The cost of promotion?

11-03-2010

Richard of Warwick was flabbergasted when he read reports that one our opponents next season, Newcastle, were paying over £70m in wages.

Others on the message board, like Jamie, have been complaining that we have not spent enough to compete, and if we did, we would have won promotion.

I guess the fact that Newcastle have spent that much and not been successful kind of sinks the boat Jamie wants to sail in, but how much really does it cost to establish your self in the top League?

Premier League clubs spent over £1bn in wages last year! That’s 75 per cent more than La Liga clubs spend, and double the German, French and Italian leagues.

The Bundesliga however is the most profitable, mainly down to the fact that their wages-turnover ratio is about 45 per cent.

Most Premier League clubs are operating on a wage/turnover ration of 70 per cent, which just sounds crazy to me, when 55 per cent is considered a safe level.

As a result of this, in 2006/7 only 8 clubs made a profit – that’s EIGHT!

And this is despite the fact that their revenues now exceed £75m for each club. During the same period, the Championship sides shared a pot of £329m, that’s just over £13m each.

Five of those eight were the big four, plus Spurs. The other three were relegated – Reading, Sheffield United and Watford. Ominous!

So if we want to compete at the top table, what sort of wage budget do we need to match?

Man United is surprisingly not the biggest payer, £121m, despite having easily the highest turnover.

It’s Chelsea that have that honour, paying an estimated £150m - their bill was £133m in 2006/7, but since then they have signed Lampard, Terry, Essien, Cech on fat, new contracts.

When I say fat, I mean Lampard’s weekly wage would pay for 300 nurses for a week, finance 340 factory workers on an average wage of 23 grand a year, or add an extra 500 soldiers to the battalions who risk their lives for us every day.

Not to be flippant, but Lampard hasn't played at Ninian Park this year, so hasn't been in any danger on the field!

Arsenal’s outlay is £ 101.3m, added to a service debt for their stadium £ 20m. Their turnover has grown to £ 223m though! Arsenal message boards are filled with stories suggesting that while Fabregas is on £100k per week, the ‘kids’ like Jack Wiltshire, who can’t get into the first team, are on £15k/week. And we wonder why the likes of Jason Scotland, Dorus, and even Andy Robinson are tempted to look elsewhere.

Liverpool's are not far behind in wages, and the club that caused Richard such bewilderment, Newcastle were the fifth best payers in 2006/7 and their wages have increased 16 per cent since then.

The average wage bill in the Premiership was £50m in 2006/7.

The next question is what size of squad will we need?

Liverpool is the biggest team with an incredible 62 players. Arsenal has 59, Manure 51and Chelski 46.

The average squad size is 40 though, though Bolton has the smallest in number – 27. Our squad currently numbers 31.

We are debt free, but what happens if we get promoted?

Would we allow ourselves to take on debt to stay in the Promised Land, and risk going into freefall like Charlton and as we did in the 80s.

Or should we play a long game like West Brom, seesawing between the top two leagues, using the TV money to build a robust business that can eventually sustain itself in the Premier division?

Equifax, the online credit rating company has stated that ten of this season’s Premier League clubs would struggle to repay their debts. These include next year’s opponents, Middlesbrough and Newcastle, but more indicative of where we are right now, Hull and Stoke had ratings of 1/100 and 17/100 respectively.

WBA (71/100) were 3rd in the list, behind Arsenal (98/100) and Man United (93/100), and look to be the best model for sides in the Championship in my opinion.

The level of debt in the Premiership is however is quite frightening. Here’s the league table of debt:
1. Chelsea - (£620m)
2. Manchester United (£605m)
3. Arsenal - (£268m)
4. Fulham - (£182m)
5. West Ham United (£142m)

The top two clubs owe more that the entire Championship debt, which just exceeds Arsenal’s deficit at £289m.

Jamie may have had a point when it comes to splashing the cash though.

The four biggest spenders in the Championship in 2006/7 were the three promoted to the Premiership that season, Birmingham, Sunderland and Derby, while WBA were the fourth, and were promoted the following year, though all three have suffered relegation since too.

