SWANS LOOK SCROOGED

IT’S pretty clear the Swansea chairman doesn’t have much Christmas spirit.

Three managers sacked in December in the last three years isn’t just Scrooge-like, it’s almost OCD! Yet I think the departure of Paul Clement (left) could spell trouble for a lot of managers down there at bottom.. and there really are a lot of them this year.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a small points gap between 10th and the foot of the table. I definitely haven’t seen so many teams who could still go down at Christmas.

You know I’m not an advocate of sacking a manager as soon as things get a bit difficult, and it’s particularly harsh on Clement, who showed he knows how to keep a team up when he inherited a poor Swansea side in a worse position this time last year.

Since then, he’s lost the two forwards who provided all his goals and basically kept them in the Premier League, and has been given only a fraction of the money raised to find replacements. Considering that, he’s done well to make sure Swansea were not tailed-off.

Yet the fact that he’s gone will send chills down the spine of the likes of Mark Hughes, Rafa Benitez, Mauricio Pellegrino, even Eddie Howe must be looking over his shoulder.

Clubs have hit the panic button early, and Palace, West Ham and Everton have already benefited from a change of manager.

Everton prove how tight it is at the bottom. A few weeks ago, their fans genuinely feared they were in a relegation battle, now I guarantee Sam Allardyce will be looking realistically at seventh place.

That’s what a change can bring. Roy Hodgson and David Moyes have seen it all before, they know that sometimes there’s no point in sticking rigidly to your footballing philosophy if it doesn’t actually bring wins.

Hodgson has had so much stick over the years, but he knows what it takes. He knows it’s not about playing the ‘right way’ but playing the best way to win. You have to win ugly at times in that position.

I think Clement had different problems that every Swansea manager will face no matter what, but maybe his schooling at Chelsea and Real Madrid always persuaded him to play in a certain way.

Stoke’s owners will look at what’s happened at Palace and what could happen at Swansea and West Brom, and wonder if they will be leapfrogged.

I think Swansea’s problems may run too deep, and for all the incredible work of David Wagner, Huddersfield have so few resources they could easily get dragged down into it.

I actually think Rafa will get Newcastle out of it if the club doesn’t panic and bring in a new manager, and Alan Pardew has enough in his squad to be able to get away from the bottom. So Stoke must be nervous and Bournemouth, too.

But then so will at least eight clubs above them.. Merry Christmas everybody!