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I left Glasgow feeling rather depressed when my stint at The Jags ended and during the months which followed I often wondered if I shouldn't end my career as a football manager.
I spent most of my time in Rotterdam where we were really pleased that Feyenoord managed to finish above Ajax in the Eredivisie table, although PSV won the title.
But, more importantly, I was approached early that summer by a club which was facing some incredible challenges.
It was a déjâ vu experience. If you remember, two-and-a-half years ago I had been in a similar situation when I was approached by an unexpected source, who spoke with a broad Scottish accent. What had made me make up my mind then was the challenge Partick Thistle were facing and the incredible Save the Jags campaign.
This time it was a similar challenge which made me change my mind about ending my career as football manager. Only it wasn't a club from Scotland this time, but a club from Wales.
You may be familiar with Swansea's remarkably history so you may know much more about it than I did at the time. You may have watched Jack to a King, the remarkable story of a rag tag group of football fans who saved Swansea City Football Club from oblivion.
Anyway, I must say, I felt like a moth drawn to a flame and - to cut a long story short - before I knew it I had already committed myself again!
One of the encouraging things I found out was that because of my first manager stint at Gillingham - which had been remarkably successful - my reputation in England was still fairly high, even though my second stint in Scotland had not been a roaring success.
Nevertheless, the Board's expectations were not very high. Swansea City FC were in dire straits as I was about to find out...
This story uses the ODB and non-WibWob tactics against the WW AI Tactic Pack - samsami v2
Last edited by samsami on Mon May 30, 2022 6:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.
What a tease. A hint of problems and no idea what league they are in.
Reputation has held up well.
I guess I'm not surprised at Swansea and I'm sure you'll have one follower. I just hope he is more supportive than that guy at Thistle !
Kingsley wrote: ↑Fri Oct 29, 2021 1:43 pm
What a tease. A hint of problems and no idea what league they are in.
Reputation has held up well.
I guess I'm not surprised at Swansea and I'm sure you'll have one follower. I just hope he is more supportive than that guy at Thistle !
Indeed, it was a decision based on emotion. Hence the title, of course.
Let's see how this unfolds. With a little bit more experience this time...
Swansea on ODB. I can't imagine what the problem is.
Just from memory you have some great players. Roger Freestone, Damian Lacey, Kristian O'Leary, Mamady Sidibe, David Romo were all regulars on my shopping list.
Hull, Luton, Oxford and big spending Rushden should be the big threats.
So the next month I found myself in Swansea, the second largest city in Wales. No, not England, I had to correct my friends and relatives goodness knows how many times!
And sure enough, the club was in the duldrums! Of course I knew that Swansea had been relegated in May 2001, just twelve months after promotion. I was told how John Hollins had maintained that the side could stay up, even when 18 points were needed from the final six matches, and for two other teams to pick up no more points!
I was also informed how a small group of Supporters had recently met in Port Talbot, where they decided to call a Public Meeting at the Brangwyn Hall on Saturday 8th of July, at which over 150 interested in the idea of a Supporters Trust attended.
A follow-up meeting was held on Sunday 22nd of July. At this meeting it was reported that the London-based security company Ninth Floor PLC had dismissed Neil McLure as Chairman. This news was greeted with a certain amount of pleasure, bearing in mind the uncertainty surrounding the Club’s future, especially as it was announced that Ninth Floor had no intention of taking Swansea City back into their ownership.
Further, Ninth Floor had finally cut its losses and sold the club for £1 to the former Commercial Manager Mike Lewis, but Lewis was saddled with a debt of £801,000 which was repayable to Ninth Floor. Lewis was struggling to run the club alone and had set about looking for buyers.
The lines were now drawn and the meeting determined that all were fully committed to save the Club, to become part owners and invest in the Club whatever was right for the supporters, and that a Supporters Trust could be trusted by the fan base.
At the time of writing the Supporters Trust happen to be celebrating their twentieth anniversary, but at the time I did not understand it all. It seemed rather confusing to me. I could only hope that the worst was over.
I also got to know the squad, of course. All of the players are listed below. Not a very large squad and with a total value of just £1.5M.
Dodgy times those where the few chaps that ended up buying the club had 50k each in a case and driving up the M4 motorway to hand it over
I have been a member of the trust for many a year and recently they have decided to take the current and former owners to court as the trust were excluded from negotiations
Freestone - Legend and sorted for keeper for years
Lacey - DM BEAST
Jenkins - play him in midfield and he's an assist king and scored a good few
Howard a solid LB
Mumford and Smith - decent defensive att's but never did it for me
James Thomas - Another who goes down in folklore and will bang them in
O'Leary - will play anywhere for you
Redknapp69 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 30, 2021 11:12 am
Dodgy times those where the few chaps that ended up buying the club had 50k each in a case and driving up the M4 motorway to hand it over. I have been a member of the trust for many a year and recently they have decided to take the current and former owners to court as the trust were excluded from negotiations.
Freestone - Legend and sorted for keeper for years
Lacey - DM BEAST
Jenkins - play him in midfield and he's an assist king and scored a good few
Howard a solid LB
Mumford and Smith - decent defensive att's but never did it for me
James Thomas - Another who goes down in folklore and will bang them in
O'Leary - will play anywhere for you
Well, we had Pinnock at Gillingham, we had Howie at Thistle, so perhaps Jenkins could play a similar role for the Swans!
Interesting to see what you do about transfers. We all know the usual suspects on ODB that you can get for free and will win any league. I assume you’re not going to go that route, but that would mean a restriction which hasn’t been your style.
