To complete Gary Lineker's observation.... "this kind of football". And, yes, guys, they were talking about OUR team, the backwoods usurpers from the lower leagues (I don't think!!!). The MOTD pundits have often been derided on here but, fair play, they gave us our just dues last night and Hansen, Lawro and Shearer have been fans from early on. GL seemed more dubious at first but he's rapidly become a convert too. I have lost count of the superlatives used to describe our play on this programme - "fantastic"; "amazing"; "superb"; "excellent" etc etc. And this from hard-nosed critics who do know the game, whether or not you agree with their opinions. And we had yet another accolade when GL observed that we were an imitation of Barcelona, a view that was met with full approval from his colleagues. (We knew it all along ). Great times but one slightly discordant note. I wish these people would realise that it is not all down to Buck, as FANTASTIC as he has been for us. The tone of the discussion seemed to imply that it was Buck who has got us to play the way we do. Well, we all know that we were playing this way for years before he arrived mainly, in fairness to him, because of Martinez's philosophy. Buck was as lucky to get this squad as they were in getting him. The players were all well versed in the footballing ethic and he did not have to introduce it, or teach it. It was already there and had been for some time. Had this not been the case his job would have been much more difficult, if not impossible. Think back to Reading!! That said, every credit has to be given to Buck for putting the gloss, the polish, on what we had and bringing us on to our present level. Brilliant job and long may it continue. Will finish by saying that I am so proud of the club, they are making history and creating memories that we will all cherish for the rest of our lives.
Great thread Ivor and I was thinking the same thing this morning. In fact, as impressed as I was with Rodgers' appearance on Goals On Sunday today I was disappointed that when asked about the way we play he didn't give some credit to his predecessors, especially Martinez, who we all know laid the groundwork of what we are today. Maybe that was expecting too much. Great time to be a Swans fan that's for sure.
Great interview though i did wish he would give credit to previous managers, only a tad though. Swansea flying high, lets hope we can get the stadium capacity upgraded.. losing revenue not doing it..
Agree Ivor. The biggest thing our style has shown is that you dont need to throw money at something for it to work, if you run your club properly and adopt a style of play then with good coaching you are able to dine at the top table of football by sticking to certain principles. Swansea have made a mockery of the big time charlie type footballers in the prem league and we have also showed that team ethic is still the most important part of team sport!! this has been lost IMO in the days of 200K a week footballers. The swans IMO have hopefully paved the way for other clubs to follow, it shows you can compete on the field if you get everything right off the field, get rich quick teams like Cardiff have showed their approach to be foolish and reckless. Brenden has done well and he was the right man for the job(i wasnt really sure about him when appointed) but the progress made didnt start with Martinez,for me it started when the supporters trust got involved with the club at board room level and then the progression of managers that followed, each one of them had a massive influence on where we are now. Swansea has always been a club that had a reputation for playing football, sure it got lost in our days of lower league struggle but the dream was always there, that philosophy was returned when we started our march up the league under flynn,jacket brought the professionalism martinez brought a bigger shift towards our style of play(made easy by knowing every player intimatly before having the job) sousa kept the same system and brought a harder defensive edge and rodgers took those elements and combined them with a style that has the best of all previous managers. He is probably the most gifted technical coach and man manager we have had and credit must again go to the board for this, it has always been the board driving the vision and making the correct calls IMO. I dont think any other of our previous managers would have got us promoted, they all struggled in certain aspects but rodgers managed to navigate where others failed, if Martinez was as good as people think then he would have done the same as Lambert and the same as atkinson at southhampton, he didnt do that and was found wanting 2nd half of the season, its the reason why he jumped IMO because he would never have the answers to give us that promotion and got out while his stock was at his highest. In terms of getting the credit we deserve we are still falling short, only this morning on SKY the sunday suppliment show was mentioning Blackpool and how we have been like them !! FFS get it right guys, Hollaway went on record to say he wanted to play like Swansea not the other way around !! Blackpool did indeed play like a Martinez swansea team, good going forward and woeful at the back !! its why Brenden DOES deserve all the credit,he did what both Sousa and RM failed to do, harness all the elements needed to give a team a chance of promotion, not one or another but all elements !! yes he had something to work with but so did Jackett,Martinez and Sousa(though not as much as the previous 2 )
The team picture is the most important factor,and although I feel for Dobbie,the manager lives and dies by his decisions and whether we agree with it we don't get sacked if it goes tits up, and although i think Dobbie is under used.The gaffer thinks otherwise,and he aint done to bad up to date
I must add that if you give credit to the past where do you start ? Martinez? Jacket? Flynn? thats why Buck had no need to mention the past ,its subjective as to who actually started the ball rolling, for me it was the board that drove this vision and made all this happen. thats my take on it anyway
Group resolve , each counting on each other for the greater good . It became crystal clear for me from one game last season . The first leg at the city ground against Forest where Taylor was red carded in the first minute . But you would have never known we were down a man , away from home as the game went on . I'll never forget the feeling I took from that game & it's never gone away since .
