Who would have thought that the bizarre management from behind the scenes at Swansea City couldn’t get any worse ? Oh hang on, we then have this latest missive thrust upon us by Jake Silverstein, a director at Swansea City. In a week of rumours and speculation Silverstein has tweeted from his own Twitter account ( now deleted ) another extremely unprofessional rant.

It’s almost becoming the in thing.

In a grammatically challenged post and so unlike his previous text Silverstein attacks current Swansea City manager Russell Martin. First off he states. “People don’t seem to understand that there’s nothing we can realistically do if/when a manager wants to go to a bigger club mate.“ Straight away there’s a note of authority in the tone here. ‘ People don’t understand’ as if we’ve all been sitting around waiting for some education on Swansea City football matters. That displays some arrogance there Jake. Some of us have been writing on professional sport for thirty five years ( mate ) Some people don’t understand you are right, but what it is they don’t understand is the way Swansea City is currently being used for social media rants.

He goes on - “It’s not indentured servitude, we can’t make him stay if he wants to leave and if the other club is willing to pay what they need to pay for his contractual buyout. He’s under contract for another year and we’ve been negotiating a longer deal with him for a while but if he wants to go to a different club we can’t stop him leaving”

Indentured servitude ? Now that’s an interesting turn of phrase. ‘Indentured servitude’ in what was British America was the prominent system of labour in the British American colonies until it was eventually supplanted by slavery. Not sure why that terminology was chosen. The next part refers to negotiating a new contract. Well, not according to Russell Martin or indeed Andrew Coleman two weeks ago as the new Swansea Chairman stated the club would like to extend his stay at the club. No mention of negotiations, and in any event there’s hardly a good history of negotiations by the current stewardship. The Swans trust found this out over time when the majority ownership took control of Swansea City. And so did Russell Martin in January.

Then there is this. “Fans will blame us because that’s what Russ wants. He doesn’t want to look the bad guy by ditching us for a bigger club just like he did with MK when he came to Swansea. So he will continue telling a story that it’s somehow our fault. But in reality if he wants to go to a bigger club (which he very well may despite what he claims in all his pressers) there’s nothing we or anyone else could do”

Now this is news to us. What story ? Russell Martin has kept his own counsel away from his press gatherings ( pressers ! ) And has told no story regards blaming anyone whatsoever. If he did we would be one of the first to know, and he hasn’t. How can he blame the clubs hierarchy for something that hasn’t happened ? What has he said that makes the club look bad ? Utter nonsense. ‘He will continue telling a story’ ? How can you continue to tell a story that hasn’t been told ? The final piece references that if Russell Martin wants to leave there’s nothing the club can do. Well, yes there is, how about treat people as equals as you also infer in your sound bites to the press for a start ? When did Russell Martin say he wouldn’t go to a bigger club ? All he has ever stated is that he loves it in Swansea as does his family and his staff. Nothing more and nothing less.

It seems a very odd way of conducting yourself to say these things whether intending them for public consumption or not. And it seems now the gloves are off with Silverstein now hitting back at things that haven’t been stated by Martin in public. It’s all a bit odd, and again ill timed. Especially when Silverstein said recently he really respected Russell Martin and called him a ‘football visionary’

All we can see up until now is Russell Martin talking of Jake Silverstein in a good light. Being totally respectful and positive. Statements like this “I really get on with Jake. He's a really good guy and has a great understanding of what we're trying to do. He has a real patience with what we're trying to do, it's why we were brought here. We don't have the financial resource we did with Premier League parachute payments and all that stuff. Jake knows where we would like to strengthen, he's also been really honest about the financial situation. It's all you can ever ask for is honesty and transparency, just dealing with good people. I speak to Jake quite a lot. He's been great to deal with since he's been involved. I can't moan about it, I know the situation, we knew it coming in”

And this is how Russell Martin is repaid. An unprofessional ( and it surprisingly is ) and totally strange rant by a man he clearly respected on the numerous times they met and talked Swansea City. If it wasn’t so upsetting to read this latest slight by people who are running a multi million pound business that thousands of people cherish you would fall over laughing.

Jake Silverstein has always been seen by is as a respected and well versed person on Swansea football matters, whether it s out of frustration or whatever there surely has to be a better way of conducting these conversations. And we haven’t even touched on his Reddit masterclass from last night.

We offer Jake the right to reply.
Swansea.Independent1@gmail.com

Artwork by Swansea Independent

Badlands added 11:03 - May 20 'Attacks' or just makes public what is going on?
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