The Rangels host a charity night, and Laudrup on Tiendalli

Angel & Nikki Rangel set to host charity night in aid of Severn Hospice, Maggies Cancer Caring Centres & Kids Cancer Charity

Does what it says on the tin really. The Rangels found themselves in the spotlight of the national media at the tail end of last year, when, after grabbing some food at a local sandwich bar, the owner remarked he would be throwing out a lot of leftover food, and what a shame that was. Rangel proceeded to tweet;

Angel Rangel spots some food going spare

 ""Anyone knows the location of homeless people in Swansea? I got food going spare! #randomtweet"

They then spent over an hour driving around Swansea, which was in the middle of a snow-laden cold snap, looking for homeless people with whom to share the food, until they received a response to their tweets from a homeless charity. They said they now plan to repeat their goodwill mission on a regular basis. Rangel shied away from the credit, saying it was actually his wife's idea to donate the food to the local homeless population;

"My wife, Nikki, who is a very caring and charitable person, asked if we could have them for the homeless rather than see them thrown in the bin.They agreed and we drove around Swansea for over an hour, but couldn't find any homeless people as it was so cold out on the streets with all the snow." Angel Rangel

This is why the news that Nikki & Angel Rangel are putting on a charity night at the Liberty Stadium won't come as a surprise to many, given their previous, and it's clearly something that's close to their hearts. The night itself is on April the 10th, and Rangel has been heavily promoting the event himself on Twitter, with one of the prizes on offer being his personal box (for 8 people) for the Manchester City game. I haven't heard of many footballers doing that kind of thing, but maybe it goes unnoticed unless you're a fan of the club in question. Tickets for the event are £40, and for more information contact Nikki on 07506 169633.

Ipswich player gives tickets to "skint" fan after responding to tweet

Tyrone Mings

Continuing with the goodwill theme, did anyone hear about young Ipswich Town player Tyrone Mings? This really is a story to warm the heart of any football fan. Before the home game against Bolton, Mings tweeted the usual pre game "big game today yayaya" but what happened afterwards was remarkable. One fan tweeted wishing him luck, saying he couldn't make the game as he was skint and Mings immediately responded by offering the fan two tickets, as long as he could get to Portman Road to pick them up. The fan, Tris Monk (people have good names in Ipswich!) subsequently enjoyed watching his team beat Bolton 1-0. Great story.

Laudrup coy on Tiendalli future

Tiendalli battles with Man Utd's Patrice Evra

In a press conference recently, Laudrup was pressed on the future of the Surinam-born Dutchman, but refused to be drawn on talks of contracts and the like. Laudrup instead simply stated that he'd been pleased by Tiendalli's involvement with the squad, describing him as important:

“Dwight’s been important for us. Maybe he’s had his best games at right back not at left because being a right footed left back is very different, but I have been pleased with his work. We brought him in to help Ben because my intention was not to put all the pressure on a young player knowing you have one player in one position. Ben has coped fantastically with it.” Michael Laudrup

I've been impressed with Tiendalli. He's very much in the Rangel mould, and short of any vastly better acquisition, I don't think we should release him. Taylor's reintroduction into the squad still isn't complete, and it remains to be seen whether Jazz will make the step up to regular first team football for the Swans, so Tiendalli and Rangel are the only real natural options for the Swans at the moment - and both have performed well this season.

Even when Taylor returns to the fold I'd like to see Dwight retained for at least another year, as he seems a positive addition to the squad. His work rate in attack and defence can't be questioned, and he has had games where I found myself wanting to describe him as "marauding" - albeit if on a few of those occasions the end product wasn't quite there. Still, for free, and with a pedigree which includes spells at Ajax and Feyenoord, he's been a quality bit of business. As I've said, unless they've got someone lined up for the right-back spot to challenge Rangel, or Laudrup is expecting Jazz to challenge next season, it seems prudent to tie down Dwight for at least another year. With the season coming to an end you'd expect an announcement soon, so it seems just a case of waiting for an announcement now. Fingers crossed!

Swansea 0 - 2 Arsenal - Outgunned and outthought

Well that was a bit rubbish wasn't it?