Anyone else not bored by stats, and wanting to get an idea of what we face in the Premiership, and how wise we are building this club slowly, you can take a look at this club-by-club outline from Deloittes review for 2006/7.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2301797/Deloitte-football-finance-review-Club-by-club-Premier-League-analysis.html

Roberto Martinez

16-03-2009

by Magnus Myhre

He is thought to be the most talented manager outside The Premiership, and he is constantly linked to bigger clubs. The club has progressed under his leadership, and it is perhaps the biggest coup the club has ever done, when they signed a Chester-player, and put him in the manager chair.

The year is 2007, and a Swansea team with ambitions of The Championship are struggling in the middle of the table in League One. Their manager Kenny Jackett, who took the team up from League Two, and nearly led them to the Championship season after, seems to be stuck for ideas. The man had given Swansea team much, but now it was stopping, and the English manager pulled out 15 February.

The summer before, he had sold Roberto Martinez to Chester. The Spanish midfield man did not figure in his plans anymore, plus, the midfielder began to grow old. Just seven months later Roberto Martinez took place in the Swansea manager chair, after Jackett. Some fans were perhaps a bit skeptical of this solution, the Spaniard had given the club a lot, but he lacked experience as a manager, and it could soon be labeled as the club played in England's third top division. But Martinez fulfillment, from a place in no-man's land was almost to the play-off, only for slipping the place at the last day of the season, when Blackpool beat Swansea 6-3 at the Liberty Stadium. The disappointment was great, but Martinez said that Swansea was to be stronger next season.

In contrast to his predecessor was Martinez a little more careful in the transfer market - that is, he did not use large amounts on players. Kenny Jackett had received £ 1 000 000 to act for the preceding seasons, and he had spent money on players that did not the amount of success the price would indicate. Martinez on his side, just use little money on foreign players. The first rumors that the result was on the way in, was a Dutch midfielder. A sum of £ 70 000 was mentioned, and most fans believed him to be a back-up solution. It should he not prove to be, for Ferries Bodde was a key player, so to speak, from the first match. Now, is the incredible to think that Bodde cost no more than £ 70 000, how much the actor had for the money. The situation today is the following; Swansea are in line for promotion to the Premier League, have spent very little money on new players, and soccer player adventure, even against stronger teams expected. The appointment was perhaps a smart one after all.

As a player, he started his career in Real Zaragoza, but was eventually sold to the club he had played in their younger days, CF Balaguer. He was educated well in the Spannish club, but he played "Futbol Sala", futsal, as well as football. Here he learned much of what were his hallmarks as a football player, technique and a sharp football mind. Futsal paths is smaller and tighter, and requires technical attributes as well as quick thinking if you want to succeed, and there are a lot of these qualities that made Martinez a so good player as he actually was. In 1995 it opened a new sports shop in Zaragoza and the owner of this sport shop would prove to be the owner of the English football club Wigan Athletic. Martinez had, together with two other Spaniards, Jesus Seba and Isidro Diaz been offered to try their luck in Wigan. They accepted, and all had some years in the club. Martinez played the longest, until 2001. He remembers that the three amigos as their first match of the team they would eventually sign for:
- The first time we saw Wigan play was in a friendly somewhere up north. Taking the kick-off, they passed it back and then just kicked it long, behind the full-back's head – just to kick it out of play, and then the whole team squeezed up. We said: 'Hey, what's this? That's a rugby movement.' We'd never seen that in Spain; you would get told off if you gave the ball away. So we thought: 'Wow, this is going to be interesting.

