We had a chat with QPR site ‘Loft for Words’, a fansnetwork site. It gave us a chance to review what we had seen overall this season. It hasn’t been enjoyable a lot of the time, and the decision making pretty poor. There have though been some good signings, not all, but some plus money has been spent.
Phil from JackArmy.Net joined in as well, and the general view doesn’t differ.
With the usual problems with recruitment, and the gamble on Michael Duff not paying off, it's been a drag of a season for Swansea... until Cardiff came to town that is. We spoke to Keith from The Swansea Independent and Phil from JackArmy.net.
Strange old season for Swansea one way and another - how would you assess it overall ?
SI: It’s been poor. The new chairman came in cold in the summer and he nor his sidekick had any clues about running a football club in this country. They made numerous errors and their decision making for us on this website was made without any experience whatsoever. They talk too much and haven’t learned when and when not to make a noise. The trust rating towards the majority ownership is low, and at a recent fans forum they were given a rough ride. The chairman, Andrew Coleman, dominated the fans forum talking and talking but actually said nothing. The main issue for us is there is a Swansea City LLC in the USA, and investment money (apparently) goes in to that fund. They refuse to talk about it. Nobody knows who is in the fund, how much is in it, what is the purpose of it, who has invested and how much. The continued silence is of course ensuring their lack of transparency causes suspicion amongst the supporters.
JA: Exactly as your opening statement said, it’s been a strange old season. And a very wasted one through a poor managerial decision last summer. Relegation seemed to be a threat a while back but a horrendous run of fixtures didn’t help that. The word for me is definitely "wasted”.
I had high hopes for Michael Duff but that didn't work out at all, what were his main failings ?
SI: He isn’t a Championship manager for a club who wants to play football in the way the Swans like to do. He really didn’t get it. He didn’t get the fact a whole country has an interest in a handful of clubs, he didn’t get the derby game at all and that really was his downfall. He didn’t inspire the fans, and had he stayed the club would most certainly been in League One next season.
JA: He was just a poor fit for Swansea. His philosophy didn’t meet that of the club in general and there were so many things he just didn’t seem to get. His comments ahead of the first derby of the season summed it up and his fate was probably effectively sealed at that point. I have to admit I didn’t expect the owners to make the change when they did but it was absolutely the right decision.
What have you made of Luke Williams so far?
SI: He plays a style of football similar to Russell Martin. However, his determination to retain possession can become extremely frustrating. A good example is the Good Friday game against Sheffield Wednesday. It wasn’t good at all. When you know what your team can do and they don’t even look interested that’s annoying.
JA: He came into the club at the start of a tough run of fixtures but we can see steps in the right direction. In recent games we have slipped away in the second half of games but in the first half we have looked good and vastly improved on anything his predecessor served up. Our performance against Cardiff in our last game was the best of the season (by some distance). We are starting to see what he talks about (high press and high intensity) and he added pace and width to the team in the January window. It really is that simple.
Player recruitment seems to have been an issue with your board/owners for a while - how's it been this season?
SI: We have made two excellent permanent signings in Josh Tymon £2.2m from Stoke and Ronald (below) £1.2m who was playing in Portugal’s top flight. The loan signings couldn’t be questioned in Charlie Patino, Bashir Humphreys and Harrison Ashby, all will be well known players in years to come. In Patino’s case he is out of favour in as much as he comes on late in games which many are now saying is down to whatever agreement the Swans had with Arsenal.
JA: More misses than hits. We made some good signings last summer but in the main it was a disappointing window with some very strange decisions made (not helped by the fact our manager wanted to change the way we did things) but some players have come good and we made two good signings in January (and a seemingly pointless loan signing as well) – we have a huge summer ahead of us though.
Weak links in the side?
SI: Up front has been a problem. We bought Jerry Yates in for nearly £3m and he has had an exceptionally poor season. Off the ball it’s a mystery as to what his role is. He spends most of his time running up to players and a few yards before he gets there he stops and that’s it. He doesn’t gamble left or right and for a natural goalscorer he is rarely in the right position to score from the chances made. In his last 18 appearances he has scored one goal, some from the bench but that sort of sums up his season. Teams who press the Swans will get some value from that tactic. We have Matt Grimes and Jay Fulton who despite their quality slow down games and prefer a safety pass when options ahead of them are clearly on for a pass.
JA: Yet again we are weak up front (and have been for several seasons) – for what we paid for him last summer Jerry Yates has to live up to the billing.
Expectations for the rest of the season?
SI: Just to complete the remaining games, pick up a few wins and go again next time around. It hasn’t been a good watch at times.
JA: I think when we did the reverse fixture I said I expected mid table at the start of the season. I expected it at that time and I expect it now. We are a mid-table team pretty much in every way.
Read the full interview on ‘Loft For Words’ below.
⚽️ Loft For Words Interview
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