Chairman's Update

Makes interesting reading . I must admit to have been taken in by Jenkins spiel and once bitten twice shy but Birch does speak well

https://www.swanseacity.com/news/update-chairman-1

 

Interesting read indeed. The more I see & hear from Birch, I'm becoming more & more on-board with this guy. He's made such an impact on & off the field, we can truly see how much Jenkins had taken us back, after so much amazing stuff beforehand. He's working with his manager too, I can imagine it's a 2 way thing & his door is always open to Steve. The whole playing & coaching staff are one, you could see that with the celebratory reactions at Leeds.
We've managed to retain the 2 strikers too. We could certainly be going places, as long as they keep focussed, fit & full of the early season desire they've showed. Birch has obviously played a massive part in this harmony, long may it continue..

Same with the academy, with our current financial constraints. There was fear of a possible impact. Thank god, for the time being at least, they've not tightened the purse strings. That's what we need to keep us competing at this level..

A club is nothing without it's fans & he's showing how he understands how fans' tick!! Keep it up Birchie boy..

 

He comes across really well and sounds sincere. Hard to really know of course, he's a hard headed professional at the end of the day and may be quite ruthless in pursuit of his goals (no pun intended). Earning the fans' trust is going to be hard after all that's gone on. The Yanks are still in charge.

Talking of the Yanks - have they been fortunate with the way it's going (Potter->Cooper/transfer sales) or are they actually great businessmen after all?

 

I was really wary initially, being obviously the Yanks' appointment. But in all fairness, they've hired a guy who is very experienced in the role. But as he'd been at so many other clubs too, you could only see it as a solely business venture, especially with the plight we were in. It has turned out a little different, and he seems to be his own man. Who it seems, has been given sole responsibility for the running of the club. Without too much interference, it appears, from the hedge fund. Trevor your remit is to make Swansea City a decent run business again & he's moving in the right direction to achieving that. I think being an ex-professional has helped with the on/off field matters, as I think he understands football is very much an emotional thing too, not just a business.

Think the Yanks got lucky with Potter, he'd been on Jenkins' radar before & was what we needed to get back to the so-called 'Swansea Way' DNA. Again, to some degree with Cooper. They hired Birch, he used his noddle & he hired an 'ol hand (Curtis), who understood what Swansea City stood for. Then of course, there's Leon, who appears to be an astute & wise young man, who was 'Swansea Way' DNA personified!!

If it's true, how the James/Leeds scenario panned-out. I'm can imagine Jason & Steve might have risen a glass or two, to good 'ol Huw, when Manure came in...
Might feel a little different now, as he seems to have gone cheaply.

Can't win them all..

 

I like what he says, Unfortunately so many lies have come out of the club, I find it difficult to believe anything that is said from the board room. lets hope that we continue to progress on the pitch and then we see what happens.

 

Jenkins was a fool to himself after starting so well at the very beginning. He lost his way in the end from being so prudent with the clubs money to spending money like water without any thought, There was no middle ground with him and in the end deserved to lose the chairmanship....

 

Where do you think it went wrong for him Dai? I feel that his downfall started when we picked up Gomis and paying him silly wages, it was then followed with A Ayew. Then to make things worse he brought Bony back which as much as I like Bony, this was a a transfer doomed to fail with his injury record at City, it then snowballed from there.

 

Agree never. He offered over the top contracts and wages for a club of our size and those players never gave the club their monies worth as they were using the club making good money as a stepping stone......Bony for instance is a much better player than what he did for us. He half heartedly played his best as he knew he was earning £100k. Jenkins in the end went from a skinflint to someone buying players as a stop gap and putting them on wages the club couldn't sustain. We in the end had to pay half the wages of those out on loan.....You can't do that man it was bound to turn sour...

 

It seems positive, will this mean some of the fans will now give up their boycott of spending in the stadium and club shop? This was going on last year and have not heard much on it this year.

 

I will not spend a penny at the club, nor will I pay to watch the team and will support from afar that is after 30 something years of being a season ticket holder and always buying lots from the club shop. When the yanks finally leave I will probably return. I may be in a minority now on this but I made my stance and this wont change.

 

Was it a change from solid well thought-out purchases to panic buying or simply good luck turning bad. There was a long period of buying cheap and selling well as the player concerned developed, followed by some poor buys at higher prices.

 

As all Clubs do