I was waiting for this sort of statement and as expected and totally true to form, a measured statement full of class. In any endeavor, even when you're doing your best and acting in good faith and with good will, you will **** up from time to time. From those moments come lessons learned, you get up on your feet, you resolve the situation the best way you can, you move on, smarter for the experience. Clearly we are not doing much, as a club, as executives, in learning lessons, in acting in good faith and with good will. There are patterns beginning to appear that are not smart, where lessons that should have been learned have not been otherwise there would be no pattern. Whenever we attempt to stretch ourselves by hiring top talent from the top echelons of the game, from abroad instead of the lower echelon domestics we have come undone - Sousa and now Laudrup. I rank Martinez as more domestic since that's where he played most of his football. Why is it we attempt to think big, but cannot embrace the challenge of being or acting big. We struggle to grow our "world" to expand our horizons and act / manage / engage appropriately. It's a hackneyed saying ... you can take the bloke out of the gutter but cannot take the gutter out of the bloke ... reworked for the club ... you can take the club out of the lower leagues but you cannot take the lower leagues out of the club. The club is an entity, it can only be changed by changing its people. If our people cannot scale with the situation of the club, it's time to change the people otherwise the club will decline to its best fitting scale. There will be more truths to come out, but try attracting top talent to manage this club when this cloud of executive conduct hangs over the club. We got away with it with Sousa. Laudrup is at a different level. This dirty laundry will not go away to distant shores.
Everyone loves to throw in the tail end of last year , when we were safe already and won the league cup . A season is a season . We finished 9th andwon the cup , full stop . Now this season AND THIS SEASON ONLY , when Jenkins sacked Laudrups agent , we were doing fine dispite a gruelling shedule . Throw in crazy amounts of injuries and playing a streak of great teams and we got into a bit of a pickle . We were just crawling out ( 3 wins in our last 6 games in all competitions )when the knee jerk jerks on the board pulled the plug on the manager . Huw will answer for this when ALL the truth comes out.
Of course Mr Laudrup has previous with this so its not as clear cut as believing everything in his statement and blaming the board.
We know the board have previous too, as with Sousa, so it is not as clear cut as believing the board either And Sousa had a good season apart from we were boring to watch and our board wouldn't back him. They want someone to tow the line.
And to think that Laudrup rejected approaches from both Chelsea and PSG among others to stay with little ol' Swansea with their tiny budget and then being stapped so hard in the back now, being accused of only looking out for him self and not caring enough.... What a joke of a board and many fans also. The so called decline is nothing more than a decline from 9th. and Capital One glory to the natural position of the smallest budget in the Premier League in the bottom. If anyone could continue the overachievement of Swansea it would be Laudrup. Unfortunately for him injuries, a cheap board, lies and fans who think they belong in the top half got in the way. Not even giving him the Napoli maches. What a disgrace. What a shame.
To me it's quite clear why he has been sacked, the results just haven't been good enough, and if what we've heard in the press is anything to go by then the board are more than justified in sacking him. Laudrup's statement though, is a classy one as I'd expect. I liked him very much and have some fantastic memories because of him. Always a gent and I'll miss him. His thanks to the fans will be greatly appreciated, as will his comments on us being a great club. I personally wish him all the best for the future, and I hope he'll look back on his Swansea time fondly. It's sad they didn't let him go and say his goodbyes to the players and staff. Strange decision which I think could have been handled better. Also it seems a bit odd that he was sacked by letter considering that he was supposed to be having a meeting with Jenkins at the time. We haven't heard anything like the full story yet. I think both sides have made mistakes leading up and culminating in the sack. But once again, thanks Michael for all you've done, good luck for the future. Now though, as fans we need to look ahead to the future and get behind Monk and the boys.
The pending law suit speaks volumes. If Laudrup loses it, his reputation really will be shot. The fact that he is proceeding shows his confidence and, if he does win, it is our club and those who run it who will look like morons. I suspect that Jenkins and the Board will be ordering industrial quantities of Andrex. However, I doubt they will want it to come to that and will quietly settle with millions of the club's money. I daresay it will all come out in the wash but I hope the club doesn't have to foot the laundry bill as well.