I'll be honest, what with the rugby on directly after this game, I'm finding it hard to focus on the negatives from yesterday, but the manner of the Swansea performance was both strange and bemusing. But for the first fifteen minutes the Swans looked like they could have played for a week and not scored, such was the abstract manner of the performance. 

Angel Rangel goes close early on

Before the game all the sounds coming out of the Arsenal camp were of the "the season starts here" variety, and who can blame them? Chasing European football in a season which will, once again for the North London side, end trophy-less, a win in South Wales was of the utmost importance if Arsenal are serious about closing the gap on the teams above them.

As mentioned, the Swans started brightly and some good interplay down the right ended with Angel Rangel going clean through on goal, but the former Terrassa man was under pressure from Monreal and the advancing Fabianski, and between them they did enough to put Rangel off and his poked effort drifted agonisingly wide of the Arsenal keeper's left upright. Next to go close was Michu - a few quick passes and a nice pivot by the languid centre forward ended with the ball being dragged again to the left of Fabianski. Given his exploits this season you'd expect Michu to do better, and it seems he's currently going through a bit of a barren patch - he's only scored in one of his last 10 PL matches, and that was against QPR (although granted he scored twice). He needs to score soon even if it's just for his own confidence. 

Arsenal threatened regularly - in particular through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The young forward harassed Angel Rangel and the pace the young Gunner possesses was always going to be a problem for the Swans right-back - who, let's be honest. isn't the quickest off the mark. The Ox managed to get shots off twice in the first half, and both times he rattled the woodwork. The first was simply a cheeky cut inside Angel on his right before he unleashed a drive which cracked against the crossbar, while the second saw him drift across almost the entire Swans defence before repeating the trick.

One thing I noticed (but not everyone has agreed) was that Dyer and Pablo continued to tuck inside despite the Swans operating with three central midfielders. With the "Three winger" formation it's obviously important for the attacking players to link and switch, but I found the Swans were increasingly narrow as the first half wore on - and it was up to the full-backs to create any width (which they attempted to do admirably). After 18 minutes the Swans had 73% possession, but at about this point the tide turned and the Swans dropped deeper and deeper, with Michu taking up some really, really random positions. If you're playing one up top, and you're under the cosh, you need an outlet - it doesn't help if your outlet has decided to wander back to defensive midfield.

Swansea's central midfield three were, while generally neat and tidy, guilty of giving the ball away uncharacteristically easily, and Arsenal pressed the Swans further and further back into their own half to the point where the half time whistle will have been a relief to some. Anybody hoping for a different story in the second half would have been disappointed. I know that to compete with Arsenal is still, given the Swans recent past, an admirable effort and as one friend put it "I liked that we didn't play well but we didn't look outclassed" however I wasn't so sure. Arsenal's midweek exploits cannot be ignored and it's inexcusable that they looked like the team who wanted it more. The Swans had more time to prepare and should have been the more aggressive over ninety minutes - especially at home. 

The second half unfolded in much the same manner as the first, with Arsenal continuing to put the Swans under more and more pressure - the perfect illustration of this came in roughly the sixtieth minute when Vorm attempted to play a simple pass to Rangel, however only succeeded in putting the ball out for Arsenal throw pretty much at the corner flag. Uncharacteristic from the Swans, but credit must go to Arsenal for forcing the Swans into making mistakes.

The opener came in the 74th minute. The Swans cleared a dangerous ball and it fell to Nathan Dyer - on his own up against three Arsenal defenders. He was mugged (possibly a foul but in truth Arsenal were always going to score at some point) and the ball eventually fell to Monreal who hit a slightly scuffed effort across Vorm, which the keeper failed to get to. From the replays it looked like Vorm could have done slightly better, however he was unsighted so it's possible he didn't see it until late. Either way, the ball found the net and from that point there was only going to be one winner.

And so it was that late on, Pablo Hernandez managed to tackle himself (he's been poor for a number of weeks and I would much rather have seen Routledge start in his place) and Arsenal broke upfield with men over. Garry Monk was never going to be able to do anything about a marauding red and white wave, and a good run by Aaron Ramsey (booo) followed by a fine pass led to Gervinho taking a touch before coolly finishing past Vorm. Whilst talking to a couple of Arsenal fans pre-game, I was going through some tweets and I had a giggle at "RT this if you're one of the 7 billion footballers better than Gervinho. #*%!££". While I didn't retweet it, I still felt a small karmic tug as he ran off celebrating.