People seem to think players can gennerally move up Divisions with no probelm, truth is they cant. our team has been the exception rather than the rule, and it shouldnt be a suprise that some of our heros fail as we progress. Most of us thought we would be lucky to have 3-4 prem standard players,its been proved we have a few more, im sad for dobbie but it is just the way things go IMO. I dont get to see the boys train every day and there just may be a scenerio where dobbie is behind alot of other players on the training field, meaning he doesnt make the bench in games. I also think Buck is right to keep everyone in the squad together, we dont have a big enough pool of players to loan out and the first priority should be to protect the club irrelevent of any personal situation a player may be experiencing by a lack of first team action. Intresting point was made RE donnely, buck didnt want him going anywhere until he understands how we play and train, maybe he just feels that dobbie s playing his part in the squad and knows it would be so very hard to bring somebody in and play our style, it is quite unique after all !
Spot on Ivor. An Italian commentator on SopCast coverage yesterday used the term Swansalona. We have arrived. We are effective, we are dangerous, we are a complete team playing complete football and I think we are poised to dominate in seasons to come. Look at Bilbao's defeat of Man U this past week to illustrate that a modest La Liga club, playing the "right" way, can defeat one of the Prem's Big Clubs. Look at the Man U game versus Wolves today, does this Man U team really look that polished and accomplished and comfortable and as smooth on the ball as we did against Fulham. There are going to be bumps along the way but we are building momentum and are on the right trajectory. It's a great time to be a Jack and it's going to get better. The last game of the season at Old Trafford is going to be a classic.
Rodgers was asked specifically about Wigan and said he felt sorry for Martinez and empathised with him. Imo that would have been a good opportunity to give some credit as most of us (though not all maybe) acknowledge that he 'got the ball rolling' on our style of play. Shame he didn't but that's nitpicking. He sort of took all the credit for the way we go about our business and although you can't blame him I felt that's a wrong impression. It was a good interview overall though.
I disagree, there is only limited amount of players in the first team, somebody is not going to be picked its that simple, we have a large team and people are going to be disappointed, but like Routledge you got to take the opportunities when they present themselves. I watch some of the reserve games and to be honest they don't inspire a hell of a lot confidence in me as second strings go, and that includes dobbie !
So have I , if they don't perform there or on the training pitch, do they really deserve to be in the first team ? I think not ! Putting under performing players into the first team is a quick step to relegation, I feel for Dobbie honestly, but to say his treatment is pathetic as mentioned above is off the mark I think, if he is struggling in the reserves he's going to be a disaster in the premier league right now.
Thats a fair comment Valley, i havent seen a great deal of reserve football but i would imagine that if any 1 player is doing amazing and standing out they would eventually get a nudge for bench duty. I dont think Rodgers needs to talk about Martinez, bobby does enough of that even recently saying that he did sinclair a favour by not signing him !! to me that is a very disrespectful thing to say about sinclair and also gives the impression Brenden gets RM cast off s !! Martinez didnt get the Swans promoted,that happened 2yrs later and with 2 players by the name of Scott sinclair and fabio borini making the difference to a team that fell short in previous seasons, Martinez maybe got the ball rolling for some but he also took the ****in ball with him when he left Giving him credit for building a playoff failing team s fine,truth is he got found out with that team in the second half of the season,if he was still manager we would still be trying for promotion IMO This time belongs to Buck rodgers he got us promoted and deserves the plaudits. Martinez played a part but so did Sousa,jacket and Flynn.
If we had Martinez for another year instead of Sousa , with the equivilent of what Sousa was allowed to have , we probably would have made , at the very least , the playoffs .IMO
