Owners admit failings as Swansea go down
... Swansea’s relegation confirmed with final-day defeat against Stoke:
SWANSEA City’s American owners say they must accept “much of the responsibility” for the club’s relegation from the Premier League and will seek to change recruitment strategy ahead of another vital summer.
The Swans’ seven-year stint in the top-flight was formally brought to an end by a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Stoke at the Liberty Stadium yesterday.
Majority shareholders Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan – as well as chairman Huw Jenkins – were not in attendance as supporters made their feelings clear with protests inside and outside the ground.
Swansea’s poor recruitment record in recent seasons has been a key factor in losing their top-flight status, and there will be a significant turnover of players during the summer as they prepare for a return to the second tier.
Just shy of 20 players are either out of contract this summer or next, and there is a desperate need for clarity in the club’s identity and football philosophy.
The statement from Levien and Kaplan – posted on the club’s website – alludes to this but does not given any specific details on how they propose to approach the task of returning Swansea to the elite level of English football.
“This is a testing time for any football club, when its dreams and ambitions have been shattered and it is facing the harsh reality of life outside the Premier League for the first time in many years,” read the statement.
“Nobody at Swansea City is making excuses, least of all ourselves. You can always point to injuries, suspensions, refereeing decisions that might have gone the other way, the rub of the green or plain bad luck.
“But the fact is, the club has been relegated because we simply weren’t good enough over 38 games in probably the most brutal professional sports league in the world. The Premier League is unforgiving if you fall below its high standards.
“There have certainly been mistakes along the way and it is down to the owners to shoulder much of the responsibility.
“Our recruitment strategy hasn’t been good enough, we all recognise that and the blame for it ultimately rests with ourselves.
“But we are taking steps to rectify that and we will be bringing additional resources to that department during the summer in a bid to change and strengthen the way we operate.
“Now, though, is not the time for rash statements or empty promises. We believe this is a time for everybody to pull together even through the heartbreak and bitter disappointment of relegation.
“We know this club has not been truly unified off the pitch for a while even though the supporters who come to the matches home and away have been magnificent and gave everything in a bid to inspire the team. We cannot thank or praise them enough.
“As owners, our commitment is total and the determination to regain Premier League status is our only focus. At the moment, it may be hard to come to terms with – but with fans, players and staff united in a common cause, we have to believe a return will be swift. Without that unity, we have very little chance.
“We recognise the huge role the club plays in the community and its importance.
“Perhaps the club has lost its unique identity, the special essence that made Swansea City different – better, in many ways – and we need to rediscover that identity both on the pitch and off it if we are to make the community proud of this football club again.”
Meanwhile, the future of manager Carlos Carvalhal remains uncertain, with the Portuguese claiming he could yet be in charge at the start of next term. “I speak to the owners and they ask me to work next season even if we do not know what will happen,” said Carvalhal after the defeat against the Potters.
“I need time to think, talk with my family and friends, we will talk again and then take a decision.”
SO it all came to an end with no shortage of anger, a heavy supply of gallows humour and the familiar taste of defeat to round out a miserable, joyless season.
After 266 games, 23,940 minutes of football and 2,541 days as a Premier League club, Swansea will return to the second tier next term.
The last time they were there David Cameron was in his first year as Prime Minister and the latest Harry Potter film was a box-office smash.
That year, as this, there was a royal wedding, while had you muttered the word Brexit no-one would have had a clue what you were talking about.
How times, and this football club, have changed.
There was never any likelihood of the miracle unfolding to keep Swansea City in the Premier League, although had the hosts made more of an opening 20 minutes where they could and should have led 3-0 it could have sparked some nerves at St Mary’s.
Instead it turned out to be every bit as curious an afternoon as it had promised to be.
Swansea have so often had cause to celebrate on days like this, in bright spring sunshine like this.
Think back to that first season in the Premier League when supporters dressed as Elvis to toast survival; bookmakers had predicted it was more likely Presley would be found alive than the Swans would enjoy more than a solitary top-flight season.