Arsenal's two goalscorers 

Over 90 minutes I thought Arsenal were the deserved winners, and considering recent form I think you could safely say that Swansea just didn't turn up yesterday. Hopefully this will prove the catalyst for the Swans as they aim to improve recent results which have seen them pick up less points than QPR since the beginning of the year. It would, however, be harsh not to mention Ashley Williams. In a sea of mediocrity he stood out once again as a leader of men, making crucial interception after crucial interception, not once looking ruffled and consistently bailing the Swans out of trouble. I really, really hope he doesn't leave at the end of the season, and in fairness there've been some good soundbites from him in recent weeks, so hopefully we won't have to deal with that. Fingers crossed eh. 

All in all it wasn't that great a day at the office for Swansea City, but I won't be alone in saying that I ended the day with a massive grin on my face due to the national rugby team. Some solace, however Laudrup will no doubt be doing some tinkering this week in a bid to improve Swansea's recent league form. With some massive games coming up, he now has the international break to get his ideas across before Tottenham come to town. One thing is for sure, if we play like we did against Arsenal, Gareth Bale will have an absolute field day. Let's hope that's not the case...

Angel Rangel pens contract extension

Rangel signs new deal which ties him to the club until 2016

Breaking news this morning is that Swansea's rampaging right back Angel Rangel has just put pen to paper on a new extended contract. Angel is the latest in a series of Swansea players to tie their futures to the club, which must surely be an easier decision than a few years ago. Remember when Fulham wanted Rangel, and he threw a bit of a wobbly? That must seem as long ago to him as it does to us. When we were playing Fulham in the FA Cup a few years ago, surely not even the most optimistic Swansea fan could have envisaged the heights the Swans would rise to in the near future, and it's easy enough to have your head turned by PL interest, but it seems Rangel is ultimately grateful to Huw for putting his foot down and keeping the man from Tarragona in South Wales.

Such is the extent of the Spaniard's acclimatisation that he now feels like a Welshman, and the twang to his English when interviewed is of a satisfyingly Welsh orientation. Here's what he had to say when announcing he'd signed a new contract;

"I arrived in 2007 and I've already have six excellent years at Swansea. I am settled here, I am enjoying my football, I have married a Welsh girl and I'm building a house in Swansea — I feel like a Welshman now. I am very happy here on a personal and professional level. My new contract will take me up to nine years here, and who knows what will happen after that. I'm already doing my coaching badges, so I am interested in that — if that could be at Swansea, then that would be great, but I'm not trying to think too much about what I'll do after my playing days are over because I'm concentrating on doing what I can to help the club right now."

"It has been a great story for me since my debut at Oldham in League One. There was the promotion as champions in League One, then we did so well in building our reputation as a passing team in the Championship during a time when people said we couldn't do it. Then we got through the Play-Offs in the Championship against Reading, and that was an amazing achievement. After an incredible first season in the Premier League, people doubted we could do the same again or even stay up — but look at what we have accomplished already. 

"We are in the top half of the Premier League, we have 40 points already and we have a first major trophy for the club. What a story this is. We have shown what we can do in the Premier League, now we are looking forward to showing what we are capable of in Europe. It shows how well things are going here that so many of the squad have signed new contracts here. The club realise the players are doing a great job and the board and chairman are rewarding us for that. 

"We are getting better and better as a club."  Angel Rangel

The news, to me anyway, that Rangel is already working towards coaching qualifications, and is open to staying in South Wales beyond the termination of playing career, is welcomed with open arms. The Swans have shown time and time again over recent years that continuity is king if you want to build as a football club, and the more Swansea stalwarts we can retain, the better, as this could be key in helping the club maintain their current lofty status within the British game. The right-back is a great example to young players, his work rate in both defence and attack a true example to any player coming through the ranks; he charges around tirelessly, always putting his body on the line, and since Laudrup has put his stamp on the team Rangel seems to be playing some of his best football since the early days under Martinez. His forays into opposition territory have become both more numerous, and more effective, of late, and given that the Spaniard doesn't have a lightning turn of pace to lose it's possible he can maintain this level of performance for a number of years yet.

