Having listened to todays press call i heard Laudrup talking about not spending alot of money to sign players, nice to hear as well!! he said that spending money is very easy and he doesnt really look at what money we have but looks at finding the right player at the right price. Intresting to hear him talk a little about how we do buisness which is alot more under cover these days..thank god!! He said that Swansea is one of the very few clubs that are in the black and he can spend money if he wants but he likes to keep everything under wraps to stop other teams from making counter offers that would increase our outlay. He talks pure common sense and its so refreshing to actually watch him bat away questions about our targets when everyone knows he has something up his sleeve!! It would not suprise me at all if he finds us another low price bargin but at the same time he knows the money is there if he feels he needs it to aquire a player like pablo, this is a very astute man in charge and its great to see him buy into the same philosophy as the board and Jenkins. The way he kind of sneered at the thought of spending alot of money tells me that he is enjoying the challenge of finding the right players at the right price,its almost like he views spending big as an insult to his player knowledge, an intresting trait in the spend spend spend culture of prem football. I think Laudrup is very comfortable in this environment and the challenge of being at a smaller club is maybe something that he regards as a better test of his skills than it would be with painting/spending by numbers at a bigger club. Lets face it,many people have played football manager and they will tell you how easy it is to win the league with £300m to spend.. Our transfer policy is looking fantastic at this level,most of the signings have been well thought out and have settled well. Laudrup previously talked about a number of qualities a player must have to play for swansea and it was intresting to note,the gist of it was. 1.He must be a technical player 2. He must be used to having to work very hard in the team. 3. Its important that the player understands the stature of the club and the area in which he will be based. 4. The player must have the right mentallity and be able to intergrate into a team that has no ego's or big stars. Not all of the above are the first things managers look at really, but it is vital for us! Im very proud of the way our club is being run under Laudrup, its clear to see that there are some of our players that maybe dont buy into him 100% and these are the kind of players that have only ever played lower league and mediocre standards before our rise. Alot of people talked about his training methods at the start of the season and its no suprise Sousa had the same problems, in Europe they dont have a sergent major flogging them for fitness 24/7 like in the British game, maintaining your body and fitness is seen as a personal thing and is taken as a given,its the coaches job to improve you as a player not run you around the field a 100 times. A fact born out by the fact Chco came to the club and blitzed everyone in the fitness tests!! Laudrup and Sousa both played at the very top and were the best at their positions in the worlds most glamourous clubs! they probably laughed at the likes of gary monk telling them their methods wernt up to scratch.. My point is that there is alot to learn from the likes of Laudrup,we have seen alot of improvements in the team in a short space of time, it seems he is happy with his squad and where he can take the club, when asked about the racist issue with kevin prince boatang and what his reaction would be if one of his players walked off the field while suffering racist abuse he answered that he would back his players every single time no matter what the issue was, no faff just common sense and integrity! Doesnt matter if he leaves us ive seen enough to be thankful of his presence at Swansea city football club. A manager that is cut from common sense and has done everything as a player...and was also the best in the world at his position in charge of the swans and doing great things...long may that continue
WE certainly got an upgrade from Brenda, that much is plain to see, and clearly our lower league players have difficulty in adjusting to top managers like Sousa and Laudrup, but adjust they must or they can simply sling their hook. Laudrup I feel has come at the right time, as we are growing as a club, and the development of the new facilities at Landore an Fairwood are evidence to Laudrup that the club wants to get everything right. Coupled with this Laudrups previous experience of interference from club boards, then it's refreshing for him to have full control of the development of our first team squad. Sure Laudrup can see he has inherited a good passing squad, but he's not been slow in spotting the deficiencies, and his ability to find the right player at the right price makes him very valuable to a club like ours, who wish to progress step by step, without jeopardising our heritage, and progress over these last 5 or six years. Our board has never ever taken silly risks with anything, and long may that continue, though I'd like to see momentum maintained on the stadium expansion, so that we can increase our revenue, and reclaim back thousands of lost jacks from the wembley lottery week sell out. Steady progress must continue, you can't stand still in this game!.................
Where have we ever spent a load of money anyway, We have a reputation of finding the right players on the cheap and making them household names...
Stadium progess is an intresting point, it doesnt help the board when we only get 15,500 for Boro in a cup quarter final ! that tells me that the plastic fickle element is still in full flow down here. Prem football is the meal ticket and globel support must be capitalised on, that brings me to another point.. The club shop have sold out of football shirts and wont be re-stocking until the new strip comes out in the summer!! i was in the club shop when hearing this and the chap that was talking to the shop girl posted his feelings about it on Planet Swans. How the hell can we be devoid of stock halfway through the season? there was nothing for me to buy in there yesterday and even their card reading machines wernt working properly !! A complete shambles from top to bottom if you ask me. I was told it was my banks fault FFS!! plenty of people were having the same problem and most like me left empty handed!! Im not sure if its true but surely there must be some new shirts on sale in the coming months? what if we get another wembley final ? i do sympathise with the club a little bit but there must come a time when they start to realise that we are now a globel brand ?? Stadium expension is difficult to talk about when we cant even cater for the crowds we have now !!