Ivor, ML hasn't said he's preparing to take out a law suit against the club. He said he's seeking legal advice on his dismissal as most people would do upon being dismissed. Any further action he takes is dependent on the legal advice he receives. We're talking as though we're going to court tomorrow, we're not and it might not go any further.
Really OK we've had a couple of poor games and a handful of poor halves. We have also had up to 9 players out of the first team, two or three other well below par who I believe will suddenly perk up with their mucka in charge, we are 12th in the league and he has had to deal with muck spreading (can't imagine where the rumours came from, can you?), we have achieved miracles in Europe (for us) and beat a team at home for the first time ever in the FA Cup, all done on a shoe string THIS SEASON. 'He talks like only way he has to communicate with the players is to meet them at the training ground. Very odd.' Or professional - what would be odd is if he was in the habit of meeting players socially and leaving himself open to accusations of favouritism.
Yankee, TOP POST!! I hope people will take the trouble to read it properly. And you are right, our Board did reasonably well in the lower leagues, which suits their mentality and ability. Premier League? Just way, way out of their depth.
Those very statements coming from the board about Laudrup are what will cost us more money and a spiral that I hope we can pull out RIP Union
UJ, thanks, you are quite correct in pointing that out. I posted on the assumption that if he does proceed it will show he is not concerned about his reputation. Personally, I don't think we will ever know because, if he does proceed, I think Jenkins will buy him off with an out of court settlement.
Ivor these tactics by our Board and Jenkins have been used before with Sousa, it comes as no surprise to me, yes they always manoeuvre the support around a manager in the hope he will resign and leg it, pretty pathetic small time hustlers if you ask me, but I do agree that Laudrup working with Monk in charge of Training would have worked, but that was never the intention of Jenkins, they had clearly decided at their Coffee Morning that he was to be sacked, and lets remember Jenkins and Laudrup it is being reported have not communicated since last October, which not only is staggering, but would also explain the mess up over Ki. I'm still of the view though that Laudrup has had enough chances to turn us around, and failed, in my view he had to go, and I thought we would have waited until the Cardiff game to see if Laudrup could have got us back on track, but events leading up to and after the West Ham game have dictated the clubs sacking of Laudrup, the manner though leaves a lot to be desired, but then that's how our board have always been!....... PS: Ivor with regard to Monk supposedly being placed as Laudrup's number 2 by Jenkins, this has been refuted by Monk. Yankee agree with your post, we are still in the lower League mentality, and it needs to change big time!.............
One other thing .... in his statement Laudrup kept using the terms "we" and "our" when referring to the club, players, events, despite begin so shabbily treated. To think that this man was not deeply vested in the success of the players, team and club is utter nonsense.
I honestly don't think we've heard the real reason behind Laudrup's sacking yet. I imagine all will become clear in time.
I'm on the fence on this one and can only 'wait and see' what pans out. What I will say though is that if anyone interprets ML referring to the club as 'we' and 'our' in a press release as a true reflection of his feelings of connection and endearment with the fans, then I'm afraid you are being somewhat misled. As has already been said on 'hundred's' ** of occassions on this forum alone, ML is a very intelligent and articluate man and all his words both written and verbal are always carefully thought out and measured. Therefore it goes without saying (although I will anyway !) , that , of course he would include such loyal terms in a considered written letter designed for press release. ** 'I have said at least a millions times, I never exagerate!'
Laudrup isn't going to make a lawsuit, the union of English league managers will. Laudrup won't set face or name to mudthrowing. He'll let someone else do it. The full facts will come out. He states in Danish media that he's been advised to lay low until the legal matters are settled. We will get the full version, from his point of view. We won't get it from Jenkins, not while he's chairman at least. But maybe it's the time for him to look for a new job as well, when the board evaluates this season...