I tried to find a video of the goal he scored away at Doncaster right at the death a couple of years ago, but sadly it doesn't seem to be online any more. Shame, as it is a brilliant goal. For those who haven't seen it, it's the 90th minute with the Swans 1-0 down, and Kemy Augustien pings a 50 yard ball left to right deep into the opposition penalty area. Rangel, unbelievably, finds himself as the Swans most advanced player, and after taking an exquisite first touch over his shoulder under pressure from a defender, buries a half volley into the roof of the net with his second, saving a point for the Swans. I remember thinking that this was our right-back, and if he was capable of doing that he's alright by me for some time yet. That still stands, and Rangel deserves a new deal as much as anyone else in the Swansea squad.

If anyone does know of that video online, please feel free to link to it in the comment section...

Swansea v Newcastle - Proof that just because you play the same system, it doesn't mean you play the same way.

Swansea show why they deserved maiden trophy victory.

Almost exactly a week after Swansea put the finishing touches to their Wembley demolition of Bradford City, they had, realistically, a much tougher obstacle to overcome in the form of a newly-resurgent Newcastle United. Much has been made of the Geordie's transfer policy of late, and Graham Carr in particular continues to spearhead a campaign which has so far produced gem after gem, and shows no sign of abating. 

Reading through some previews before the game, it was interesting to note that some Newcastle pundits and bloggers were predicting lineups with up to nine changes when compared with the XI that took to the field against Swansea in November. As it turned out there were indeed eight changes in personnel when compared with the counterpart fixture, but it was a case of different team, same result. A much changed, heavily French side took to the field against the Swans this time around, and from the word go they harried, harangued and pressed the Swansea players in a manner I haven't seen any other team achieve over the entirety of the ninety minutes.They were exceedingly physical at times, and sadly, I have to say I think some heavy challenges were the result of previous niggles going unpunished by young referee Craig Pawson. Taking charge of a Premier League game for the first time, Pawson's previous "big match" exploits came in the form of a Capital One Cup game between West Ham and Wigan, the League Two playoff final, and 12 Championship games, which to me doesn't sound like a particularly length or impressive CV. 

Yohan Cabaye. Suave. 

Normally, novice referee's are appointed to games where the top brass don't expect too many issues, but Newcastle are developing into a team who will, if allowed, push the boundaries of what is both acceptable, and safe. Tiote and, surprisingly for me at least, Cabaye, constantly niggled away at the Swansea midfield, leaving the foot in and nudging into people, culminating in Cabaye going straight through the back of Nathan Dyer (right in front of me) on the touchline. Dyer was facing the byline, doubtful knew that Cabaye was approaching, and the Frenchman clattered straight into him from behind at roughly knee level - poleaxing the diminutive winger but, miraculously, not seeming to cause major injury. Cabaye only received a yellow card for his sins, so was free to rejoin Tiote in the centre of the midfield. It should be noted that from where I sat it looked like Ben Davies got away with a shocking tackle too, but it was on the opposite side of the pitch from me so it was difficult to judge. He didn't pick up a card for that one, so it's possible he did, as he protested, take the ball first.

I don't want to take away from many aspects from Newcastle's game though. Their pressing was outstanding, and is, if you don't have a team littered with Rooney's and Aguero's, the most effective way of stifling a team who play like the Swans - however in the first half at least the Swans appeared to have all the answers to Newcastle's questions. Swansea's forward line of Michu, Pablo, Dyer and Routledge is currently rotating beautifully, even if, more often than not on this outing, the final pass eluded it's man. The Swansea full-backs, too, are enjoying more freedom of late. Ben Davies and, in particular I thought, Angel Rangel were outstanding. When Rangel loses possession there isn't a nanosecond before he's accelerating in an attempt to reclaim the ball - his work rate and passion for the cause is absolutely undoubted. He's clearly still enjoying himself in South Wales:

“Getting to 40 points with ten games to go is a fantastic achievement. The first target is always to stay in the league – which we haven’t mathematically achieved yet - and then it’s the top ten. It’s the 100th year of the club, and we’ve already won the first big trophy for Swansea, so to stay in the top ten, along with what we have already achieved, would be amazing, but we can’t relax – we want to see how far we can go.”  Angel Rangel 

Mostly token soundbites from Angel "He feeds who he wants" Rangel there, but all positive - looking to push on while still keeping our feet firmly grounded in the knowledge that, for a few few years at least, any top-ten finish would still be classed as "punching above our weight".

