Laudrup to pen contract extension?
First up today is the news that Huw Jenkins is confident he can persuade Michael Laudrup to sign a new extended contract. Laudrup currently has just over 12 months remaining on his current deal, and rumours are he's expected to add at least a 12 month extension:
"I think he will be here and he's stated he would honour his contract. As far I'm aware it's not an issue, but I think Michael's agent has already commented that talks are on-going. Next summer his current two-year deal finishes and we've got a period of time to make sure we have more security on that.
"It's something over the next few weeks we'll have to speed up a bit and talk a bit further." Huw Jenkins
Chris Coleman, meanwhile, has been in the press commenting on how, even if the Great Dane does have his head turned, the Swans will be alright.
"Hopefully they don't lose him, but I'm sure they'll get by. When a club does as well as Swansea City has done, you're going to pick out the best players, the manager...plus if they do lose Michael Laudrup - I hope they don't and I'm not saying they will - Swansea will be clever in who they appoint."
"They've done it all along since they lost Roberto Martinez. They've always replaced one manager with another similar style." Chris Coleman
Surely it is only a matter of time before Swansea chance upon a manager who is genuinely more interested in building a club in his own visage, than in quickly working his way to one of the more "prestigious" jobs in world football? In picking Laudrup, who can look back at his career safe in the knowledge there is very little he's already achieved (as a player, anyway), the Swans may finally have found that man. He's remarked a few times that he wants the opportunity to mould a club, and that at Real, for example, you can finish 2nd and be sacked. With this current Swansea team seemingly capable of pushing on even further, and with no reason to doubt the new-found attractiveness of the club for new signings, there is reason to be confident that Laudrup will be here for at least another year. Whether he's still here for the extra year he's rumoured to be putting pen to paper on is another matter, so let's deal with that when it comes to it.
Leon still holding out hope of England call-up.
There aren't many players in the world who can say they finished a season as the most accurate passer on the entire continent, yet haven't played for their national team. The England team's failure throughout my lifetime seems to revolve around picking players for their reputations, as the top brass at the FA know the media would have a field day if certain big £100kpw+ names were left out in favour of players such as Leon.
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| Leon Britton. Happy. |
“You never give up hope of playing for your country. All I have got to do is concentrate on playing well for Swansea and if something was to ever come up it would be a dream come true.
"It is out of your hands really. Leon Osman has been playing in the Premier League since he came through the ranks, which is a lot longer than myself. I don’t know him but the England manager has shown he will pick someone whether he is 17, like Raheem Sterling of Liverpool, or 31 like Leon.
“Last season Fabio Capello came down to see a game. Stuart Pearce watched a training session and said he was keeping an eye on me and a couple of other players. But I haven’t heard anything since.” Leon Britton
The irony is that, in my opinion, by playing someone like Leon you would then be able to get away with a more frivolous team selection. Leon's discipline is so total that he gives the rest of the team the freedom to play, safe in the knowledge that if they're ever in trouble, then can ping the ball at Leon from any direction and the chances are he'll control it immediately before finding a team-mate with an accurate pass. That's not hyperbole, that's statistics. Players like Carrick know they're expected to hit Hollywood passes as well as "keeping the midfield ticking over", but in positioning Britton at the base of any midfield, I believe you make the sum of parts greater.
Ashley Williams to Liverpool, Arsenal & Spurs?
Now, I'm still yet to see any actual meaningful quotes regarding this however it does seem to be gathering pace. I've been told on Twitter and elsewhere that Arsenal have had a scout at Swansea games five times in recent weeks, and generally in the near past whenever we've heard someone is after one of our leading lights, it's ended up with that player saying goodbye to South Wales. This may be different though.
Swansea have raised the bar. In winning the League Cup, we can no longer be considered a "plucky upstart club" who are liable to lose all of their top players given time - we've got European football next year and there is absolutely no reason to believe the squad won't be strengthened in the summer. Everything points to a bigger, better Swansea City next season, and wish Ashley Williams both team and international captain, it would surely have to be a head-turning offer before he'd consider leaving. How many trophies have the aforementioned history-laden triumvirate won between them this season? Oh yeah, that's right...
A reason (if you don't already need one) to stay away from The Sun.
For clarification, I mean the newspaper. I'd be disappointed to have to explain why we should all stay away from the giant fiery ball in the sky, although the level of intellect displayed by those at the red-top would indicate this would probably be news to them. I'll set the scene shall I? Picture this folks: A major competition final at the home of the sport - two teams - one hailing from the basement division (a feat not matched for over 50 years prior) and one playing in their first cup final ever. 80,000 fans cheering their team on, on what is undoubtedly, for most at least, the biggest sporting day out in their association with the club. The game itself was almost surreal, but ended in a 5-0 win.
Now, I'd say, one of those aspects should be heavily involved in any headline used about the day. What should NOT be used, is a negative sentence making out Nathan Dyer to be well, someone prone to a strop. Maybe these football journalists are too used to playing at Wembley and having the chance to score a hat-trick, or maybe they deliberately avoided giving any credit to either team - either way, it is atrocious journalism. I am of course, talking about their back-page headline in the wake of the final:
"CAPITAL SWAN STROP"
Well done guys, you really earned your corn that day. I can't ever remember paying money for the Sun, so I can't say I'm overly-familiar with the intricacies of their policy, but that really does smack of some kind of agenda. Maybe that's the conspiracy theorist in me shining through, I don't know. Either way, I'd hope their South Wales circulation dips a little as they continue to mark themselves out as purveyors of absolute dirge.