Er.. £5.5m for Pablo Hernandez and £5m for Ki sung is a load of money Dai, not by Manchester united standards of course, we were also agreed on a £7,5m quid fee for Gylfi siggurdson . Laudrup feels he can fish a couple of bargins i reckon. I have no problem with us spending the money if we can afford it but i think Laudrup is treating the clubs money as his own and that is only to be admired. Anyway we always used to spend massive!! 50k for carl heggs proved that..
Its all to do with money norway, some cant afford to support the swans in the league and cup matches these days, thats the way most clubs are finding....Its a hell of a lot of money to fork out and clubs must come to terms with this problem and they need to make all cup games at least half price to ensure full capacity...
Yes you just can't believe they've run out of shirts, half way through the season can you! still armature's in many ways to get this so badly wrong, but you can always rely on the Chinese, and Asians to start replicating counterfeit, and serve the clubs right if this happens, it's like the bloody inept ticket office, I tried to get tickets for the Villa game (Glad I didn't now) left in their queueing system for 40 minutes!! won't wast my time again on that!..............
Yes but there are also plenty who cant get to games because of the lack of tickets available, first chance they get to buy tickets they perhaps dont fancy it! the pubs are full of people that supposedly cant get a ticket but in the cup that wasnt the issue,and it all about the money with some people as they are happy to drink the value of a couple of tickets in beer at the bar. I had no ticket for Man utd and for Reading but through hard work and being cheeky a managed to get tickets for both, aston villa i got sorted for me and my girlfriend and im living in another country!! The money side of things is perfectly understandable but not everyone is really skint, 15,500 for boro in the cup quarter final to me shows that the club needs to tread carefully in the expansion.
Not in top 4 terms no it isnt, but you said we have never spent alot of money, that is very true but us spending £5m on players is the same as utd spending £30m on players. I guess the point im making is that even though money is available to Laudrup he seems happy enough to source the correct players first and foremost then the money side of things later. A £2m Michu is an example rather than a £7,5 m Gylfi . I think the fit is good between club and manager and i think ML knows he can cut the corners that other prem teams cant, ie ,knowing what players can offer us something for very little money
i think the problem with the stadium being sold out 9/10 times is that alot of fans don't check to see if tickets are availible that often. i target games which i don't think will be sold out, getting tickets for the arsenal game was pure luck as i honestly didn't think i would stand a chance.....had a nagging feeling though that x-mass might have left people a little short on cash so i took a look and bingo i had some luck.
I know lads who can watch the game in the pub for the price of four pints ,that works out a lot cheaper than a season ticket or a one off ticket for £45 , the hard core support comes from the deprived areas of Swansea & times are hard and with the only major employer closing it's doors (Alberto Culver) it's belt tightening time .The club could have reduced the price for the CoC game or do as it used to as a one off kids for free just to get a full house and an atmosphere going (dam it was cold).My mate has been a season ticket holder since the year dot but doesn't go to cup games (?) If you want a ticket you'll always get one .
So bearing that in mind where does the need for 32000 stadia fit in to a deprived Swansea ?? Will we see 10,000 supporters from abroad descend to us on weekends ? the appeitie for prem football is there,that is clear to see but what happens if that is taken away ?? im looking at it from the boards perspective and when they see 15000 for a quarter final it must ring some alarm bells IMO. Yes money is tight and yes many people i know cant really afford a season ticket, but you would think those without a season ticket may well have decided to watch the team in the flesh that night but didnt. The point about watching these games in the pub is an intresting one as well. There is no doubt that we would sell out for prem football if they removed the signal from the pubs! but having said that,if what you say is truely accurate then people just cant afford to pay to watch the swans irrelevent of ticket availability or not. Again this should be cause for concern in a stadium expansion. Do you think people would pay to see Swans v liverpool for £40 quid or watch it in the pub instead? hard core fans will normally find a way and i beleive there are payment plans for season tickets as well. An intresting debate on this actually
Well the club are basing their expansion on real demand, they have a waiting list of 6,000 for season tickets already!! and if your going to spend money on expansion, it's only common sense to build in some more seats, for further demand, so no alarm bells here, though the cup games have always been poor, but Boro is no big attraction, but Arsenal certainly is, and as we speak there are still plenty of tickets!! Clearly every one is broke after Christmas................
Is it the end of this season they are looking to extend ? And is it in phases they are planning this ? I do think it makes sense to extend now as the demand is there, if we get relegated it might a problem but we got to look at this as we are staying in this league for the long term.
