Career REWIND: Swansea City

[Sam Archer]

I'm starting a new series called REWIND on FMH18 which involves me taking teams who were formerly successful back to their glory days. The first of many clubs I will be doing this with is the Welsh Club and also my club Swansea City AFC.  

 

Swansea City are a Welsh football club who are playing in the English football pyramid (this was because when they were founded in 1912 there was no Welsh football league for them to enter). In their recent history they have been known for their success on the pitch which was brought about by playing a brand of football which they developed into what we now call "the Swansea way" which has overtime been lost as the club made questionable decisions regarding managers, funding and players. This golden generation of Swansea City players were spurred on to success that shocked many by three main managers. 

Roberto Martinez 

Formely a Swansea player before taking up the post as the first team coach, big things were not expected from the Spaniard with big ambitions. He mentioned several times to the press and media that he could see potential in the club to one day play in the premier league, no one could ever imagine that one day this potential would be reached. Martinez took the job in 2007 just after the Swans narrowly came short of making the League One playoffs in the 2006-07 campaign under Kenny Jackett. In his first season he managed to win League One in a record breaking fashion with 92 points from 46 games meaning that the Swans would be playing Championship football for the first time in over 2 decades. In Swansea's first season in the Championship in the 2008/09 campaign he managed to take Swansea to a very respectable 8th position, again only just missing out on the playoffs. After this campaign Roberto left for Wigan Athletic, a club where he also spent time with in his playing career. 

Brendan Rodgers 

After a 7th place finish under Paulo Sousa in the 2009/10 Championship campaign Swansea went for yet again another inexperienced manager in the name of Brendan Rodgers who before taking the post had only two failed managerial stints with both Watford and Reading to his name. Little did anyone know that he would be the man who would take Swansea City to the Premier League! In his first season in charge he managed to take the team to a 3rd place finish in the Championship which then lead to promotion due to a historic 4-2 win over Reading which meant that they would be playing top flight football for the first time since the 1982/83 campaign. Playing with a playing style mimicking Barcelona's "tiki-taka" in a 4-3-3 formation Rodgers managed to take the newly promoted club to an 11th place finish headed by the fresh faced 22 year old Scott Sinclair, Joe Allen who was labelled "the Welsh Xavi" by Rodgers himself and Danny Graham who was the top scorer of the Championship the previous season. After this season he attracted the attention of several clubs such as Chelsea and Liverpool. He joined the latter that summer and there was uncertainty of what was to come now that Rodgers had left the club. 

Michael Laudrup

After Brendan Rodgers left Swansea for Liverpool at the end of the 2011/12 campaign, Swansea ended up appointing Michael Laudrup has their new manager after a thorough selection process by the board. Many were tipping Swansea to be stuck in a long and hard relegation battle this season due to how players such as Joe Allen and eventually on that years transfer deadline day Scott Sinclair who both were influential in the previous campaign departed. However, this season turned out to be even more successful than the last with Swansea coming 9th in the league and winning their first major honour in the clubs history in the form of the Capital One Cup after beating Bradford 5-0 in the final meaning that they would be in the UEFA Europa League the next season. This was partly down to Laudrup changing to a more attacking minded version of tiki taka in the shape of a 4-2-3-1 formation from Rodgers' 4-3-3 of the previous season. Players such as Michu, Ki Syeung Yeung and Jonathan De Guzman had a big impact in this season, in particular Michu who managed to score 22 goals in all competitions. 

 

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and in the recently passed 2017/18 campaign Swansea were relegated in their 7th consecutive premier league campaign after scoring just 28 goals all season and winning just 8 out of a possible 38 games. This was after going through 6 managers in 3 seasons! In this edition of REWIND I will be attempting to turn the clock back and take the club from battling relegation with no identity to once again playing in European competitions with "The Swansea Way still in-tact" and even beyond.

Strap yourselves in because this is going to be one hell of a ride! 😉
 

[FuddledFox]

Good luck bringing the good times back to the Swans. I look forward to seeing which other teams you plan to use in the series.