Cherries crumble getting their man
THE last time Swansea City faced Bournemouth the club were in the midst of their pursuit of Paul Clement.
The then Bayern Munich assistant was the leading contender to succeed Bob Bradley, contact had been made and the Swans were confident of getting their man.
But they could have been forgiven for a few nervous moments when they slumped back to the bottom of the Premier League table after a 3-0 Liberty hiding.
Indeed, there were a fair few in the press box that afternoon who openly wondered what on earth Clement would have made of it all. Would he still want the job?
As it happens the 45-year-old was on a skiing Austria at the time – after all, this was during the Bundesliga’s winter break – and he did not watch the capitulation in full.
Had he done so he could have been forgiven for wondering if chasing domestic and Champions League glory with Bayern might have made for an easier life. But there was not a bit of it. “I saw the goals but I did not see the full game. I think I was skiing in Austria,” said the former Derby boss.
“I saw the goals, they got themselves in a bad situation just before half-time with a scrappy goal that bounced up off a defender and they finished it.
“It was at the point where the club had thought they had to make the change.
“It was not a case of watching that game and thinking ‘This is a big job’, I already knew that from looking at the table and looking at the previous results.
“I saw the fixtures coming up and what it would take, but there was no chance it would stop me taking the job. That’s why I came.”
Swansea have been more than glad to have him. A side at risk of being cut adrift at the foot of the table have revived themselves and climbed out of the bottom three.
Last weekend’s defeat at Hull was a rare setback during a spell where Swansea’s momentum has been upwardly mobile, and it has added an additional anxiety for supporters ahead of this evening’s clash with the Cherries at the Vitality Stadium.
Even with defeat on Humberside and a week dominated by injury worries over Fernando Llorente, Kyle Naughton and Martin Olsson – the former two are fit, the latter is not – Eddie Howe will know Swansea are a very different opponent from the one turned over on home turf in December.
Clement knows it too – several times he says he expects a tough test, before quickly but firmly adding “they are going to be in for a hard game too”.
It is that sort of positive, combative attitude that has rubbed off on a squad previously apparently bereft of belief and seen them all but make up the 12-point deficit to Bournemouth that existed at the turn of the year.
Several times this season the stats have been trotted out that Swansea have had so long a points tally that barely any side had managed to rescue the situation and survive.
Another unwanted landmark arrived last weekend. Oumar Niasse’s double at Hull means Swansea have conceded 61 goals after 28 games. No side has ever stayed up having done so.
Does it bother Clement? Not one iota. After all, he saw his brother Neil pull off the greatest escape of them all at West Brom 12 years ago. He knows better than most that only one statistic will matter come the end of May.
“Those statistics have to be beaten at some point and it does not really matter,” he said.