NEW YEAR, BUT NO END IN SIGHT FOR SWANS WOE
THE boffins in charge of the world’s time added an extra second to 2016. To Swansea City supporters, even that solitary stroke of the clock must have felt like torture, writes Chris Wathan.
Their annus horribilis didn’t need to be stretched out a single moment, plenty forgiven for wanting it to end long before Josh King’s counter attack made it 3-0 earlier on New Year’s Eve, a goal that was perhaps a fitting final act of an awful 12 months.
“They did to us what we used to do to sides,” said Alan Curtis of Bournemouth’s display, the caretaker whose care for the club showed in the hurt on his face. He couldn’t have called it any more perfectly, the Cherries reminding us of the Swansea Way of playing before the club lost all sense of direction and on the pitch identity. Auld Lang Syne, indeed.
The very real worry is that, on the face of it, the New Year seems to be offering little new hope.
The worst part? Everyone knows it. The anger that had been present during that Boxing Day beating that did for Bob Bradley made way for apathy, a resignation that it all goes beyond the simple change of manager. Simple mistakes being made are creating more of an issue; it’s safe to assume Swansea’s defenders will not see in the new year by tuning in to any highlights shows.
Three goals shipped once more taking the tally to an eye-watering 44 in 19 games, meaning they have conceded three or more goals in more than half of their games. No side can survive such statistics.
It could have been more had Bournemouth been a little sharper, a little more ruthless but it was hard not to admire how they played as Swansea once played.
Yet that only increases the wonder of just how this has unravelled to the extent that it has, to the extent that fans appeared to think it was pointless to boo at a final whistle which confirmed Swansea’s position at the foot of the Premier League table for the start of 2017.
Relegation is on the cards, only one side ever escaping such a dire return of points as Swansea have from 19 games, West Brom surviving on the final day in 2005 having been in 10 points compared to Swansea’s 12.
But you doubt if there was the paucity of quality or confidence that undermines every single match when Bryan Robson was in charge of the Baggies.
Again there was some hints of better, even a sign of fight in a muchchanged team. But then, as Jordi Amat conspired to make two basic errors in the space of seconds, Bournemouth got their opener when the Spaniard somehow diverted a cross against his own goalkeeper and allowed Benik Afobe to finish.
They might as well as blown up then, Swansea again crumbling, devoid of belief, of ideas, of the required intensity. Bournemouth delighted in passing around Swansea shadows, as they did for Ryan Fraser’s second before a counter from King gave the fitting scoreline.
Bizarrely, Swansea were slightly better than they were against West Ham, though that is not saying much.
There were some individuals who tried to make an impact but Swansea were generally shown up in every department. Curtis did not lay into them, but his glares from the sideline told a story, as did his eyes as he spoke in the post-match press conference. That sparkle the stalwart usually has was gone because he knows as much as anyone else.
Whoever comes in will have some job in stopping a team conceding as they are, stopping them looking so listless and short of creative ideas up front, of stopping the team collapsing every time the net ripples.
The same old problems will remain in the new year. 2017 does not promise much, but surely it must be better than 2016 – the year that no-one at Swansea wanted to suffer a second more of.