Thanks mate, im sworn to the news on this one at the moment but I wont be the only one who has heard the goings on at the club, there is no smoke without fire as we all know but there is a major inferno inside them walls of the Liberty !!
I hope things get sorted out.
Life goes on of course, the Swans are so close to being a solid prem team, sometimes a little faith is needed by everyone I guess
I'm guessing that by "everyone" you are referring to Huw and the Board. Laudrup obviously does have faith and he is looking for the backing that was promised to him.
This begs the question of how and why this situation has cropped up in the first place. When Laudrup signed his contract extension, it was accepted by all parties that it was done on the understanding that adequate funds would be made available to him. Surely the amount of the money available must have been discussed in principle - if not in very great detail? I cannot believe that experienced football businessmen would have omitted to do this.
Consequently, we are left with the scenario that one or both parties (Board and Manager) have reneged on the agreement that was reached. I am wondering if the Board's faith in Laudrup was shaken by our less than impressive final run in and have decided to adopt a more cautious approach as a result.
There are pros and cons to this. The Board are right to be concerned about the results, which were tantamount to relegation form. They might be worried that investing heavily in transfer fees, and the salaries involved, might not guarantee the results to warrant the spend. There is no doubt that the Europa Cup will stretch our resources to the limit, even to the point that our Premier League survival could be jeopardised.
Michael Laudrup, however, could rightly argue that the performances, for the most part, were deserving of much better. We all know that our rightful position was 8th (curse that moron of a ref at WBA); Spurs hung on like grim death and had to kick lumps out of us to get a result and the Fulham result was..... a farce, a freak by Martin Jol's own admission. Perhaps 5 or 6 points from those games, plus others from matches where we didn't get what we deserved, it could be argued that this present wrangling over money wouldn't be happening. Fine margins indeed.
But the kicker for me is the word "promise". If our manager was promised adequate funds then he should be given adequate funds. No more and no less. The Board cannot mess about with this, particularly with a man of Laudrup's stature and, even more particularly, after his experiences at other clubs. The consequences don't bear thinking about. Key members of the team will leave along with the manager and we can forget players who are in the pipeline such as Canas. We would be in complete and utter turmoil with relegation almost a certainty. As for our credibility as a football club......
So, to sum up, the Board need to back Laudrup with every penny that was promised. If Laudrup has suddenly decided to up his demands to a level that would place our club in jeopardy, with a heavy heart I'd have to say he should leave and ply his trade elsewhere. If it comes to that, we can save more money by knocking the ground extension on the head - it won't be needed, certainly not in the Championship.
It's sad that things have come to this (I'm taking Norway's post at face value) but I'm hoping that this is more rumour than fact. Perhaps it can be resolved through compromise by Huw and the Board showing faith in Laudrup by upping the money available and the manager harnessing his requirements to a level we can afford. We can but hope.
