Out of turmoil can come a breath of fresh air at Swansea City
For Łukasz Fabiański and Swansea City as a whole, last season didn’t go as well as they would have liked. They started the season off on the wrong foot leading to the sacking of Francesco Guidolin. Guidolin was replaced by Bob Bradley which caused controversy off the field. While that wasn’t necessarily Bradley’s fault, he didn’t do much while in charge to silence his critics.
A 2–2–7 record by Bradley led the Swans into the relegation zone while also costing him his job after only 85 days. After a brief cartaker spell from Alan Curtis. Paul Clement would be tabbed with the tall task of saving Swansea City from relegation. The same Paul Clement who has extensive experience as an assistant at big name clubs but was unfairly sacked during his brief spell in charge of Derby County.
Clement would need to stabilize a team that had seen three different managers over the course of one season and if the scope is expanded to two seasons, that number jumps to four coaches and an ownership change. Talking to Łukasz Fabiański those changes took a toll on the team as a whole.
It’s not easy to have three coaches throughout the course of the season. Fabiański said, It’s always tough because each coach comes with new ideas and it doesn’t always help to keep the club in a stable position.
Fabiański is right but it seems like Paul Clement was the right man to stabilize the situation at Swansea City. Behind key additions to the squad and an improved defense, Clement led the Swans on a 7–2–9 run to end the season in 15th place, seven points clear of relegation. After that great escape act, Clement is able to enter his first preseason in charge of the Squad which is key to getting off to a fast start in the Premier League. These are thoughts which are echoed by Fabiański,
We finished last season very well and I just hope that we are able to continue that and get good results in the coming run to start the season in a strong way and hopefully that will help us to do something nice this year.
Talking to Fabiański, staying up from the relegation battle last season is a key learning experience. Everyone came out of it tougher and smarter. As the old adage goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Swansea City stayed up and the team is stronger as a result.
While the uncertain future of Gylfi Sigurdsson is casting a cloud over the preseason, the team as a whole is moving forward and are more than prepared for the upcoming Premier League campaign. Swansea City was able to collect 23 points in 18 matches under Clement. That averages out to an 1.27 points per match. Multiplied out over a full 38-match season, this would equate to a 49 point haul.
That same haul would have seen Swansea finish eighth last season behind Everton. Not too bad eh?
While I’m not saying that Swansea will finish that high in the table this season, this is a talented team and last years performance was not indicative of their actual talent. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Swans end the season with a comfortable mid table finish but I’m sure that their aspirations are higher.
