Replacing Monk?

Garry Monk's appointment as temporary head coach initially brought a positive impact to Swansea City, including the Cardiff hammering and brave displays against Napoli. However, with less convincing results following, GAVIN TUCKER checks out the other managers who may be on Huw Jenkins' radar.

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By Gavin Tucker

After Laudrup left, the decision to hand the reigns to Monk made sense. Bringing in a complete stranger and expecting immediate results at this late and vital stage of the season would have carried too much risk.

With no official confirmation on the planned duration of Monk's reign other than 'the foreseeable future' it would seem fair to assume that Monk will stay in charge for at least the remainder of this season.

The club will then either feel Monk has earned the chance to take the squad into next season or seek a new manager soon after the season ends. This will allow time for an outsider to familiarise himself with the squad, make a few signings and complete a pre-season, before embarking on the tough year ahead.

In an ideal world we would unearth a manager with all the best bits from our recent past. Someone with the discipline and coaching ability of Roberto Martinez, the man management skills of Brendan Rodgers and the contact book and transfer market pull of Michael Laudrup. Not a lot to ask then...

So who could be the next manager at Swansea? Who would be interested? Do we give an upcoming rookie a chance or try a more experienced option? Here's a look at some potential contenders...

Dennis Bergkamp

"The promising gamble"

Huw Jenkins is reportedly a big admirer of the Dutch legend, currently at Ajax as an assistant coach. Bergkamp is hugely respected in this role by his peers and a disciple of the strict technical total football philosophy that would suit what our board try to instill at Swansea. Although he has previously distanced himself when asked about a career as a manager, it wouldn't hurt to ask!

Bergkamp would also bring a certain level of appeal in the transfer market, similar to what Laudrup brought to the club. It would have its risks of course - with Bergkamp unproven as a manager there would be a level of uncertainty as to how he would take to management being thrown in at the deep end of the Premier League.

Marcelo Bielsa

"The experienced choice"

The 58-year-old Argentinian, nicknamed Loco Bielsa (Madman Bielsa) has over 20 years experience in management including spells with the national squads of Argentina and Chile, and most recently in charge of Athletic Bilbao.

Unique in his coaching style, he is known for watching and collecting numerous football videos to the point of obsession. He is said to be meticulous in his preparation for games using all forms of statistics and technology to aid him. Referred to by Pep Guardiola in 2012 as 'the best manager in the world' that surely counts for something!

Oscar Garcia

"The up-and-coming young option"

Spending most of his playing career as an attacking midfielder in La Liga (sounds familiar) Garcia previously managed Barcelona youth squad, Maccabi Tel Aviv and is currently making a push for a the Championship play-off place at Brighton.

The 40-year-old was loosely linked with the Swans last time round. He's another young manager who fits our philosophy and tactics. Garcia, although a little inexperienced has made a pretty good start in management so far.

Ronald Koeman

"The big name"

Koeman is currently set to leave his role as Feyenoord manager at the end of this season and media friendly Swans director John van Zweden let slip this week that enquiries had been made by Koeman's agent as to whether Swansea would be a suitable destination for the Dutchman.

'Tintin', as he was known had an illustrious career as a player, most notably part of Johan Cruyff's dream team at Barcelona in the early 90's where he played with Michael Laudrup among many other greats.

His history in management is a bit mixed, most of it has been reasonably positive in the Netherlands. He's spent time in charge at Vitesse, AZ and PSV but his most successful period came with a four season spell at the helm of Ajax. He has ventured outside the Eredivisie twice with less success, with short times at Benfica and Valencia.

Koeman has experience at some massive clubs and his renowned name in the football world would bring appeal to Swansea in the transfer market.

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It's always worth remembering that our board tend not to go for in-work managers, as the last four appointments have shown. Martinez, Sousa, Rodgers and Laudrup were all unattached before taking the reigns at Swansea. Whether this is out of a respect to other clubs or Huw Jenkins doesn't want to pay out millions in compensation is not exactly known - it's probably a bit of both.

There is a massive decision to be made this time round and seeing as we have a pretty healthy bank balance, it may be that we need to approach an in-work manager this time round if it means we get the right man.

