In passing

Swansea have bucked the usual trend with the so called “new manager bounce” as far as results are concerned.

Two new managers this season and both had shocking starts to their tenure, one win in 14 matches between the two of them.



Michael Duff’s first seven Championship games in charge (he won at the eighth attempt):

W0 D3 L4 F7 A12

DLDLLLD



Luke Williams’ first seven Championship games in charge:

W1 D1 L5 F6 A15

DLLLWLL



We are in a mess, brought about solely by the owners who’ve appointed rookies to run the club with disastrous effect.

To stem the tide of ongoing defeats caused through naive tactics and suicidal defending, instead of shoring up the defence in the recent transfer window we dump three defenders and bring in three wingers.

The policy of continuous selling of our best players season on season has finally caught up with us where we are left with a team of League One standard players. The 30 goals of last season by Piroe and Ntcham were replaced by an 8 goal striker from relegated Blackpool.

Can we recover the situation to stave off relegation this season and reboot in the summer? It’s not looking good at the moment.
 
Where have all our supporters gone?

Swansea’s dwindling supporters are propping up this season’s Championship attendance table.

Nineteen of the twenty three clubs have bigger average gates than us.

Sunderland top the list with 41k compared to Swansea 16.5k.

Of the four teams with lower average gates, one of those four, Plymouth 16.4k, were recently promoted from League One. The other two teams promoted from League One were Ipswich 28.8k and Sheffield Wednesday 26.4k.

Even our nearest rivals Cardiff 21.1k and Bristol 22.5k have higher attendances.

One of the main reasons for poor gates at Swansea this season has been the dire football on show. Other contributory factors are poor ground access with little in the way of parking facilities, concourses with high prices for food and drink and hospitality prices beyond the average fans means.
 
What a crazy Championship season this has been where any one team could beat the other.

Where Ipswich, playing League One football last season, are one of the favourites for automatic promotion to the Premier League this season.

Where it was so close that any one team of ten in the lower half of the table could have been relegated.

Where Coventry hold Man Utd to a draw and extra time and only lose out on penalties in the FA Cup, then next match lose at home to Hull.

Where leaders Leicester suffer consecutive defeats to lowly Plymouth and Millwall and Bristol City then hammer fellow promotion candidates Southampton 5-0.

Where down and out Sheffield Wednesday win 4 from 6 games to pull out of the relegation zone.

Where four International breaks disrupted the season and crammed the fixture list.

Where our own team lost a manager, found another, sacked him for poor results then found another who saved us from relegation.
 
It makes you wonder what standard of football our Academy U-21’s have sunk to.
Firstly being knocked out of the Welsh Cup by Baglan Dragons and now the latest defeat yesterday, a 3-1 loss to Fleetwood Town at Poolfoot Farm.
 
Why have we got full-backs that can’t stop a cross?

Why do we only start playing when we go a goal down?

Why do our attacks always break down in the final third?

Why didn’t we bring in another striker after loaning out two of ours?

Due to our new striker’s lack of service, lethargy and inability to get into scoring positions, and unable to play a full 90 minutes, did the wrong player go out on loan to Bromley?

With only Zan and Cullen left as recognised strikers, should Thomas and Myk have even gone on loan in the first place. The inevitable happened, Cullen was injured and we had to play Cooper up front when Zan came off at West Brom.

Cullen was injured in the Wycombe match on Wednesday 28. Thomas was still allowed to go to Bromley on loan two days later on Friday 30, at the window close.
 
LW said earlier in the week that we were looking at the free agent market. Well here’s one rumour quashed that was going around the ground yesterday.

On 4 October 2024, 34 year-old Andre Ayew re-joined top flight French Ligue 1 club Le Havre AC after his contract had expired in the summer by signing a one-year deal.

Le Havre, struggling to score goals this season have turned to Ayew to solve the problem. He scored 5 goals in 19 matches for them last season.
 
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