Take me up......
Like many Swansea City fanatics, given our
recent, rewarding and justified good press and "big up" in the National
Media I've been much given on reflecting from whence we came - but -
truly, as Harold McMillan once said - "We've never had it so good ".
Just
as curiously, when asked why things could go wrong for him, the then PM
and his party, he presciently replied ... "Events, dear Boy, events".
(He was an Old Etonian after all, a sort of truly upper class Cameroon).
Let
me tell you a secret - midway through our
first season in the Premier League - last season since we forget - we
WestStanders were having a pre match Pint in the Concourse when one of
my compadres said that if we lost today.....,,,,,, " it'll be your
bloody fault since you've had a haircut and a shave ".
I must confess I had, indeed, turning from Razputin/Worzel Gummage into a 60yr old Borstal Boy.
Needless to say, we proceeded to lose ( the 3-1 Norwich City game) since you ask.
At that point, unsurprisingly, I vowed it would NEVER, EVER happen again.
So
this season started with me as a recently shorn, clean shaven skinhead,
and progressed through the months with my developing hirsuteness, all
the while stipulating that there'd be no change prior to our making
those 40 "magic" points.
I'm here today to tell you that after
last week's convincing win v Newcastle, the Fu Man Chu is trimmed,
again, and the fading Barnet is
neater than before.
WooHoo.
Here's a question for you, and please, be honest when you answer in your own head.
How
many of us, myself included, would have said pre season we'd win the
Capital One Cup and be safe on 40pts some 10 games from season's end.
Wished, certainly. Hoped, fervently. Believed, perhaps, but not a large
number, I'll presume.
The above , of course, doesn't pre-suppose
that we expected our side to struggle or do hugely worse - but I feel we
were all a little nervous again given we'd gone through yet another
Managerial change. As it happens, we'd be hard pushed to argue that on
the contrary , it couldn't have gone a great deal better than it has,
and we're indeed witnessing our proud Club's best ever year, in this,
our centenary season.
Results, and their effects (events,
dear boy) are paramount, of course, but all of us who've been there to
see, for
instance, the first half against West Brom at Home, Michu's 2 goals at
the Emirates at the death, or the bizarre 0-0 at Sunderland when we
played them off the park will always remember individual occassions over
a Seasonal outlook, within limits.
Bloody hell, we didn't half play well and look good, and that's a major source of pride in itself.
Moving
on what this means without any caveat is that we're a seriously
achieving Club with a seriously resultant outcome from this best of
Seasons and, if we continue to perform at the level we're capable of,
there's no reason to think that it'll be any different from now on in.
We've
learned from Michael Laudrup, our justly esteemed Gaffer, that it's
possible to follow stellar performaces with yet another, and also it's
feasible to bounce back from disappointing ones to go better again.
This
charming, serious, grounded Manager has taken the PL by storm, part of
his charm
being his culpability in admitting his limitations (shock,horror) and
his few wrong turnings being equally accepted with his many and more
various successes. It would seem that his fantastic, World Class playing
career has given him nothing other than a sensitive and friend winning
personal charm. Just watch him being interviewed in ANY situation and
tell me you don't feel proud that he's in charge of our Club. Respect,
Guv'nor.
So, as ML has pointed out, you motivate players by
setting them new and different targets, and he's concentrated our
players' minds by pointing out that this weekend's visit to West Brom is
our chance to establish supremancy (or not) from the 2 teams percieved
to being the "surprises of the season" in their performances. It'll be
hard, we know, but part of the ongoing motivation will surely include
what my compadre and ST fellow Jim voiced in a conversation with me
today.
His theory was this - having already
achieved stability, and won some serious silverware to boot, there will
be many eyes cast our way. For the players what a chance to prove a)
they can be good enough to be here next year b ) for some, what a chance
to showcase their talents and move on to bigger (if not better) things
and c) if you weren't in either of those 2 categories, here's a chance
to get in.
Laudrup, he insists, is likely to have made them
aware of all of these possibilities and MORE, so we shouldn't think that
we're going to complacent. It seems to me to be a vaguely compelling
argument, so we can genuinely hope for more decent things out of this
smorgasbord of a season.
