What are your thoughts on how far your team can go this season? From an outsiders viewpoint you are currently looking great. Love the way you play and this Michu chap seems to have awoken a killer edge that was maybe missing a bit last season (especially early doors) Also, it's great to see a chairman that knows how to pick a manager. You have a system (started by Martinez???) and he seems to be able to pick up young (cheap?) managers who slot into the system with minimal disruption. From a Spurs point of view i can tell you this is a very big positive. We change our manager a lot and every new one needs a bedding in period which basically ruins a season. Not sure on your squad depth tbh but I honestly think you might get europe through the league. Especially if the cup finals are contested by the usual suspects. Can't believe some people were suggesting you'd struggle without Rodgers.
I'd still take 17th. We're capable of much more, but if you offered it to me now I'd snatch your hand off. IF all goes well then somewhere around 8th-10th is ours for the taking. We're not quite there in terms of squad depth to challenge for Europe, and to be honest given the paltry financial rewards for so many games the Europa League is probably not worth the bother anyway. Top half finish and a good run in one of the cups would be a great season.
Well personally I would love a top ten finish, but probably will struggle to match what we did last season. Michu is a great signing for us and scoring 3 goals in two games shows he has eye for the goal. He came here like the others purely because of the laudrup factor, there is no way we would have got them under Rodgers . Our chairman Huw Jenkins is very astute and he ensures we are not screwed over, and not over extending ourselves, all our transfers in have been paid by Liverpool which is very kind of them we are even about £4m up on the deal. In terms of the way we play, you are right that it mostly started with Martinez, he had us playing total football when he came in, it helped that he was our club captain as well so knew the players inside out. His one failure was defending, we would have to score 2 or 3 to win a game. This was fixed with Sousa coming in after him, he was here a year but had a huge effect on our defence, some forget this with one paper I saw even saying that Brendan came in after Martinez The problem with Sousa was that he was obsessed with defence to the detriment of attack, we scored I think 40 goals for the whole season, but had a club record of 26 clean sheets, it was a very boring season to say the least. What Brendan did for us was tinker with a system already in place, he found a balance that allowed us to score goals and defend effectively, we got promoted with him in charge, he brought in good players to ensure this and to survive our maiden season, with Caulker, Siggy, Borini and Sinclair brought in. Brendan did not make our system, Martinez did. Our chairman brings in managers who fit our philosophy not ones who will come in and make huge changes. Laudrup fits into our way of looking at things, he's brought in some class players and it looks like we are taking the next step.
Very early days yet and a tough season ahead. Last season I did worry that might struggle and go straight back down, how wrong was I ? And it was refreshing to talk to real proper fans of football that appreciated our style of play. As for this season we are trying to take the next step and to try and break into the top half. If we stay injury free then we have a good chance. Good luck to Spurs too, always a good footballing side
It's interesting the different views of the fans on here. If Spurs had started like you guys half our fans would probably be saying "we have a shot at the title" but you guys seem to be "take top half". I would say at the moment Swansea are actually better than spurs. We are attempting to adopt a similar system to you but our players haven't quite got it, yet. I'm amazed that having played your system last year that caulker hasn't been picked for the first 2 games. AVB has mysteriously picked gallas and it's cost us. I really rate caulker and I hope we give him a shot. It's always good to have a laugh at Liverpool. Glad they paid for your transfers and then we pipped them to Sig and Dempsey. They look weak now and I think Rodgers may struggle to implement the Swansea system from scratch. AVB may well have similar issues to a lesser extent. At the moment I think you're really showing everyone how it _should_ be done. Sod the £20m+ soulless transfers. Get in a load of players that fit your system and want to play for you and let them entertain. When are our games? The 2-2 last year was a cracker. You really pounded us for the last 20-25mins
The lads have summed it up well, Spurm. I think that if we were offered 17th position now we'd take it - purely because it would guarantee us a minimum £60 million that should set up our club for life. We are a realistic lot down here and know in our heart of hearts that we will never be a top four, or even top six club, in the true sense of the word. We might threaten those positions on occasion but I believe that our true place in the scheme of things could be somewhere along the lines of what Everton have done in recent years. So long as we achieve that, beat some of the "big" clubs each season, have the odd decent cup run and continue to play the style of football that we love down here, I would be a happy chappy that's for sure. Anything better would be an absolute bonus.
Pre-season I predicted a 10th to 7th finish, and I see no reason to change that, Swansea have for the last 5 years, always built on the previous season, and while we are the Bookies favourite to get relegated this season, the same was said of us while we were in the championship. We have been proving the pundits wrong for years, and we will do the same this year. Last year I predicte 14th finish, and was very happy at finishing 11th, and while I realise many Jacks are cautious, I on the other hand have always been optimistic, and see Laudrup eclipsing all that Rodgers did, we are here for the long run, and are having a positive effect on the Premiership!..........
A very long season ahead and loads of unpredicible results to come..check out West Ham murdering Fulham right now 3-0 at half time !! our fans were having a bit of a moan about our defendeing against the hammers set piece play but Fulham have no answer at all. Anyway bearing in mind the way the prem league seems to be shaping up i think 17th would be thankful and anything higher a bonus, i just have a feeling that alot of sides will take points off each other and we will need our fair share of giant killings to make us safe, very early days right now and i beleive we will know alot more about our team today and indeed in the next month or so, to stay up we needed to take these early points and we have done just that. Laudrup has been very effective with his transfers and seems to have all the players onside which is fantastic considering he has had to axe a few of the old gaurd and club favourites, he seems to be dripping in class and the players can only learn from him, one player to watch for me could be Wayne Routledge who IMO can gain alot from ML 's input
Routledge is another strange one for us spurs fans. Arrived at the lane after a big battle with Simon Jordan (not fo the last time) of palace. He started the first game out right and looked decent but then got injured. In came a 17-18yr old Lennon and Routledge never got back to what he is clearly capable of.
I agree with the other posters. Most of us would take survival right now but we all know we can do so much better than that. Squeaking into the top half would be a real result for us.
I had us down around the 14th mark but now i can see us just outside the top 6, we were so bad at the back today but still should have won....routs was my MOM today with michu who will get 20+ goals this season very close...
Routledge has been simply outstanding for us so far this season. So much so that a player we just signed for £5.5m may have to wait his turn on the bench.
Routledge would be hard done by if dropped as he's been brilliant so far. Like you say, expect Hernandez on the bench next game.
After todays game I would say we are good for 8-12th this season, would take 12-15th right now though