Nervous times? Exciting times? It's all just another lap on the Swansea City roller coaster!

#Brickgate - The rise, fall and rise (and fall) of Chico Flores

We all cringed when we saw that Swansea City had made the back pages yesterday morning for the wrong reasons - all thanks to our hotheaded defender Chico Flores and 'the brick'.

ForzaSwansea's newest blogger GAVIN TUCKER takes a look at what happened, why it happened and tries to examine Chico's escalating unstable nature.

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By Gavin Tucker

Every team has 'bust-ups' from time to time.

From infamous incidents involving Craig Bellamy, a sleeping John Arne Riise and a golf club; to player and manager coming to blows on the training ground (most notably Balotelli and Mancini).

The Daily Mail was the first to post the story of an altercation between Chico Flores and Garry Monk - an outlet that has a history when it comes to tales of unrest in the Swansea camp. But these stories don't get run without there being at least some truth in them. They will, however, sensationalise it and try to make it more than it may have been. After all, that's what sells.

Our fiery Spaniard in a moment of deserved glory

We as Swansea supporters are naturally sensitive to any negativity aimed at our club by national media. The fact remains though that an altercation did happen and (maybe unnecessarily) police were called to the scene. It was most likely an accumulation of little things that led to this point with neither party completely innocent.

If you look at the wording of the original Mail article they do not actually say Chico threatened to harm Monk with a brick - they leave the reader to assume that. The diablo is in the details. When Chico responded via Twitter I believe he was being truthful when he stated he did not threaten anyone with a brick.

So what happened with the brick? Where did this brick come from? What made him snap and want to brick things?

There are rumours strewn across the internet. There are allegations that it all started over physio comments on Chico's breakfast diet of Coco Pops and too much sugar in his OJ. It may have been property (i.e. Garry Monk's car) Chico threatened to damage with a brick? Or maybe he just snapped and had it in for that horrendous pink jeep somebody had parked in the space reserved for his Ferrari... who knows?

We'd rather have a bowl of Chico Pops!

Social media goes crazy with things like this - calls for him never to play for the club again, denial of any incident, a media conspiracy against Swansea, mixed in with a tidal wave of humour about building defensive walls, photoshopped Chico pictures, links to Pink Floyd songs and, of course, its own Twitter hashtag.

I like Chico and he has been a good player overall in his time at Swansea. He has has made some superb last ditch tackles and regular diving headed clearances millimetres off the floor more times than I can remember. Also not forgetting his almost unsurpassed ability of perfectly controlling a ball with his chest whatever speed it's falling through the air.

But, I never feel completely comfortable.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I'm praying there's not an unnecessary rash challenge around the corner, some slightly embarrassing play acting or a lapse in concentration that costs us a goal.

His form has notably dropped this season and if it wasn't for our current injury crisis in midfield then there is a fairly strong case to start with Jordi Amat at centreback given his pretty consistent form and reassuring performances.

What matters most now though is that whatever the finer details of the incident, it's best for players involved and supporters to move on. Whatever tensions and pressures that built up to the incident have hopefully been vented and any damage repaired because Swansea need the good side of Chico more than ever with some massive fixtures approaching.

We've had more than our fair share of negative press and pundit opinion since promotion to the Premier League. Our first season we were universally tagged as going straight back down. The following campaign losing our manager and some important players was only going to add to the mythical second season syndrome that we would apparently suffer from.

The media have seriously stepped up their soap opera narrative this week - an early relegation scrap, team bust-ups, manager and player falling-outs and Laudrup leaving whatever happens (okay, we kind of guessed that one anyway...).

Swansea can hopefully take this negativity and flip it into something positive. We do better when the world is against us. We need to get back to that siege mentality, back into underdog mode and prove to be as good as we know we can be.

Reliving the Swansea City European tour... so far!

Although Swansea didn't take the expected route to qualification from the group, the main thing is we made it! Swansea City are through to the later stages of a European competition for the first time in our history!

The knockout stages await and the Swans have earned a mouthwatering tie against Italian giants Napoli. But how did we get to this stage? ForzaSwansea's newest contributor GAVIN TUCKER is giving us the chance to relive the high (and not-so-high) points of Swansea's Europa League campaign so far.