Even last term, when West Brom were the visitors, the great escape was marked with a 2-1 victory.
There was never likely to be any of that yesterday as supporters underlined their anger with protests before and during the game.
Not that chairman Huw Jenkins or majority shareholders Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan were in attendance to hear and appreciate the depth of feeling.
There were chants of ‘We want our club back’, ‘We want Jenkins out’, ‘Sack the board’ and ‘Where’s the money gone?’, all given renditions at regular intervals, while two supporters used a break in play in the opening half to parade a banner along one side of the stadium reading ‘No ambition, no investment, sold out’.
It served as a reminder, not that one were needed, of how a club once known for its unity and clarity of purpose has lost its way and lost its identity,
There was also some dark humour: both sets of supporters chanted ‘Going down’ in unison.
After Swansea’s opener the visiting support even struck up the chant ‘We
want 10’ in reference to the goal swing required to send their former boss Mark Hughes down with Southampton.
The only real, genuine warmth of the afternoon was rightly reserved for Angel Rangel and Leon Britton on their final appearances for the club they have served so magnificently.
Both were presented on the field before kick-off. Rangel skippered the side and showed up strongly on his 374th and final appearance.
Britton came on from the bench for his 537th outing to a rapturous second-half reception. The sadness of their moving on is only added to by the fact they leave the club heading downward having done so much to help their rise to recent heights.
It also underlines the scale of the rebuilding job to come. They are two of the final remaining pieces of the jigsaw from the side that got Swansea here. With that generation gone, an epochal moment beckons.
The match itself was almost an afterthought, particularly once Wayne Routledge spurned a great early chance to double Swansea’s lead on the back of Andy King’s opener.
Swansea, operating in what was once their traditional 4-2-3-1 shape, played with some real attacking verve and it was hard not to wonder how different this final run of games might have been had the handbrake been released earlier.
However, it should also be noted that without any real pressure on proceedings players found it easier to take risks they had previously been unprepared to take.
Swansea nearly led from a goalmouth scramble after 14 minutes as Andre Ayew hacked away on the ground, but the Ghanaian soon set up the opener, nodding the ball on for King to calmly find the bottom corner.
Swansea were in complete control at that stage but started to lose their way once Routledge decided to check inside rather than shoot, before curling wide.
Stoke responded by scoring from their first chance. Xherdan Shaqiri’s pass found the offside-looking Badou Ndiaye, who lofted the ball over Lukasz Fabianski and in.
Worse was to follow, Peter Crouch finding it far too easy to glance home a header from a free-kick and give Stoke the lead four minutes before the break.
Jordan Ayew curled a free-kick agonisingly wide but Swansea, unsurprisingly, were booed off.
Things nearly got really ugly seven minutes into the second half when Martin Olsson handled as Crouch controlled a cross to the far post.
Referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot, but Fabianski saved Shaqiri’s spot-kick and, unlike the previous two penalties he had kept out earlier in the campaign, his defence reacted first to ensure there was no follow-up chance.
Britton and Tammy Abraham were soon introduced and Swansea spent the majority of the remaining minutes battering away at the Stoke rearguard searching for an equaliser.
Andre Ayew headed straight at Jack Butland, and the forward then saw an effort blocked by Abraham after a good burst from Tom Carroll.
Carroll soon teed up another chance with a lovely ball for Sam Clucas, who was twice denied by Butland, with Abraham’s follow-up cleared off the line.
But it was to no avail and it summed Swansea’s season up that on a day when they created so much, having created so little over the season, they still could not emerge with three points.
This relegation is deserved, no question. They have suffered the most defeats of any top-flight side and scored the joint-fewest goals.
This has been their worst Premier League season in terms of wins, goals and points and highlights the failure to heed the lessons of previous nearmisses.
They have paid the price. The rebuilding process must start now if this Premier League era is not to stand in isolation.