Last year to the Hawthorns was a stunning, snowy trip
, where Gylfi Sigurdsson's double saw us come away with a
3-1 win in a superb and classy passing Away performance, so a repeat of
that would be highly acceptable. Still, as some things change, some
remain the same.
Albion are still a hugely competitive opponent,
and whilst their squad hasn't changed radically, there's an argument to
be made it has improved. Here it is, currently,...................
1
Ben Foster GK, 2 Steven Reid Def, 3 Jonas Olsson Def, 4 Goran Popov
Def, 5 Claudio Yacob MF, 6 Liam Ridgewell Def, 7 James Morrison MF, 8
Markus Rosenberg Str, 9 Shane Long Str, 11 Chris Brunt MF, 13 Boaz
Myhill GK, 14 Jerome Thomas MF, 15 George Thorne MF, 16 Scott Allan MF,
17 Graham Dorrans MF, 19 Luke Daniels GK, 20 Romelu Lukaku Str, 21
Youssouf Mulumbu MF, 22 Zoltan Gera MF, 23 Gareth McAuley Def, 24 Peter
Odemwingie Str, 26 James Hurst Def, 28 Billy Jones Def, 30 Gabriel Tamas
Def, 32 Marc-Antoine Fortune Str, 35 Romaine Sawyers MF, 36 Adil Nabi
Str, 38 Saido Berahino Str, 40 Liam O'Neil Def,
43 Isaiah Brown MF
Rather than go through the squad one by one,
some players I'd suggest have been hugely influential in this fine
team's progression, and you'll excuse me if I start at the top.
The
Manager, Steve Clarke, although previously a no 2 at Chelsea, Newcastle
and Liverpool has always been considered a first class Coach, so
although it may have seemed like a risk when he replaced England Recruit
Roy Hodgson , he immediately asserted his presence on the Training
Field, and even that odd beast "the modern football player", can't fail
to have been impressed. Albion's players weren't , and their early
season results were exceptional. They've since hit one or two blips, but
ask their fans what they think and there'll be a large proportion happy
with where they are.
Talking of England's Mr Hodgson, as the
previously employed WBA Manager, he was perhaps well positioned to
persuade Ben Foster, Albion's keeper to come out of his
self-imposed England exile, and the suggestion is that the Baggies
keeper, who's having an outstanding year, is likely to be called up
Nationally soon.
In MF the key performer is Claudio Yacob, a much
underrated Argentine defensive MF'er who's ball winning and control is
as important to them as our own Leon Britton.
Up front, the
Man/Boy Romelu Lokaku, on a season long loan from Chelsea, continues to
show the form that should make Fernando Torres doubters at the Bridge
take a chill pill - here comes the new Didier Drogba. Chelsea's loss
this year is Albion's gain.
Looking through the list, the other
outstanding performers are the sublimely skilled Chris Brunt, a sort of
Jordi Gomez with attitude and application ; Zoltan Gera, the flaky
(Hungarian) MF'r- veers from the divine to the ridiculous and Peter
Odemwingie, the QPR player manque, famed for his transfer deadline day
faux pas, but dangerous on the field. I also admire James
Morrison, the Scot another product of Middlesbrough's underrated
Academy. Shane Long, ex Reading, can sometimes be a buzz saw nuiscance
to defenders, and has great heart.
I've hinted above what I think
ML's mental approach might be (albeit simplistically) to the Players,
so I'm perfectly content to go with whichever team he sees fit, though,
if Chico is still unfit (and we KNOW what GM can give us ) it might be
interesting to see how Kyle Bartley copes at the back.
Anyway, enough from me.
Given
that our next two games, at Home as well, are against Arsenal and
Tottenham Hotspur and the delight that this evolving team and season
continues to give us I can only wish you as much hapiness as I'm
getting. We are living a rather more structured dream than some in the
recent past. Enjoy.
Onward, Swansea City.
1 comment:
Hey nice blog , I too would love to see a fight unfold wieghorst vs laudrup or wieghorst & huw vs Allan curtis and tiendalli or even ashley williams vs laudrup + huw jenkins.. Would all make some pretty good fights , hard to predict. Keep up the good work mate.. !!
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