Even today there are differences between English and Spanish football, the differences are perhaps far greater down in the systems division, but the difference between the Premier League and Division Primiera is, if anything noticeable. Also the player culture in England was shocking for the young Spaniard:
- Now that I was here, I was going to make the most of the experience. Beans on toast as a pre-match meal – that was a big shock. And coming back from a long trip, Plymouth or wherever, the boys were allowed to have a drink on the bus and some had to leave their cars when we got back because they were drunk. That was a big 'no' in Spain. Here, at 18, someone tells a young player who's professional, who's not. They don't have to fight any more. In Spain, 18 is when you really need to make the point, whether you want to be a professional or not

The differences in the player culture in the different countries has become less and less. The teams have hired experts on diet, alcohol intake is largely moderated by the clubs. Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger should probably have a major part of the credit for the great revolution the English football has gone through, and Roberto Martinez has followed the footsteps of Wenger on this site. Nothing left to coincidences. He stressed the importance of a healthy diet and enough sleep, and has hired a psychologist. There's even a hypnotist in Swansea payrolls.

Roberto Martinez is a man who lives for football. For him a day with football is a day off, at least he claims so. His good friend, and son of a legend ii football, Jordi Cruyff, has the following to say about the Spanish manager:

- Football is Roberto's life. When I have a day off, I must admit, I take the whole day off away from the game. Roberto on the other hand is still living and breathing football on his free day. As a player he would spend it running and training in the gym. Since taking his new life in management, his summer time has reduced to four days and he will still make time to phone his chairman and keep in touch with what is happening at the club

The commitment for football Martinez shows exceeds the average manager. According to rumors, he spends the Sunday in front of the TV, watching football. In addition, he is more or less permanent in the Sky Sports coverage of Spanish football. As a person Martinez is very dedicated and loyal. His involvement in football, and in Swansea proves that. It took no more than a little over year before rumors began to flourish, Newcastle had Martinez on the list of appropriate candidates, the same had Wigan. Sir Alex Ferguson wanted him allegedly as assistant when the position was vacant at Old Trafford. Martinez, however, denied that he is interested to take over a club in the higher divisions, most recently in connection with a link to Portsmouth. The Spanish manager has a different agenda in his football life than just to win football matches:

- It's the challenge I've had in my life. I've had a continental upbringing that I developed while I was at Zaragoza, but those beliefs get challenged on a daily basis in the British game. I was never a physical player in my time, I had to be effective on the football pitch with my arguments. I had to learn how to be effective in the British game. For me it's always been about fighting the idea that you cannot be successful in the British lower leagues by playing football. That was my challenge when I took the manager's job - to be succesful playing football - and that's why I have so much pride with Swansea City, the way we achieved promotion playing in a different way.

A large part of why Martinez then categorically denies interest for positions, that can give him a push in the right direction in relation to the training of a team at the very highest level can be located here. If Martinez wins a match, only half of the job is done. It is to be made by playing football. To be on the defensive, let the other team control the match and hope to make a goal or two on the counter seems not to be an option for Martinez. He wants to prove that it is possible to get some way, even not by playing defensive and cynical football, and prove the ones who claims otherwise. As a player he would have to weigh up what he lacked on the physical when he came to English football. He was never a "box to box player” who ran tirelessly, but a playing midfielder, if anything. As he says he had to learn to be effective, how to work in English football as a somewhat nontraditional central midfielder in English context, if one takes the time Martinez came to England, and that he has kept to the lower divisions into account. In principle, one can say that to bring Martinez to the football was a bad idea if you look at the way the team played at the time. But he adapted, and he worked. In fact, he is said to have been a success. He received a total of 363 games in the English league system. Now he is trying again to break a barrier, and to prove the critics who claim that they do not come any way in the English system of playing football wrong. So far it looks good, but it is still a long way to go to the goal of establishing Swansea among the 15 best clubs in England.

Although there is some way to go, it is unlikely many people is critical to whether Martinez is the man to bring Swansea to the Premier League. The gaffer does, however, seem to be quite calm, despite the fact that it has built up great expectations for Swansea record progress. Already in November, some began to launch Swansea as a clear candidate for the Premier League next season. Martinez on his side claimed that the goal of the season first and foremost was to remain in The Championship. He hoped Swansea would remain in the Championship a few years before they scrambled up, it was at least the goal. As approached March Swansea is still a clear candidate to move up, and Martinez has hinted that the ambitions have changed over the season. If the club should get on, you can not hold it back when it undoubtedly possesses a greater potential than first thought.

