In the past we looked for managers to fit a specific profile, they had to be relatively young, ambitious to the point of arrogance and have a phylosiphy which suited our 'way'. We signed Martinez, Souza, Rodgers, Laudrup and none had much experience in management but they all fitted our profile and were successful beyond expectation. We lost our 'Swansea way' though in Monks second yr imo, some would argue his first and I wouldn't argue against them. It was then, probably because of the boards desire to sell our club, that they started to focus on avoiding relegation than on striving for success, which would cost them more ££'s. They became concious of the saleable £value of the club and became fearful of the money they'd lose if relegated. As a consequence, the 'Swansea way' was squeezed out of the club. The new profile for managers reflected this change and instead of looking for exciting young forward thinking managers to take us forward we sought steady, defensive, old school managers to maintain our status in the prem and no more. Bradley was an aberation, a huge mistake but Guidolin, Clement, Calvarhal all fit the new profile and it was this backward thinking, lack of ambition of the board which choked us out of the premiership. I feel Potter would be a breath of fresh air as he fits the tried, tested and successful profile we had in place in the good old days when our focus was positve. As the profile predictts he is young, ambitious and positive in his approach to football. He doesn't appear to have the fear Guidolini, Clement and Calvarhal had which stifled ambition and creativity on the pitch. He appears to be positive and if his team is anything to go by then his style suits our 'way' as he likes the ball to do all the work and his team to play with steel as well as style. He probably is more aware of our club than other candidates too as he's friendly with Graham Jones, he must have had a chat?. Potters appointment, or at least someone similar, would be great news as, imo, it would show that we have taken our first step on our return to the 'Swansea Way' we loved and now desperately miss.
I'm interested to see how he pans out, he has new and novel ideas on how to build team-work and confidence. My only concern is that English league football is full of prima donnas that might see themselves above 'such nonsense'.
Naturally as expected The swans are Favorites to bounce straight back up by the bookies. Potts will most certainly be the manager by the week end and his first job is to tell the players that nobody is leaving if they are needed and he will decide who can leave or not.......It will be stupid to leave Fab go anywhere for £5m and not worth doing as it makes more sense him playing for us..... I believe there will be money available for potts to use and i expect he may bring some players with him so some exciting times ahead....
We need to get behind potts 100% when he takes over and accept his judgement and see how it goes with our first 5 games.....I say the same thing with every manager that joins as i like to see what they do first before i judge them......The last 3 managers have all failed so i hope that we have a good manager this time and i dont mean winning every game as no manager will do that...
I'm concerned about Potter The Swedish league have a summer break in June, returning in July. The timing couldn't be better for us, Potter is effectively available, Osterund have time to find his replacement and we get to start our summer rebuild early but, a spanner has been thrown into the works imo. It was initially reported that Potter would be signed up last Friday, that changed to this weekend which in turn became early next week. Thing is, according to Vital football, (https://swansea.vitalfootball.co.uk...o-regain-their-identity-build-for-the-future/), Potter is going on holidays to New York early next week so its doubtful we'll know until he gets back in TWO WEEKS. “My wife booked. It will be two weeks in New York.” When asked about talks he's had with us he said “I do not want to repeat it right now. They have contacted me and told about their project.” Doesn't sound excited does he? he sounds like he's not fussed imo. Our problem is obvious, we need a manager 'yesterday' to begin to sort out our mess ready for next season. Until we appoint a new manager we wont know the ins and outs of the squad and can't start the process of finding replacements for those leaving. In all likelihood we'll need to overhaul the squad and we're going to need all of the summer to have a chance of effectively doing that. I realise that everyone is on holiday now so maybe I looking to much into Potter going too. Thing is I cant help thinking that, if he truly wanted to be here then he'd commit to us before he went instead of putting us in Limbo for two weeks by not saying anything. We are a wealthy club and so must be an attractive prospect to many managers in Footballdom. Of those there has to be a lot wanting to come here of similar caliber and with similar credentials to Potter who fit our profile. With this in mind surely we should still be looking for a manager while Potter ponders his future. We should give Potter time to think but we shouldn't be conceding control of such a vital decision to Potter alone. We should still be searching and interviewing candidates while Potter considers his future but it seems we've put all our eggs in Potters basket and not expanded the choices we have. Maybe Potter is our man but imo, if he is then he has to commit to us before he goes on holidays and not keep us guessing until he gets back. Worry is, what if he says no, that's a month wasted since Carvalhal left and time is precious to us right now because we're going to need as much of it as we can get if we're going to be fighting fit and ready for next season.
Championship clubs such as WBA. Stoke, QPR, Derby on the verge have already appointed managers,. We are dragging our feet again.
What will be will be. Potts has managed his last game and will soon be joining the Swans after he has had a short break that he is entitled too and earned....We can't really deny him that can we...He will be under tremendous pressure to try and turn things around in a bigger league than he has ever managed before and he is confident he can do it....Good on him i say, Welcome you Jack Bastard sort this mess out....
I was told today that if Potter becomes the new manager then he will bring in Ron & Hermione as his assistants and play Dobbie up front again. Anyone else heard that?
I don’t like the fact that we are being kept dangling when our need is most urgent. Now is not the time for holidays and thinking about it. He has been interviewed before so he knows what we are all about. Without a firm commitment from this guy right now, I say we move on and pick someone with more enthusiasm and respect for our club and the challenge ahead. He is not a top manager who can pick and choose where he wants to go. He is a novice in terms of experience and all he has going for him is potential after being successful in a comparatively minor league.