Yeah. First job: get knocked out of the Europa league. Same squad that came 9th last season (albeit without the Europa league). And I really doubt they will pine for the Laudrup days; people said the same when they sacked Martinez, then Rodgers. They're well set-up and will have continuity.
I meant for Monk, but yeah. Heard an amusing proposal the other day that the fifth-placed team should be allowed not to compete in the Europa league and everyone else would have to. You'd get a genuine race for fifth then!
Well they've gone from on the brink of relegation to the conference up the leagues to winning a major domestic trophy and European football in a decade with 6 different managers and a brand new stadium for a club with a modest fan base. That's pretty lucky or a good set-up
A good set up in League Two is not the same as a good set up in the Premier League. They got here and stayed here as a result of very good management. They will not stay up without it because in terms of finances and support, they are not equipped for this league.
Shame, Laudrup should have been given more time. Still, I echo others and can see Swansea slip out of the Premier League in the not too distant future.
Good management at a board level as well. They've replaced managers before and continued to punch above their weight, even though people like you said they'd struggle then too. Laudrup going won't change that.
I didn't say they'd struggle then. They were benefiting from a huge amount of momentum and fantastic morale, having been climbing consistently for so long. They hit their ceiling (a ceiling which needs considerable investment in order to be raised) and they've been in a slide for a while. The backing at board level for the past year has not been good enough for a Premier League club. Nothing the manager could do about that. Now if they continue to operate on the budget of a Championship club, they'll become one. The momentum from now is downwards.
Or maybe Laudrup's heart wasn't in it and that rubbed off on the players, and they're actually a decent team. I didn't say you said this stuff before, but people wrote them off exactly as you are doing.
12th place is misleading it's more about being 2 points of the relegation zone and one in eight, being ineffective and showing no fight (Laudraup and his team). Like Wigan they could be here for years, but unlike the Lactics they do have the potential to grow as club, with expansion they could easily rival our attendances. I agree that the squad quality isn't as strong as many thought at the beginning of the season, with many ranking them the strongest outside the teams placed currently in the top seven.
Statistically, sacking a manager mid season almost never leads to a sustained upturn in fortunes. At least according to Kevin Pullein, the Racing Post's chief football writer, who has done some quite thorough analysis of teams results before and after a mid season sacking. Recent events suggest Gus Poyet at Sunderland, and possibly Tony "shut the back door" Pulis at Crystal Palace may be about to buck that trend, but the sacking of Laudrup looks to me like yet another clueless chairman showing a complete lack of bottle. I'd be very surprised to see an upturn in fortune for a side that's been holding it's own in a difficult league. The first sign of a poor run of results, and the chairman panics. Doesn't bode well.
They've won one game in their last ten, and that was against Fulham. They were absolutely dreadful against West Ham. That's not "the first sign of a poor run" that's the kind of form that's enough to trouble any manager's job security, particularly one who has shown such a lack of commitment to the job lately.
It has been reported that the Chairman didn't like the fact that Laudrup took 2 days off (and gave the players the same) straight after a defeat in a relegation fight. Don't know how true that is but add that to the fact that he hasn't seemed as fired up as in the past, there could be some truth in it?
Swansea have surprised me the most this season...they are about where they should be, but only 2 points above the drop. I thought they would have done better as last season I thought they were the team we should emulate...newly promoted with a solid first season and some very good results. This season they are really in the mix, especially when other teams have started to dig in.