Rangel : “I thought we played well in the first 30 minutes, while they dominated more in the second half, but we took our chance and Luke did very well to finish it. Luke is a good pro and player. You can see in training that he is ready to play and take his chance. He came off the bench and he certainly did that.” 

It's fair to say that the Swans controlled the first half almost completely - lots of one-twos and neat interplay doing everything but providing the final pass as the Swans looked to open the scoring. Michu seemed to muscle a defender fairly and go through on goal, but referee Pawson adjudged him to have acted illegally so that one never happened, and then ten minutes later a few quick Swansea passes led to first, Ben Davies getting munched late and second, Swansea again breaking clean through on goal. Clearly no advantage there, so the referee called it back again. Ashley Williams had a chance in front of a seemingly open goal, but it bounced up awkwardly and his improvised volley was a scuffed affair, and the ball drifted agonisingly towards the net before being cleared by a Newcastle player on the line. Half time, and 0-0 was perhaps slightly harsh on Swansea who had fashioned a couple of decent chances whilst having to deal with intense Toon pressure throughout. 

Luke Moore. Happy camper.

The second half started and almost immediately Alan Pardew's men managed to get more of a stranglehold on the game. They had a decent twenty/twenty-five minute spell of possession but, in reality, the best they could muster was a couple of drives from distance (admittedly tasty with one cracking the woodwork after an excellent touch from Vorm) and a decent cross from the left which sadly (for Newcastle) no-one could connect with. And so, the scene was set for Luke Moore. Almost a year since his last league goal for the Swans (THAT goal against Manchester City) he again, essentially, repeated the feat. Drafted into the fray with less than ten minutes remaining, you'd expect it to be a fun experience as you'd be full of energy and able to completely tear around harassing a tiring defence - but in truth he didn't really do that, and I don't think anyone expected him to. He does, however, possess a decent first touch and seems to be developing a knack of scoring important goals - and this was no exception. Taking advantage of a defensive mix-up, Moore was simply in the right place at the right time, throwing a couple of dummies in for good measure before his shot was actually blocked, the subsequent deflection guiding the ball past the wrong-footed keeper and into the back of the net. 

The goal came with roughly five minutes remaining, and in truth it left Newcastle with no real hope. It came at a point when the Swans had taken control of the game back off Newcastle, and were in the ascendancy, knocking the ball around well and finding space, and Ki almost made an immediate impact off the bench - his header from a corner being cleared off the line. This was a game against two separate Newcastle teams. One who have a clearly excellent work ethic, an understanding of their roles within the team, and the footballing ability to back it all up, and one who, sadly, seemed to be intent on time-wasting from minute one. The goalkeeper Elliot was one of the main culprits, labouring over any action all game, and when Moussa Sissoko went down on 80 minutes Ashley Williams was clearly unhappy with what he deemed to be time-wasting, and the two squared up in a "I've got the best stare and the biggest chest" competition before being separated and given what was probably a fairly patronising talking to by the ref. 

Sissoko had gone down after bursting into the right channel before hooking a shot to the left of goal in what was, in reality, Newcastle's last real effort on goal. If Sissoko was play-acting in an attempt to gain unfair advantage, he got his just desserts minutes later when Moore's fumbled effort crept in. Not pretty, but nobody cared and the Swans can now reflect on having picked up 40 points with 10 league games still to play. 

Freudian Slip?

On a final note, has anyone else watched the full post-match press conference yet? Laudrup was fending off the usual mundane questions, but something he said made my ears prick up. When talking about how we've got the current top five teams in the league yet to play, he moved on to say:

"...we've got some difficult away games; Wigan, fighting for their lives, West Brom... they can still get into Europe - they have the same points we have." Michael Laudrup

I'm no psychologist, however I do know we finished damn near where West Brom finished last year, and see no reason why we shouldn't be aiming as high as our Midlands counterparts - especially given this season's exploits. We all know it's unlikely, and it would likely involve winning most of our remaining games, but it seems Michael Laudrup has one eye on a very lofty league finish indeed.