Some might say that Swansea do not have a sufficient foundation to build on to establish themselves in the Premier League. This season is the first in 24 years at the club is in the country's second highest division, and it has not been something that has indicated that Swansea was able to establish themselves in the Premier League in recent years. Swansea is now closer than ever in a long time, but after having experienced success so quickly, many will argue that Swansea is a team that has achieved success too soon, that is lightweight compared to the teams who have played at higher level over several years, and that Premier League football next year will be too early for them. Martinez on his side believes that these theories do not hold water. He believes that there is something called too early in this context:

- Look at the benefits of reaching the Premier League. You have to be very sensible, but there are many positives about getting there and you can never have too many positives. What I would say is that you cannot go overboard and you must not overspend. The short-term plan would obviously be to compete in the Premier League, but you have to plan long term to make sure you end up with a stronger football club, even if you don't get enough points to stay in the division.I think we've showed as a club — the chairman, the board and myself — that we will not put ourselves in a tricky position. Any club getting to the Premier League should build on the positives and that means using the huge financial boost to improve facilities and to bring in players for the future who will be good assets.

Many believe that Swansea should build itself up as a club in The Championship before they aim for Premier League, but Martinez sees no automatics in that. If the club is getting up to the Premier League next season, and getting down again, they play another season in The Championship as a stronger team, and thus does Swansea not necessarily have any advantage to be in the league system second top division. Then they'll have better basis to develop the players, and maybe add more young talents than they would have if they invest in numerous players who still would not prove to be good enough to keep the team Premier League after all.

It is perhaps this setting that can be critical for Swansea. Should Swansea move up this season, it will not be a big defeat if dropping down. Roberto Martinez and the Board of Swansea parts ambitions and ideas. The best way to become a better team is, if necessary, slowly, but most importantly securely progress. As Martinez said, is not a man who leaves things to chance, the team's position should not depend on a single player's performance. It should not be purchased in a big star, that will drive the team. It is the team as a team who is going to win the matches, and to form a team, he must find the right players, or if necessary, bring them up himself. It takes time, and it seems like he is getting the time to do that in Swansea.

So much suggests that the Swansea-fans can feel confident that Martinez does not jump on the first and best offer from a big club, if there should emerge. There are currently, a little over two years ago midfield player Roberto Martinez was purchased from Chester, and put in the manager chair. Two years have passed, but hopefully it is just two of many. Martinez has accomplished much in the club, but still have much to accomplish.

Sources:
Thisissouthwales: http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/sport/Martinez-s-early-Premier-promotion/article-683875-detail/article.html
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2008/nov/14/swansea-roberto-martinez-championship
The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/roberto-martinez-the-spanish-swan-901729.html

Is the Realist living in Reality?

09-02-2009

An argument has kicked off on the message boards started by "the Realist" who has question our supporter base - our average crowds of 15k+ and he/she claims that's appalling.

Many observers have mentioned the fact that there is an economic downturn and money is tight right now.

Others have reasoned that we have support equal to that of some of the clubs dining at the top table.

The Realist countered that the likes of Fulham, Wigan and Blackburn are backed by rich owners.

So the question is are they backed, or backed into a corner? Are we better off growing the club slowly, that's gates, supporter base and commercial activity, or should we gamble a bit, or find a rich owner?

How better off are these clubs the Realist mentions?

Well Fulham have been bankrolled by interest-free loans by Mohammed Al Fayed over the years, and according to The Independent, he is owed 165m.

That's ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE MILLION!!!

What happens when he decides he's had enough, becomes ill, dies - he's 76.

Wigan are over 45 million in the red and Whelan, who until recently owned the towns Rugby League side as well, is looking for investment.

Despite having sold JJB for a reported 150m, in 2005 Whelan bought Orrell's home, Edge Hall Road, then sold it to developers. The rugby club play their games at a local university now. That sounds like a man counting the pennies to me.