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Drawing Napoli in the last 32 is a fixture that really marks the culmination of Swansea City’s progress over the last decade. The home leg will see Rafa Benitez’s side visit the Liberty on 20th February with the intimidating journey away to Stadio San Paolo on the 27th February.

Napoli is one of the toughest draws we could have had, with some top class players in Jose Callejon, Marek Hamsik and Valon Behrami; it will take a solid performance over two legs and maybe a little luck to see us through. Let's not forget it was not so long ago we beat Chelsea, then champions of Europe, over a two-legged knockout round and we all know how that ended. Just try to push the thought of Dwight Tiendalli facing Gonzalo Higuain to the back of your mind for now at least.

Here's a quick(ish) summary of our adventure so far in Europe and how we got to where we are:

Qualification

After comfortable wins against Malmo and Petrolul Ploiesti, 4-0 and 6-3 on aggregate respectively, Swansea progressed to the group stage draw. Thanks to a couple of upsets elsewhere the Swans moved up the seeded rankings meaning, in theory at least, a slightly easier group than first expected.
Swansea were drawn straight out of Pot 2 and into Group A with Valencia of Spain (ranked the number one seeded team in the tournament at that stage), followed soon after by St Gallen of Switzerland and Kuban Krasnodar of Russia. The general consensus was that Valencia would be a tough one, but we could, maybe should, qualify from our group. First up a trip to the Mestalla...

Valencia 0-3 Swansea

As starts go, it really couldn't have come much better this. Over 2000 Swans supporters, including myself, made the journey for what was to become and will be remembered as one of THE results in our recent history. Valencia had been struggling with league form going into the game, and there was a feeling that with the right performance we could get a positive result from this fixture.

Valencia's Adil Rami was sent off for a ninth-minute professional foul when he hauled down Wilfried Bony - an incident that Swansea took full advantage of. Bony struck first when his right-footed opener went in via a deflection five minutes later. Half time came and the Swans were 1-0 up in the Mestalla.

As the second half resumed, attention was drawn to the home fans (or lack thereof) behind the goal - the Valencia ultras had refused to return to the stands for the second half in protest to the current and recent results from their team. They did eventually return however, just in time to see Michu fire in from eight yards to make it 2-0. Cue away-section mayhem. Jonathan de Guzman curled in a 30-yard free-kick for the third and, to the applause of Valencia fans at full time, Swansea left the field sitting at the top of Group A!

Swansea 1-0 St Gallen

Our first group game at home saw visiting St Gallen bring with them a very respectably sized and noisy away support of around 1500 - oh, and a couple of flares. You can't even smuggle in a bottle of pop into the East stand but St Gallen brought with them a different flavour of European support that we never experience as supporters domestically.

The game will most probably be remembered for the completely inept refereeing of one Duarte Gomes. Having recently been banned from taking control of international matches, he gave bizarre decision after bizarre decision to the point that you stopped being surprised by them towards the end.
Not stopping play in the first half for Michu to receive treatment for a head injury that gushed blood and required stitches at the break was not even the half of it.

St Gallen closed us down well and were very physical in their approach; they were probably unlucky overall not to get something from the game.

Tiendalli was ruled to have handled the ball in the box after 14 minutes, but a weak penalty from Goran Karanovic resulted in a comfortable save by Tremmel. With a few chances early seeing Michu and Jordi Amat both hitting the post, it was not until the second half that Swansea got the breakthrough. In the 52nd minute Wayne Routledge grabbed what proved to be the winner.
Top of Group A, with two games, two wins. We're through already.... right?

Swansea 1-1 Kuban Krasnodar

 

Our third group game and second home tie brought visitors Kuban Krasnodar to the Liberty and around 50 away fans made the long journey from Russia.

Swansea seemed to lack their usual fluency but finally found a bit of rhythm in the second half with Michu bravely sliding home after latching on to a lovely chip from Alejandro Pozuelo on the 68th minute.

Deep into injury time and 1-0 up we only had to keep possession and see the game out. However, Jonjo Shelvey attempting to take on a Kuban player in injury time saw possession lost. Tremmel brought Balde down in the area and Cisse stepped up to score his sides first goal in the group.
A 93rd minute equaliser - tough to take.

