and Routledge, are past their sell by date,
  • Fabianski and Fernandez are adequate but would benefit with better players around them,
  • The other players, Fulton, McBurnie, and Mesa (he cost 12 million remember) for example, are fringe players and have yet to make an impact on the Premiership.

Twelve months on and Swansea City find themselves bottom of table again. Last season’s miracle worker, Paul Clement, was ushered through the exit door on December 20th, and Carlos Carvalhal was appointed as the new manager on December 28th. He was previously manager of Championship side, Sheffield Wednesday, who dispensed with his service on Christmas Eve. It’s a strange appointment because Wednesday are lying 15th in the Championship, so what makes the Swans owners believe that the new manager can right the ship which is now in very murky waters.

That brings me to the two new American majority  owners who remind me of shifty second hand car salesmen. Need I say more?

 

 

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