And what happens when he pops his clogs (he's in his 70s too)? The same as Blackburn I suspect.

Blackburn are over 20m in hock, with a wage budget of 40m.

A reflection of their tight finances was seen last November when they went chasing 43 grand from Livingstone (another club in financial ruin) - profits of Dave McNamee's sale to Coventry (a player Blackburn gave to Livi for free, and a share of any profits should he be sold).

The club is currently 69 per cent owned by the Jack Walker Trust (who are looking to sell) and only pump money in from the trust coffers when they are in desperate need. 15 per cent is owned by BA - who in a downturn sees airlines losing money like luggage, won't be putting in any cash. The rest is held by an employees share scheme.

Walker believed that the clubs could become self-financing with an investment of 30m. How wrong could he be?

Walker and the Trust had pumped over 97m into the club by the end of 2007, though the Trust has ONLY been giving the club 3m a year since 2002.

The 2007 accounts for the club stated 'the trustees "see no immediate requirement to invest further"'. They have also instructed Rothschild's to find a buyer for the club.

So I would hardly hold those clubs as examples of where we are - in much better long term shape in my opinion.

A steady growth is what is needed, because a salary cap is coming in some shape or form if UEFA President Michel Platini has his way, and a number of chairman like Reading's Majeski think it is the only way smaller clubs can compete fairly against the Manure's of this world.

The Football League are examining a way of implementing one, and even the likes of moneybags Adam Pearson backs the idea.

"The game is close to meltdown at all levels," he told the Guardian. "Club boards are under pressure to gain success and that leads to them paying ridiculous wages. It cannot carry on or it will end in disaster. There is a growing feeling now that some sort of wage cap has to come in."

Rupert Lowe agrees (well he would)."Boards should keep wages below 60% of turnover", is his view.

Ray Ransom thinks, "restraining wages to a proportion of turnover would be a good thing and in today's climate, people should think seriously about it."

Even Premiership Chairman now see the value in halting the spiraling debt.

Phil Gartside (whose club in reportedly only 4m in debt) suggested it in October 2008, and his views were backed by Lord Triesman, the FA Chairman.

Dave Whelan has been saying this for over 4 years.

Al Fayed recently agreed to one when Manchester City were looking to spend over 100m on Kaka.

Blackburn's John WIlliams said,"The idea of capping to make everything equal in football really excites me..."

So despite the billion dollar deal the Premiership rights have just realised, the football hierarchy are of the opinion that clubs will be forced to be change their operating budgets if they like it or not.

Whether they can force through legislation which would affect the likes Liverpool, Manure, Chelski and Arsenal more than most is open to question.

But according to Deloittes, the Premier league's clubs owe a total of 3 billion between them, so something will have to give.

Size Matters

09-02-2009

by Clive Alabaster



“Swansea City is way bigger than (arbitrary large town/small city) FC”, “Swansea is a massive club”, we’ve heard them all. The my-football-club-is-bigger-than-your-football-club boast is about as popular as the playground my-Dad-is-bigger-than-your-Dad taunt and perhaps about as mature, too. It seems to be equally popular with fans and players. If we were talking about our cars we could be accused of regarding the car as an extension to one’s… erm… manhood! Quite clearly, when it comes to football clubs; size matters.

This leads me to question two points; how does one measure the size of a football club and should it really matter, anyway? Actually, I derive no satisfaction from the notion that Swansea City FC is a bigger club than, say, Yeovil Town. Likewise, I am not consumed with shame to admit that Swansea City FC is smaller than Liverpool FC. If Swansea City is indeed a massive club then how would Manchester Utd be described? Red Giants? Bigger does not necessarily mean better; a point we hammered into Leeds Utd and Nottingham Forest last season.

Similarly, from the perspective of the fans of Leeds Utd or Nottingham Forest, there seemed to be some consolation that in spite of their defeats to Swansea City they were nevertheless bigger clubs than us. I’ll concede that point every time we play them if we get the three points. In actual fact, we all have an intuitive idea of the relative size of a club but it is difficult to quantify; we all know a big club when we see one.

