LAND OF THE RISING SWAN
Carvalhal: I had offers from the US, Turkey and Japan.. but I’ve been so rushed here that I’ve planned how to beat Spurs sitting on the bus
SWANSEA v TOTTENHAM Liberty Stadium, Tomorrow 7.45pm
CARLOS CARVALHAL has turned his baptism at the Liberty into an episode of On The Buses – by plotting Tottenham’s downfall on the coach ride home from a miracle.
New boss Carvalhal inspired Swansea’s burglary at Watford with a monumental half-time strop which could be heard in the tunnel.
Carvalhal’s players answered his hairdryer by ringing in 2018 with a dramatic 2-1 win at Vicarage Road.
Then the Portuguese used the four-hour journey back to Wales to begin detailed analysis ahead of tomorrow’s game with Spurs.
Carvalhal has had a breathless start to his Swans rescue mission. Goals in the last four minutes from Jordan Ayew and sub Luciano Narsingh sank complacent Watford.
But lifting Swansea off the bottom was a rewarding way to open his account after he insisted on starting work immediately instead of a watching brief.
Carvalhal (below) said: “We don’t need miracles – we can solve the problem ourselves. We need tactics, organisation, commitment and belief. We also need to take some risks.
“Christmas was strange. I was on the phone a lot. I received calls to work in Japan, Turkey, the United States and in England.
“We reached an agreement with Swansea on Wednesday and it was thought I would watch the games with Watford and Tottenham before starting work with the team next week.
“But I wanted to go to Swansea the next morning to prepare the team, so I got up at 4am and travelled to be with the players at training because time is our enemy.
“I haven’t even had time to call the family at home – it is a new club, you check your players one by one, analyse the previous game, analyse Watford, everything in 48 hours. Then we started to prepare for Tottenham on the bus.
“The moment we shared with our fans at the end was very important. What I want to show them is that we feel very strongly inside.”
Ayew, whose brother Andre scored twice to help West Ham knock Tottenham out of the EFL Cup in October, admitted Carvalhal had given the Swans both barrels.
He said: “We got what we wanted because we worked really hard. The manager had to remind us to do the basics – run, run, run and be aggressive – and we won because of it.
“Tottenham is another tough game and maybe we are not expected to win, but we will approach it with the same principles – the Swansea way.
“The boss was vocal at half-time against Watford because we were not winning enough duels, we were not aggressive enough.”