Swansea chairman keen for Swans to show more ambition than has been evident in recent times
Some very interesting comments from Swans' supremo Huw Jenkins have emerged which don't seem to sit well with certain things Michael Laudrup has repeatedly stated during his tenure in SA1.
'We have to make sure whoever comes in to manage, coach and play for us in the future, they can't be talking about different levels of leagues within a league - to me, that is complete failure.
'When I hear some of our players and staff talking [about aiming for fourty points] now it really upsets me that they can actually think like that, because you are more or less conceding a third of the games you play in before you start, and that's the biggest challenge I've got, to make sure that turns around and that everybody working with the club believes if we keep doing things differently, we can compete, irrespective of the size of the club or budgets.'
http://www.swansea.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=337941#ixzz2jrGaQ1Ih
Over the last few years we've become used to talk of how there's a "league within a league" in the Premiership, and as recently as the buildup to the Southampton game Laudrup seemed keen to enforce the idea that, aside from the sides traditionally expected to finish in the top six or seven in the league, the rest of the Premiership are doing battle for the remaining thirteen places:
'I like the team [Saints] they have. They are a team who can be in the top ten. Those spots - eight, nine and ten — are the maximum we can go for.
'There are the big sides, the Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Everton. That's seven. In my opinion, the rest of us play for eighth position and down.'
http://www.swansea.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=337941#ixzz2jrHKt500
Up until recently it appeared that the club had no problem with this kind of talk, but it appears Huw has become frustrated and given our performances going back, well, a while, I can't really blame him. We've shown we can beat anyone on our day and surely that goes against the "league within a league" theory?
Southampton are a good example of how unbridled ambition can result in unheralded results. Their fixture list has been kind so far, but in the three "big games" they've had so far, they've managed a draw at United, a win at Liverpool while Spurs sneaked a 1-0 win at White Hart Lane. Given all three games were played away from St Mary's, that shows the level of confidence that's coursing through the players on the South coast, and there's no reason the Swans can't be playing with the same level of verve and gusto.
Personally, I do agree that there are certain teams who, on paper, we can't afford to compete with but the more I look at comments of that ilk the more I think they must be in some way undermining to the team's confidence. Sure, we can't expect to finish above certain teams, but we've got some very talented footballers in the squad and, as Huw has said, we can't afford to be writing off a proportion of our games before a ball is kicked.
It seems Huw and Laudrup could be set for a chat regarding the manager's comments to the media, if it hasn't happened already. With a struggling Stoke side up next in the league (Sunday - KO: 16:10PM, Liberty Stadium) we should hopefully get back to winning ways, and that should draw some attention away from comments of this nature. After all, no-one questions you when you're winning right?
It will be very interesting to see if the Dane comes out with the "league within a league" stuff again, though...