Karanka favourite to replace Clement
SWANSEA CITY owners, Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien, sacked Paul Clement in a conference call yesterday, just three days ahead of their crucial home game against Crystal Palace which the Premier League’s bottom club have prioritised as a must-win.
Clement, 45, was told the news by the American majority shareholders who had made the decision the previous day, when the club’s key individuals resolved that Swansea’s future in the Premier League could only be preserved by a change of manager.
Clement had been due to take part in a recruitment meeting on Tuesday to discuss January targets but there was the first indication that the club could be thinking about a major change when that was cancelled.
The owners hope to have a new manager in place on a permanent basis in time for the Palace match on Saturday and did not want to begin interviewing candidates with Clement still in position.
The former Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka is one who will be under consideration. The Spaniard has Premier League experience, albeit it a relegation with the Teesside club last season.
Levien and Kaplan want a manager who knows the league and could hit the ground running, and that criteria would also encompass former Everton manager Ronald Koeman, although it would be doubtful whether he would want the job.
As things stand, Slaven Bilic, recently sacked by West Ham, and wanted at Galatasaray in Turkey, is not expected to be under consideration, given his failings at his previous club, although that could change. Tony Pulis, recently sacked by West Bromwich Albion, is also not understood to be under consideration, primarily because the profile of the club’s squad is not thought to suit Pulis’s approach.
There have been suggestions that the former Swansea manager John Toshack, 68, who took the club from the old fourth division to the top flight in the late 1970s and early 1980s, might be asked to come back temporarily, with Leon Britton as his assistant. As things stand, the Americans would like to make a permanent appointment.
With only three wins all season, Clement fell short of his one-year anniversary when he replaced the American Bob Bradley on January 3. (© Daily Telegraph, London)