Swans closing in on Potter as club talks to candidates
GRAHAM Potter looks to be edging nearer to becoming the next Swansea City manager with the club having conducted talks with a handful of leading candidates.
Potter, 43, has been the frontrunner from the off as the Swans look to replace Carlos Carvalhal and appoint a fifth manager in just 19 months.
The FK Ostersunds boss has spoken with the Liberty Stadium hierarchy in recent days, as has Frank de Boer.
Jaap Stam has also reportedly been interviewed, while Brentford’s Dean Smith has been another man under consideration, but Potter is leading the way.
The former England Under-21 defender has long been on Swansea’s radar; he has twice been interviewed for the manager’s job before. Prior to that, he had also been considered as a candidate to join the first-team coaching set-up.
He has won many plaudits for his work with Ostersunds in Sweden, guiding them from the fourth tier to the top-flight, winning the Swedish Cup and reaching the last-32 of the Europa League.
He is seen as the sort of young and energetic coach required to help restore the Welsh club’s sense of onfield purpose and identity in the wake of relegation from the Premier League.
Potter has three years remaining on his contract in Sweden, but it is believed the amount required to buy him out of his deal is modest.
Reports in Sweden have suggested Potter will bring assistant Billy Reid and scout Kyle Macauley with him.
Daniel Kindberg, the Swedish club’s chairman, denied there had been any contact with Swansea.
He told fotbollskanalen: “No one has contacted me about Graham (Potter), so it’s just speculation. I have not talked to Huw Jenkins.”
IT’S going to be a busy few months at Swansea City ahead of next season and the wheels are already turning.
Following relegation from the Premier League, fans, journalists and board members alike will be conducting their own personal assessments of where it all went wrong and what happens next.
There will be the inevitable exodus of players, which has already begun, and there will obviously be players coming through the doors.
Speculation is also rife regarding certain movements at boardroom level and not forgetting of course, the vacant managerial position to sort out. A lot needs sorting out, put simply, and here’s what we know so far about how things are panning out...
WHERE ARE WE WITH THE SEARCH FOR A NEW MANAGER?
As is usually the case with managerial searches, the club will be speaking to a number of candidates before coming down on who they’d like to take over.
Managers will be sounded it to gauge their interest in taking over at SA1 and then, of course, there will be an interview process to go through.
The bookmakers are working over time and Graham Potter is continually the name that is appearing at the head of the queue.
There are also reports that former Crystal Palace boss Frank de Boer has been approached by the Swans, while Bayern Munich assistant Willy Sagnol is about to have talks with the Swans.
The likes of former Reading boss Jaap Stam, ex-Wales manager Chris Coleman and Swans Under-23s coach Cameron Toshack are also in the frame.
It’s a drawn-out process, but the club will be looking to get things all wrapped up swiftly ahead of what will be a hectic summer for the new man.
The squad will be overhauled ahead of the first season in the Championship and they’ll need their main man in quickly so he can have a say in transfers and construct his own squad.
SO, WHERE ARE WE WITH TRANSFERS?
The Swans’ retained list came out yesterday and there are only three confirmed departures in the first team.
Angel Rangel and Ki Sung-yueng both leave the club as their contracts come to an end and Leon Britton retires from football to take on an ambassadorial role with the club.
But, unfortunately for the Jack Army, that’s not where the exodus ends.
Though the bulk of Swansea’s star names have been listed as ‘retained’ that simply means that they remain under contract with the club.
They are still likely to head through the Liberty Stadium exit during the summer transfer window.
Players like Lukasz Fabianski, Federico Fernandez, Alfie Mawson and the Ayew brothers are all likely to seek pastures new in the coming months.
As things stand, the club have received no approach for any of their players, but that’s not entirely uncommon at this stage.
But it does mean that players will be coming in, though making any significant signings before a new manager is announced is risky business.
Splashing out on a new striker, for example, may not be advisable because it may not be a player that the new manager particularly likes or wants.
That hasn’t stopped a number of players being linked with a move to south Wales, though.
The Swans have been heavily linked with Liverpool youngster Yan Dhanda. Earlier this month it was reported that the midfielder was on the verge of signing and he would be the Swans’ first signing of the window if it came off.
Championship golden boot winner Matej Vydra has also been linked with a move to the Swans from Derby.
The club have shown interest in the striker in the past but would likely be put off by a rumoured price tag of £16 million.
Transfer activity will ramp up when a new manager is confirmed.
WHAT IS THIS ABOUT A DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL?
WalesOnline first reported that the appointment of a technical director was likely last week and further reports have since emerged in other media outlets that news is imminent.
Whoever is appointed in the new role – and names are thin on the ground at this point – one of their responsibilities would be to oversee recruitment, bringing fresh eyes and additional expertise to the situation.
Few clubs get through a transfer window without making the odd mistake here and there, but Swansea have continually failed in recent transfer windows and it finally caught up with them.
Key players were sold and not effectively replaced, with a number of important signings flopping last season – the likes of Renato Sanches and Wilfried Bony spring to mind.
But just because the Swans are looking for such a person, it doesn’t mean they’ll find one. Just like signing a player, it has to be the right appointment.
Adding the wrong person to an already poorly performing arm of the club would likely have negative consequences.
WHAT WOULD THIS MEAN FOR HUW JENKINS’ POSITION?
The chairman is under a lot of pressure at the moment. The Swansea City Supporters’ Trust have repeatedly called for him to stand down and the protests on the final day of the season were difficult to ignore.
“We want Jenkins out” were the chants.
Whilst it is not entirely clear at this stage, it appears that Jenkins’ fate is in his own hands with no talk of him being forced through the door. An appointment of a technical director may have some say in the situation.
There are no suggestions at this stage that somebody would be brought in to replace Jenkins, but that any potential technical director would work alongside the current chairman.
But there is a scenario that would see Jenkins relinquish some of his responsibilities that directly influence on-field matters – things like his involvement in signing players – and focus on the more traditional roles of a chairman.
Whether he stays on next year or not will come down to whether or not he is willing to continue despite having some of the authority that he has had for some many years stripped away in certain areas.
It would appear to be somewhat of a slight on Jenkins and he may want to walk away.
One thing that is important to note, though, is that he is unlikely to want to leave the club in a difficult situation and there’s every chance he’ll want to get it moving back in the right direction.
WHERE ARE THE AMERICANS?
The club’s joint-owners, Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien, issued a statement on the day the club was relegated and much of it ties up with what has been mentioned above.
A lot of that release were things that you’d expect from the owners of a club that had just been relegated, but the standout line came regarding recruitment.
“There have certainly been mistakes along the way and it is down to the owners to shoulder much of the responsibility,” a joint statement read.
“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.”
That would fall in line with the appointment of a technical director to improve an area of the club that has been failing.