In recent times I have read that the following metrics may be used to determine the size of a club:
• Position in the league structure,
• Honours & titles,
• Stadium capacity,
• Average home gate,
• Number of world-wide fans,
• Some vague notion of the status of a club,
• Income,
• Expenditure,
• Debt,
• Value of club.

Doubtless, there are many more factors that could be listed, however, the 10 points listed will suffice. Some of these points have some merit and some are red-herrings. Let’s have a closer look. The league position of a club has some merit but clearly is inadequate on its own.

Is Doncaster Rovers really bigger than Leicester City? My intuition says not but their league position would suggest so. As for honours and titles, these, too, have some merit but are inadequate on their own. It occurs to me that honours and titles have a certain shelf life beyond which their relevance diminishes. Nottingham Forest make a deal of noise about their double European Cup titles, but is there any member of their current playing/coaching staff who was involved in these title winning sides?

If not, how relevant are these titles to the current squad? The next three points relate to the club’s level of support. Now this certainly has merit although even here you will find anomalies. My issue is with the size of the stadium.

Did Swansea City suddenly become a bigger club the day it locked up the Vetch and moved into the Liberty Stadium? Well, actually, I think it did. But then does Darlington’s 25 000 capacity Arena stadium make them a big club even though their average home league attendance this season is only 3061.

The anomaly is even stronger if you consider Scottish league 2 side Queens Park, whose home ground is Hampden Park. It is often claimed that Manchester Utd are the world’s biggest club by virtue of their world-wide support. Again, this has some merit. Their support cannot be measured in terms of average attendances because every game is a sell-out.

So the attendance metric is saturated at the capacity of their stadium; clearly many more would attend if the stadium could accommodate them. However, for clubs who do not regularly sell-out, home attendance is a fair indicator of size. My next point concerns the club’s status.

This is another immeasurable quantity. Actually, it is a quality of a club which hinges on factors like international representation, stardom and appeal of the club (often outside its catchment area), level of press coverage and the influence the club has on footballing matters.

If one could measure status one might also have a measure of size. My last four points are all related to the club’s financial position. The turnover of a business is often used as a metric to judge its size and applies equally to a football club but otherwise I think that financial matters are in the red-herring category.

I certainly regard the expense of transfer fees to be somewhat irrelevant, even misleading. Nottingham Forest’s £4.5 million summer spending spree certainly makes them big spenders.

Swansea City’s prudence over the summer suggests we are a far smaller club. Some are concerned that we are trying to compete on the cheap. Do you really get what you pay for, is there really no such thing as a bargain? It’s early days yet but I am beginning to believe that (a) you can get ripped-off and (b) there are bargains to be had if you shop wisely. The debt of a club was a serious suggestion but a laughable one.

The truth is that a club’s size is a combination of all these factors, red-herrings aside. We tend to give them differing priorities when we weigh them all up in our minds. As in the nature of football, it gives rise to endless debate, which may be enjoyable but is ultimately pointless.

Top Drawer

09-02-2009

Clive Alabaster (Wiltshire Jack)



“A phoneme”, I explain to my two teenagers, “is a group of words, spelt differently but which are all pronounced the same way, such as draft and draught. Can you give me any more examples?” Eventually, we come up with draw and drawer.
My 14 year old daughter pipes up “But draw has got lots of meanings: draw as in to sketch, draw as in ‘the half-time flyer draw’, draw as in ‘another draw for the Swans’ and draw as in ‘to draw fire’. Does that have a special word?”
“Er, no, at least I don’t think so. Do your school teachers ever question why your examples are always drawn from Swansea City FC?”
She sees my pun, ignores it and continues regardless “In fact it goes even further because there’s drawer as in ‘a chest of drawers’ and drawer as in someone who draws.”
“There’s also drawers as in trousers”, chips in her 16 year old brother. Typical!
“OK, here endeth today’s English lesson”, I pronounce.

