Swansea will dump Carvalhal after slump
CARLOS CARVALHAL will leave Swansea City at the end of the season to spark a search for the club’s fifth manager in 19 months. The development — revealed by Mail-Online yesterday — is something of a surprise because Swansea held an option to extend Carvalhal’s short-term deal. But they will not take it up after the Portuguese’s promising start was followed by an eight-game winless run. It has left Swansea needing an unlikely sequence of results on the final day of the season to avoid relegation to the Championship.
Sportsmail learned yesterday that Michael Laudrup was sounded out about returning as manager after Swansea fired Paul Clement in December. The club went instead for Carvalhal, who turned around results dramatically to haul Swansea off the foot of the table. But a collapse in form, allied to oddly negative tactics, means the 52-year-old will be the latest Swansea manager to get the bullet. The club’s new shortlist is likely to include former Wales boss Chris Coleman.
CARLOS Carvalhal will leave Swansea City at the end of the season — but chairman Huw Jenkins intends to fight demands from their Supporters’ Trust to quit the club.
Jenkins has become hugely unpopular among fans over the club’s sale to American owners in 2016 and had said in December that he would consider walking away if the club dropped into the second tier. But, with that fate effectively sealed, Sportsmail can reveal Jenkins wants to keep his post in an effort to eventually leave on a high.
Whether he can retain that role in its existing guise — which has seen him play a major part in a desperately inadequate recruitment system — remains to be seen ahead of his postseason debrief with owners Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan. If he does stay on in an active capacity, it will prove immensely divisive among Swansea’s supporters, who have called for his head throughout the season.
The development comes after it was revealed by MailOnline yesterday that Carvalhal (right) will not have his short-term contract renewed upon its expiry in the summer, meaning Swansea will now search for their fifth boss in the space of 19 months.
Swansea held an option of extending the deal but they will not take it up after his early promise in the role was followed by an eight-game winless run that has left them needing a hugely unlikely sequence of results to stay up. There will be an element of surprise at the decision, owing to the precarious position the club were in when Carvalhal arrived, which was bottom of the table and five points from safety.
There was also a feeling among the club’s hierarchy in December that his past Championship success would be useful in the event that they went down.
But despite turning around results dramatically, the subsequent collapse in form, allied with strangely negative tactics, has meant he will be the latest Swansea manager to get the bullet once the season ends.
Swansea will now look for a young, up-and- coming manager, having thought they had one in Paul Clement. His success in saving the club last season was impressive but he didn’t even make the halfway point of this campaign before being sacked. Interestingly, it was confirmed to Sportsmail yesterday by Michael Laudrup’s representative, Bayram Tutumlu, that they had sounded out the Dane prior to Carvalhal’s appointment.
Laudrup, who won the League Cup with Swansea in 2013 before an acrimonious departure, was unable to leave Qatari club Al Rayyan at the time.
Tutumlu told Sportsmail: ‘Huw Jenkins asked me about Michael but Michael could not leave his club. Swansea has a very good relationship with Michael and he did many great things there.’
This next search is likely to feature Chris Coleman, who was high in the running when Clement got the job in January 2017 and is available following his sacking by Sunderland.
Regardless of who gets the job, Swansea have more fundamental issues to address. Most notably, their recruitment has been poor and that will be under greater pressure with a summer exodus set to take place.
However, there is fan antipathy that needs solving, as underlined by a statement from the Supporters’ Trust, who own 21 per cent of the club.
In an attack on Jenkins, who was once a club hero after overseeing their rise through the divisions, it read: ‘ We have previously expressed a lack of confidence in Huw Jenkins and called for his removal as chairman of our football club. ‘Our concerns were well justified and the view of the Supporters’ Trust remains the same in this regard.’