Kuban Krasnodar 1-1 Swansea 

A massive shout has to go to the 50 Swans followers who spent hours deciphering the visa requirements and made the long and expensive journey to support our team in this fixture.

Picture courtesy of Tom (Twitter: @Glos_Jack)

Wilfried Bony's early, low strike looked set to give Swansea victory. Another Kuban escape seemed unlikely when Xandao was shown a second yellow card for clattering Alvaro Vazquez, but Ivelin Popov fed Balde to score and saw Kuban equalise in injury time, AGAIN.

To miss out on a win and a valuable three points to a last gasp goal once is bad enough, but for it to happen twice, within two weeks, against the same team was frustrating to say the least.

Swansea 0-1 Valencia

A strange night at the Liberty saw Valencia take the victory and secure top place in Group A. Valencia dominated possession and the match had very sedate pace all evening. You could easily be forgiven for thinking you were watching a pre-season friendly.

Fewer than 100 of the Valencia faithful made the trip from Spain to Swansea, and saw their side take the lead as Tremmel's tame punch fell to Juan Barnat outside the box. His shot was deflected into the path of Daniel Parejo.

Swans were left frustrated as Wilfried Bony limped off with an injury only for his replacement Alvaro Vasquez to have a perfectly legitimate equaliser ruled out for offside. 

Meanwhile St Gallen were officially out of the competition after losing 4-0 to Kuban Krasnodar. The Russians, however, were mathematically in with a chance of qualification should they beat Valencia at the Mestalla in the final game and Swansea lose to St Gallen while overcoming a goal difference of three.

St Gallen 1-0 Swansea

(The Fog Derby)

Flight disruption due to fog left the team delayed at Cardiff. When it finally cleared, a further delay due to a technical fault on the place resulted in the team waking up a sleepy Chico from his airport terminal slumber and scheduling a flight from Southend. The team finally arrived in Switzerland, although the training session scheduled for Wednesday evening was cancelled. Not ideal preparation.

The journeys of some supporters were also badly affected and, after numerous flight delays and cancellations, some were forced to abandon their travel plans. A massively frustrating and stressful experience for all involved.

It appeared the fog had followed the team and supporters out to St Gallen. Swans supporters tucked in the corner of the AFG Arena, unable to see the far end of the pitch as play commenced. St Gallen fans were in fine voice again seemingly fuelled by giant pretzels.

One massive pretzel too many...

The game itself was probably one to forget. The very attack-orientated line up from Laudrup and lack of a holding midfielder saw us ultimately struggle in the centre of the park. Tremmel gave a good performance and were it not for a few superb saves we could have easily seen a bigger loss.

Whether it was complacency after getting six points from the initial two games, the sheer number of team changes game to game, a touch of arrogance or a general lack of effort, we undoubtedly limped over the line into the knockout stages. Still, if you had offered us second in this group before a ball was kicked then I'm sure most would have happily taken it.

The next step...

Onwards into the knockout rounds once again and a big-time draw against Napoli. No chance for mistakes at this stage and should we progress from this behemoth of a fixture, Swansea will face the winner of Eintacht Frankfurt vs Porto.

The break from Europe between now and February will give the team a chance to narrow their focus back to the Premier League and hopefully improve their form. It's a popular opinion that the Europa League in general disrupts a team’s league performances, with the players being exhausted from the travel, extra games, etc. It's hard to say really with the Swans as we are still in a reasonable league position and have a decent points total.

One thing I believe has impacted us though is the (necessary) heavy rotation of the squad game to game. Two seasons ago it was pretty much the same eleven week in, week out. You knew the line up before it came out. That consistency helped understanding between players. Having to rotate so heavily being in Europe is completely foreign to Swansea (pun intended) but so far I think it's been managed fairly well.

In summary it's a fantastic achievement for Swansea to have qualified for the Europa League and we can be proud of how far we have progressed. It's been an exciting journey and who knows when we may be in European competition again. Whatever happens from here on in we can all be even prouder than usual to be a Jack.

Thanks for reading, feel free to follow me on Twitter: @gavint_