The Swansea Way
I know, to make things more interesting lets give them the ball back and see what happens.
Bitterness, everyone loves the way we play but don't like it because we play like that without a big name manager or by spending silly money.
We are basically spitting in the face of every manager and chairman who spend big money to compete.
For years managers have moaned about a lack of finances when in a relegation battle. Guess what? We are proving them to be rubbish managers.
You hear people all the time "we got relegated because we didn't spend on big players". Guess what? QPR did that and they look screwed.
We are Swansea City AFC, and we prove your excuses to be utter crap."
http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/11/25/goalkeeper-short-passing-distribution/Bullion2012-03-20 14:07:33
The way swansea operates is everything i look up to. I hope rodgers stays long term and doesn't have his head turned by big money
I really hope that swansea continue to push for more and become a real powerhouse, setting a template for others to follow - they've shown that you dont have to be stoke to come up and stay up, and you dont need foreigners to play a technical game.
perhaps their small stadium size could be a barrier to pushing on further, but i hope not
What situation is their academy in? Is there a youth set-up to get some beef underneath their first team/reserves?
So if Wenger got the chop or moved upstairs you wouldn't want Rodgers at Arsenal? Cause it wouldn't be the worst appointment, and it would be a big money move.
but for swansea's sake i'd hope he'd stay there
coyle made a move sort of like that to try and boost his career and that hasnt worked out so well for him this season, not to mention the damage it did to burnley
When coyle moved he said it was because bolton were '5 years ahead of burnley' in their plan for the future
I'd hazard a guess that swansea probably have lofty ambitions like making the top 4 within the next 5 years, and i hope they do (but not at our expense!)
do you get what i meant now?
Really can't see that happening.
I assume you haven't watched us, in a while Buffy?
I assume you haven't watched us, in a while Buffy?
Alright just WBA then. Although with some of the players in your squad i would of thought you could play something half decent.
A lot of teams like QPR and Wigan previously have been down the spending path (wigan on a smaller scale and they stopped somewhat when they got into the EPL) and have not done well - wigan can be considered fairly successful staying in the prem so long but have always been teetering, and the crowd numbers are poor, their empty stadium is a blight on the league.
Teams like that have long followed either the chelsea or leeds blueprint, and a lot of managers/chairmen seem to assume that debt spending or the acquisition of a sugar daddy is the only way.
The more teams that enjoy success in the mode of swansea, brighton and norwich the better, as more teams will start looking that way, especially in the current economic climate. The transfer market has changed quite drastically in the last 2 seasons, only debt-leveraged clubs and sugar daddies are paying more than about 15 mil for a player at the moment. If you ignore those clubs then the market really has reduced to what it was 10 years ago, price-wise at least.
Lets look at the league leaders around the top European leagues right now then.
Spain: Real Madrid - Massive spenders. (Barcelona in 2nd also spend plenty, but have a few more youth graduates in the mix)
England: Man Utd - Massive spenders. (Man City in 2nd, perhaps even bigger spenders, with perhaps a better squad)
Italy: AC Milan - Big spenders. (Juve in 2nd, spent sh*tloads to get back to the summit following relegation in 06)
Germany: Dortmund - Above average spenders. (Bayern in 2nd, massive spenders, like City perhaps have a better squad but lie in 2nd)
France: PSG - Massive spenders. (Montpeillier in 2nd, small spenders, overachieving)
A pattern emerges. Teams that spend big tend to win titles. Only Montpeillier are an exception above, although 1) The French league is dire and 2) They won't end up winning it anyway.
Swansea have been a success in comfortably staying up in their first season, playing good football along the way. Reading and Ipswich have been there, done that, both inside the past 10 years, and were relegated the season after.
So if Swansea are an established top half side 3-4 seasons down the line, with the same manager, the same philosophy, a small budget, and a host of youth graduates breaking into the first team, then hats off.
And those are mostly all the teams I despise, thus supporting my argument that I hope more teams follow the Swansea blueprint � I�d like to see the majority of those clubs alter their philosophy and move into financially responsible management, but that may be wishful thinking. The Italian ones you mentioned have both been guilty of match-fixing and other corrupt activity. We�ve seen the fan protests over the debt levels at ManU. Real Madrid have been in debt trouble countless times, even resulting in the ridiculous blatant stealing of public money when they sold their facilities to the council and had them leased back for nothing. Not sure about the situation in France to be honest, but Dortmund are NOT big spenders with their current side, and the German league in general should be applauded for their approach. So many different league winners over the last few years, a lot of financially responsible clubs, highest average game attendance in Europe, the list goes on. If it was on tv I would be a regular viewer.
Obviously you incorrectly interpreted my argument and thought I was claiming that big-spending clubs are not successful at all, which is absurd. What I was saying is that when smaller emerging clubs attempt to follow the blueprint of those clubs, they often fail to the detriment of the common fan. And contrary to your claims, the Swansea approach has not been preceded by Reading, Ipswich or most of the other teams you reference. They do not have fan-ownership schemes (as far as I�m aware, could be wrong), and they did not play football at anything like the technical level we are seeing at Swansea. Swansea may well suffer the second-season blues, who knows, I am not claiming they definitely will be successful, just saying that I sincerely hope they continue to progress from here.
I�ve underlined my actual points this time to make sure you get it, but still I�m not sure that will work.
No need to be like that.
In regards to those German clubs, I believe there is a rule in Germany that 51% of all clubs must be owned by supporters trusts, which is why they are always so financially stable
What I was alluding to is that there are clubs that have fan ownership, Swansea supporters hold 20% of shares in the club while there are clubs not set up as a limited liability company and run as a registered association with fans purchasing membership and form the governing body of the club. These clubs have also gained success, and I use the word success as relative to expectations and financial outlay, playing a style/system of football similar to Swansea.
Good for them. If everyone follows suit though there will still be someone who comes first and someone who comes last, so there will be failures regardless.
The Swansea way is not the only way, nor is it an original way.
+1 and Keith Quinn is a massive fan also
It is an original way
Nope. Bilbao have done it for 100 years. They've also won things.