Kingsley wrote: ↑Sat Oct 30, 2021 12:31 pm
Interesting to see what you do about transfers. We all know the usual suspects on ODB that you can get for free and will win any league. I assume you’re not going to go that route, but that would mean a restriction which hasn’t been your style.
The only restriction is to play non-WibWob against the strongest possible AI tactics. That worked in the First Division in Scotland but not in the Premier Division. We shall see how long I last, starting in the Third Division in England.
The Official Launch of the Trust was to take place at the Patti Pavilion on Bank Holiday Monday 27th August, so for now we could focus on getting to know the staff and the squad a little better.
Alan Curtis was my assistant manager. Curtis is one of the very few individuals who has successfully crossed the Cardiff City-Swansea City divide and is warmly admired and appreciated by both sets of rival fans. It has not always been that way. As he said in an interview not too long ago: "The first time I played for Cardiff against the Swans I actually got booed by the two sets of fans! I'm not sure that's happened to any player before in football."
The club was still trying to recruit additional coaches and scouts when I arrived. And there was a Malian striker with the curious name of Mamady Sidibé who was about to sign a contract with the club!
And then we needed at least one more goalkeeper. We only had Roger Freestone and some young teenagers without any experience.
As to our squad, we played five pre-season friendlies against obscure clubs which I had never heard of before - like Ballymena United - but it gave me a good opportunity to see our lads at work.
Now they were obviously out of shape, more so than I had been used to at the clubs I had played for or worked with so far, but it was already clear that Roger Freestone was a key player, as were James Thomas and, to a lesser extent, James Watkin. I wasn't too impressed with the others, to be perfectly honest.
However, by mid-August, when we had to play our first official League game of the season, everybody was in shape again, so perhaps some of them would surprise me yet!
On Saturday 11th August we played our first League match of the season. Our opponents, Bristol Rovers, had been relegated along with the Swans the previous season, but they had collected 51 points and the Swans only 37.
I was blissfully unaware of what was going on behind the scenes, where the real drama was being played out with former commercial director Mike Lewis frantically looking for potential buyers for his stake in the club, while we played our match at Vetch Field in front of a faithful crowd of 6,500.
Now when you have just been relegated your main goal should be to not lose your first match of the season - and since we were playing fellow relegates and we were playing at home, we had to try and win our first game if at all possible. And we came very close.
Initially it did not look that way, though. Within fifteen minutes we were 2-0 down after goals scored by Giuliano Grazioli and Paul Tait. Suffice to say that the crowd weren't very pleased!
But we recovered and just before half-time James Thomas netted a brace! His first goal was a beauty. Thomas blasted the ball into the top corner from just outside the box. His second goal was a bit of a fluke goal. That is to say, there seemed more than a hint of luck about the strike as the ball looped its way over Scott Howie's head and into the far corner from a deep position on the left.
Unfortunately, we failed to find the net in the second half, which was a nervy affair, so the match ended in a somewhat disappointing 2-2 draw.
We seem to have a good striker in James Thomas. With his five shots on goal he was by far our best-rated player to-day. Our defence, on the other hand, was shockingly disposed in the first half and still looked somewhat shaky in the second half. Even Roger Freestone had a bad day at the office.
► Show Spoiler
Next we had to play Shrewsbury Town at Gay Meadow followed by a mid-week League Cup match against First Division side Wimbledon.
But first The Shrews, who had ended in fifteenth place the previous season. And this time it was an away game for us...
Kingsley wrote: ↑Mon Nov 01, 2021 8:16 am
Shocker from Freestone, but otherwise an even game.
Defence looks rocky on that performance
What sort of formation were you playing ?
Default 4-4-2 formation (non-Wib-Wob) same as in the pre-friendlies. The Swans have no sweeper, no decent wingers and no decent attacking midfielder
We played Shrewsbury Town next. Not one of the strongest Third Division sides perhaps, but it was an away game.
However, the match had barely started when Andy Thompson sent James Thomas to the floor with a hard tackle. Thompson was sent off and a free-kick was given. Shrewsbury brought off one of their strikers, Nigel Jemson, and brought on experienced defender Mick Heathcote (35) while Philips lined up the free-kick and he struck the ball right on the sweet spot and scored a fantastic 20-yarder!
So the Shrews had to play almost the entire match with ten men and in the second half, after they had already made a second substitution and then had two players go off injured, our hosts had to finish the match with nine men!
And so we comfortably won the game. Lacey and Jackson were our best players, but there were no more goals.
► Show Spoiler
An encouraging start to the season! We lost our mid-week League Cup game, though. First Division side Wimbledon were too strong for us. Jackson was our best-rated player again, but Wimbledon just had too much individual class.
► Show Spoiler
Meanwhile, the Board assured me again that they were in the process of signing Mamady Sidibe. The 22-year-old, 6ft 4in Frenchman had been offered a 12-month contract with the Swans and would soon sign, so they told me.
The Board believed Sidibe could develop into a top-class centre forward who would terrorise defenders. As far as his attributes were concerned, Sidibe was supposed to be fearless. As they said: "Being big he can hang in the air, but he's also useful on the floor, and for a big man, he's very good, and quick with his feet."
It was also confirmed that the Official Launch of the Supporters Trust was indeed to take place at the Patti Pavilion on Bank Holiday Monday 27th August after our away game against Darlington. But first we had to play Rushden & Diamonds FC on Saturday 25th.
