My thoughts... 1) Whomever is Swansea manager must be signed up to a brand of football which is attacking in intent, which is centered around moving the ball quickly and accurately on the deck, but is flexible enough to change the formation and personnel up on occasion to keep the opposition guessing. 2) Whomever is Swansea manager must have good contacts within the game and knowledge of (or scouts who have knowledge of) foreign markets. We are small relative to the rest of the league. We need to unearth bargain squad players, and the occasional gem. 3) Youngsters will never, ever, come through unless they are given game time.....this means appropriate loans organised for a clutch of youngsters at a time and game time at Swansea for those in between loans. This means we need to stay in cups for as long as we can. This means that we should always have at least 1 on the bench. This means we give the youngster on the bench minutes where we can. e.g. We are leading at home with 20mins to play, get a youngster on! If we don't do this what is the point exactly in having an academy? You might as well burn the money. 4) Jobs for the old boys is fine where it is possible to accommodate them. (e.g. If they want help taking their badges and wish to assist with training during this process, FOR FREE, then fair enough. If we want to install coaches to oversee academies in Merthyr and Cardiff....then by all means give a job to the likes of Trundle, Tate, Leon, Ash and Rangel. If the manager decides he'd like one or two of these to become more involved, fine. Leave it to him.) However the first team manager needs to have his own people....and for that matter, the key people in the academy need to be the best we can hire rather than ex-pros. On cold wet Swansea days like today, when no doubt some of the foreign lads are prone to a stray thought of "what the **** am I doing here?"...they need to be look up at the Manager and his coaches and think; "Oh yeah, that's what I'm doing here. I get the opportunity to work with ????? , I'm learning my trade and there is a project here we are all believe in and are striving to achieve"..... Instead of looking up and seeing the likes of Kristian O'Leary eating an Evans pie. 5) Keep a lid on player power please. Towards the end of his playing days Monk had become a poisonous influence in the dressing room in my view. Instead of backing the manager we backed Monk. Is it any wonder the current crop of players seem to believe they can do as they wish? We should be employing someone who monitors/audits the work being done at the club who reports to the board....not using the opinions of squad members. Ideally this person would NOT be a football person, you don't want personal opinions and personal loyalties to be an issue. The board need to see what is actually going on at the club in black and white, cold, dispassionate.....this info forms part of the picture when you hold your annual manager review. 6) Back the manager and no matter what happens back him all season. At season's end you review the manager's performance and then make your decisions (sack, keep on, extend contract, act on his recommendations etc.). It is not a good idea to do this sort of thing mid season (for a variety of reasons which are too boring to go into) 7) The points total matters very little. What earns us money is League placing. Monk and his "fan boys" went on and on about breaking records....at the end of the day regardless of points totals the difference between 8th and 9th place is approx. £700k. We are spending 4 times that just to remove Monk. What will be remembered about this era is that we played some lovely football in the Premier and won a cup. Football is about glory, it is a spectacle, entertainment. This club is in the business of selling tickets (or if you will, subscriptions and merchandise to a worldwide audience). 8) Long term contracts should be given out very sparingly indeed. Monk was given an extra 3 years, which has cost us. Half the squad seem to be on 4 year contracts at the moment....which could also cost us (will cost us IMO). Routledge was 29 when given a long term contract. Monk then used him sparingly as a substitute in the first year of that contract. Dyer is deemed surplus but Jenks is talking about extending his contract when he comes back also. ****ing Gomis was near 30 when he signed on a 4 year contract. Crazy. Absolutely ****ing crazy....and I said so at the time. Shelvey's got 4 years. ****! I don't know many Jacks who are convinced he's good enough. .......I'll have to come back to this, there will be more.
It's not so much what we can learn but what the Board have hopefully learnt , we've now become this all consuming entity with a global audience and a potential for wealth far beyond any thing we could have dreamed about 10 years or even less .The Boards decision to appoint Monk was a gamble which paid off initially and perhaps Huw's judgement was swayed by his idea of keeping everything in house in terms of manger and coaching staff which is admirable if those staff members have the prerequisite of actually having the experience or knowledge of how to manager a PL squad .The players we've have now bear no resemblance to the likes of the type that Monk & KOL played alongside and when you bring players such as Gomiss who has history of looking for the money rather than to play then thats a difficult for a rookie manager to handle .Looking at the team we have approximately 8 full intentional players of a decent standard but being coached by a manager with little experience in terms of man management .This is not putting the blame solely on Monk , the players imo have acted disgracefully in all of this but I'm old enough to know that they don't give a fug about Monk , the Club or us because of the type of player we now have . I for one believe the best thing what ever happens to our PL status the Board spent the money wisely on the infrastructure and those kids currently there in the Academy are the future what ever happens .
Never let a chairman select a manager he intents to control. When you get something wrong don't keep doing it wrong to put on the appearance nothing was done wrong in the first place. Use your entire squad here and there. Don't spend for the sake of spending. Don't take credit when things are good and lay blame when they aren't. Don't select teams built on personal favours and personal battles , Be prepared to replace a manager at opportune times rather than letting him continue based on wishfull thinking. Loyalty and respect just happen , not because you demand it. Don't sign a rookie manager to a long term contract to put on the appearance that you picked the right guy to pad you're own ego .
I've learned how to spell "reign". Resident spelling nazi. Terror. Liked the post though. I particularly shuddered at O'Leary and the Evans pie.
Cracking post Terror, unusual for you..........the bit I like was 'Kristian O'Leary eating an Evans pie'. Thank goodness he's gone, on Huw Jenkins, he's been a soft touch of late, and has cost the club Millions in wasted contracts and extensions, Gomis and Monks contracts are just two that stand out, we need a young experienced Director of football in that knows the European market, especially Spain......... PS: Marks out of 10 Terror, 9.5...........
What have we learnt? That we cant hire a manager that can maintain consistency for more than a season and a half in the Premiership. That player power is far too prevalent at our club. That transparency at our club is getting less and less the longer we are in the top flight. That bookies know even less than we do. And finally that our stadium has a back door
I disagree that this wasn't a crisis. Pellegrini also said as much today. This wasn't a bit of trouble it was a disaster unfolding. I wonder how long Pellegrini would have lasted if City had won once in 12? But because it's little old Swansea we should put up with the dross and know our place. Bollocks. Monk was given more than enough time by the Board and failed. If this run carries on much longer we are right in the mix if we aren't already, with bottom three already beckoning. This has happened under Monk's tenure and he simply had to go. No ****ing debate.
What is concerning me is that, from the outside at least, it looks as if they have sacked Monk without a strategy to recruit a new manager. As you say, we've been poor for a very long time no time and this current crisis imo is becoming more shambolic than the way ML was sacked. Monk should have gone before Huw went to get his 'medal', and we should have had a new manager by now ready to take over as soon as we get trounced v Man City today. Huw was handled this situation very amateurishly imo.
