After a fairytale debut with Swansea City where his team beat Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, Clement continued to build on his good work earning 26 points from 18 games and leading the Swans to the safety season. However, this season things have gone downhill for them and Swansea are currently staggering at rock bottom 20th place with just 13 points after twenty game weeks. In their last eleven English Premier League matches, Swansea City has lost nine of them. The results have been horrendous and the nature of defeats even more depressing. It is tough to see the Swans surviving this season in this form, a situation that added more pressure to Clement’s demise at the Welsh club.
The stat of ten defeats in their last thirteen matches, excluding the weekend’s draw at Palace, has left the fans frustrated and the players must shoulder some responsibility. This is Swansea’s seventh straight season in the top flight since their promotion in 2011. The Swans must look to themselves as their top-flight run clearly proves they have the quality in their squad to cut it in the league. However, with the current crop failing to prove useful, Clement had to pay the final price.
Swansea City are increasingly looking like a team that seems set on the drop. The players are looking demotivated and were facing an uncertain period in the midst of a managerial change.
It is now being reported that Swansea City have appointed former Sheffield Wednesday boss Carlos Carvalhal in a surprising turn of events. Carvalhal was relieved of his coaching role at Sheffield Wednesday on Christmas Eve and left his former side in the bottom half of the league. He was spotted at Anfield for the Boxing day fixture between Swansea and Liverpool and perhaps will be worried a little at how easily his new team got demolished at the hands of Klopp’s men.
Swansea had held talks with Dutch manager Louis Van Gaal but to no avail and after failing to secure a replacement in time for the Crystal Palace match, their club legend Leon Britton had to take over despite being relatively new to management.
“We are very pleased with the appointment,” said Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins.
“We felt we needed to get the managerial situation resolved as soon as possible and while the timing is not always perfect, we can look forward to the second half of the campaign with renewed optimism.”
Only time will tell exactly how much of a change Carvalhal can bring and with his first test coming up this weekend against Watford, the Portuguese better get moving.