I was mulling this over as I made the two hour drive home to Wiltshire after the Sheffield United match. I imagined half the Swansea City squad in their English language lessons getting to grips with phonemes, I contemplated how we had now drawn 11 of our 23 league games and yet, by common consensus we had been playing some of the best football many of us had ever witnessed from a Swansea team. This has been both breathtaking and exasperating.

By the time we got to the Severn Bridge I finally blurted that I felt frustrated over the drawn match against Sheffield United, particularly as we played against 10 men for the entire second half. It was Cardiff City re-visited; we played a fair proportion of that match against 10 men, too. On both occasions we totally dominated possession, managed a single goal in this period of dominance but failed to get the crucial second and winning goal that our performance deserved. Then there was QPR, Ipswich (away) and Sheffield Wednesday (what is it about that city?). “OK, what exactly is it that prevents us from converting our winning performances into winning results?” I ask.

By the time we got to our exit off the M4 near Chippenham we had formulated the following theory…here it is for what it is worth.

We do not sustain any pace in attack. By this I don’t mean that we have forwards who are not very quick, I mean we do not attack teams quickly. We all love to see the neat passing game which has become our style – no complaints there – but all too often we fail to exploit a 2-on-2 situation, or a breakaway counter-attack. This is not a criticism of individual players or of our forwards, it is a feature of the style of play of the whole team. When the opposition defence is stretched we revert to a neat passing move from our defence, through the midfield and forward. This gives the opposition ample time to re-group, get men behind the ball and organise their defence. Is it possible then to have too much of a good thing? Top teams such as Manchester United can also pass the ball to death and draw teams out (oh, here I go with the draw words again, sorry) and hit them on the break. We, on the other hand, lay siege to the opposition penalty box and patiently try to create an opening. I mention this merely as an observation, not as a complaint.

However, there may be some truth in the notion that we do not have a lightning fast forward (Brandy being the exception) and hence do not have the players to launch a quick counter-attack. Even when we have a man advantage, we will normally leave two defenders (plus goalkeeper) back, whereas the opposition may have all but one guy behind the ball. Hence we attack with 8 players and they defend with 10, or 9 if they’ve had a man sent off; we do not have any advantage in those situations. In the league game against Cardiff, I noticed how Cardiff defended the penalty area. Clearly, 9 players defending such a small area have it pretty well covered and it takes an intricate piece of close control to forge an opening in such circumstances. Unfortunately, our shooting from outside the box was a little wayward that day and we could not capitalise. I feel that this is an aspect of Bodde’s game that we have missed terribly since his injury.

I also suspect that many teams are happy to concede possession to us with an attitude of ‘I don’t care how much of the ball you have, it’s what you do with it that counts’. Possession denies the opposition the chance to score but it does not guarantee you goals. Several opposition managers have remarked that whilst Swansea had a load of possession, they did not hurt us with it. I think they have a valid point. Have we been sussed?

I find it interesting to realise that the military appreciate this point; the pace of attack has to be maintained at an appropriate level to be most effective. Too slow and the enemy can re-group, resist and launch a counter-attack. Too fast and lines of supply become horribly stretched and your men become knackered. One needs to sustain an intensity and pace which keeps the opposition on the ropes but may also be interspersed with short periods of rest/recovery and short periods of lightning fast, highly potent attacks. I think this could have analogies to football tactics. In my opinion, it is also one of the strengths of the Welsh rugby team.

Anyway, returning to the football…I have a nagging doubt that what I am about to say could undermine much of my own argument. Throughout many of these frustrating draws we have actually created several scoring opportunities. We’ve had the chance to turn these draws into wins many times over. So perhaps there is nothing wrong with our tactics, simply a failure to bury chances.

So, I’ve had my say, put the world to rights and embarrassed myself in front of you all over my lack of tactical nous. However, it has been a therapeutic exercise and I am at peace with the idea that we, Swansea City FC, are indeed a top drawer team, in every sense of the word.

Northbank Natter

Northbank Natter

Previous Northbank Natter Articles

• 1/09/08
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• 06/02/07
• 12/01/07
• 15/11/06
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