In passing | Vital Football

In passing

K

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
It’s the 20th match of the season coming up on Saturday at Rotherham, with just 21 points on the board. A point a game is relegation form. Last season Reading and Blackpool we’re relegated on 44 points. If Reading hadn’t been deducted 6 points, Cardiff would have gone down with 49 points.

It’s coming up to crunch time with the January Transfer Window next month. Do we stick or twist with Duff in charge, will the owners trust him and the recruitment team to strengthen the squad?

Having brought in 13 new players in the summer and lost 11, we’ve regressed from last season and are badly missing Manning and Piroe.

In what seems to be a desperate move we’ve recruited a 34 year old out of contract player who was without a club, and who hadn’t played a competitive match all season, to try and turn around our fortunes. Thankfully he looked good last Saturday and could be an asset as long as he can get match fit soon and stay fit without getting injured.

We have problems in other areas as well, our defending is unreliable and we can’t create and score many goals.

Loanee right-back Harrison Ashby has returned to Newcastle injured, which frees up a position to bring in another loan player. Our midfield hasn’t functioned properly since we sold Flynn Downes, who’d struck up a great partnership with Grimes. He’s not playing Patino there since he’s been injured preferring the seemingly incompatible Grimes/Fulton partnership.

Key is not being picked either (is this because an under age player compensation fee is still not agreed with Exeter and maybe based on games played).
 
There are six matches to come in December, four of them away. By the turn of the year we’ll have a much clearer idea of where we are heading. Eighteen points on offer, I wonder how many we’ll get?


A Sat 9/12 15:00 Rotherham v Swansea

A Tue 12/12 19:45 Stoke v Swansea

H Sat 16/12 15:00 Swansea v Middlesborough

H Fri 22/12 19:45 Swansea v Preston

A Tue 26/12 15:00 Southampton v Swansea

A Fri 29/12 19:45 Coventry v Swansea
 
The Swans last home game of the year, the Swansea v Preston match, has been moved from a Saturday to a Friday night.

It’s not live on Sky and the Preston website says “The two clubs and relevant police and footballing authorities have agreed to bring the game forward. The club (Preston) have agreed to the change to allow for more preparation time for the home fixture on Boxing Day”

It gives the Swans players more family time as they will have to travel on Christmas Day and overnight for the Southampton away game on 26/12.

Swings and roundabouts really as they are away again a few days later on 29/12 at Coventry and will have to travel there on 28/12.

What a crazy schedule we have this season.

We were also away over Xmas last year:

A 17/12, A 27/12, H 30/12.
 
The Huddersfield draw snatched from the jaws of defeat on Saturday was probably the last straw for the owners.
It has been a disappointing season under Duff after such high hopes in the summer.
Five wins, two at home and three away from his 19 games in charge left us only 5 points above the relegation zone. We last won a match on Oct 28, six games ago.
 
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Our first-team coach, 37 year-old Alan Sheehan has taken over from Duff temporarily. A much travelled former Rep of Ireland left-back he gave up playing in Jan 22 and became first team coach at Luton Town under Nathan Jones and followed him to Southampton. He lasted three months and was dismissed with Jones and eventually linked up with Duff at Swansea.
 
No wonder he was fired, just saw these statistics:

Michael Duff’s win rate of 26% is the worst of any of our managers since Bob Bradley (18%).
 
Next manager? Here’s some betting odds:

Chris Davies - 6/4

Nathan Jones - 7/4

John Eustace - 4/1

Leam Richardson - 16/1

Steven Schumacher - 16/1

Alan Sheehan - 20/1

Frank Lampard - 20/1

Gary Rowett - 20/1

Steve Cotterill - 20/1
 
It’s no coincidence that the three PL clubs in the relegation zone have just come up from the Championship - Burnley, Sheff Utd, and Luton.

Yet Burnley, who walked away with the Championship title last season, have only 8 points from 16 games.

Leicester are romping it this season. The gap in class between the two divisions is getting bigger but the PL relegated sides who keep most of their best players are bouncing straight back up.

The opposite to what our owners did when we were relegated from the PL, dumping 26 players in a fire-sale.
 
Ten Championship managers gone this season :

Birmingham - John Eustace

Bristol City - Nigel Pearson

Huddersfield - Neil Warnock

Millwall - Gary Rowett

QPR - Gareth Ainsworth

Rotherham - Matt Taylor

Sheff Wed - Xisco Munoz

Stoke - Alex Neil

Sunderland - Tony Mowbray

Swansea - Michael Duff
 
Stoke’s Alex Neil sacked. Another manager bites the dust. It’s pressure time for clubs in the lower half of the Championship with the January Transfer Window almost upon us. Do they stick with a struggling manager or twist and give a new one time to assess the squad and bring in his choice of new players.
 
Be very worried. Sheffield Wednesday and QPR are both in the relegation zone. They are above us in the form table based on results of the last 10 games.

Is it time to press the panic button?

We are without a manager. Two candidates have already pulled out. John Eustace, out of work, has turned us down. Now we hear Chris Davies has turned us down. Why are they not wanting to come and manage a Championship club? It can only be our parsimonious owners, who are gradually gaining a reputation at Swansea throughout the football community as a club to avoid. The last three managers, Potter, Cooper and Martin, couldn’t wait to leave.

The next managerial appointment is crucial and the last thing we need is a rookie in charge to try and pull us out of the mire.

Our Championship future is at stake and the owners better get this appointment right. The clock is ticking.
 
One of the names linked to the vacant Swansea managers job is ex-Swans assistant manager Luke Williams. His League Two side Notts County beat Morecambe 5-0 on Friday in front of almost 10k fans.

Our favourite ref Robert Madley was in charge.

Morecambe are our opponents on Sat 6 Jan 17:30 at the Swansea.com Stadium in the FA Cup Third Round.
 
Our manager search could finally be over.
Luke Williams is about to be named our new Head-Coach according to Stuart James of The Athletic. He’s usually a pretty reliable source.
 
January fixtures left after Birmingham, how much tougher can it be for new head-coach Luke Williams.

We play two of the top teams, both have forgotten when they last lost a league game plus we’ve lost to both teams already this season:


Swansea v Southampton Sat 20 Jan 12:30

Leicester v Swansea Tue 30 Jan 19:45


Sandwiched in between is the FA Cup game:

Bournemouth v Swansea, FA Cup Fourth Round, Thurs 25 Jan 19:45

Away against a PL team who are in form and won four of their last five matches.

They have also beaten us already this season in the Carabao Cup at the Swansea.com Stadium
 
It’s been relegation form for most of the season and it doesn’t bode well. Four wins from fifteen games at home, four wins from fifteen games away from home, thirty nine goals for, forty eight against. They wonder why attendances are down. Who wants to come and watch their side lose every week.

This is our worst team in six seasons in the Championship.

The owners have continuously sold our best players season upon season and brought in cheap replacements until there is nothing left to sell. It has finally caught up with us.

They had their chance to bolster the squad recently, a month wasted until the final day, as we watched other clubs bring in who they needed.

We play Hull on Saturday, they brought in seven players in the transfer window.

No one of any note would come to us because of our lowly position in the table and the miserly wages offered. The owners panicked and brought in three wingers on the last day of the window. We needed an attacking midfielder, someone up front who could score goals and an experienced Championship central-defender to shore up our defence, someone who would captain the side, as the present one is dumbstruck when on the field of play.

We’ve got to hope there are three teams worse than us as we turn into the final straight, then regroup in the summer and cast out the hangers on and the sick notes and revamp the whole squad.
 
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