Keith Haynes: Manager under pressure - shock horror!

Supporters make mistakes too - shock horror! 

The last time I wrote about Michael Laudrup the situation wasn't that much different at Swansea City FC as it is today. Last June it was clear there was a board split in support of the manager and his approach to club dealings - sound familiar? Michael Laudrup's off-field involvements seemed to annoy a few folk, and his agent's continued participation too close to The Liberty made for a sticky time. However, with thoughtful management of the situation by the board the rift as it was seemed mended. But of course it would always return. That much was always clear.

Now it is issues on the pitch which once again have prompted a cry for the removal of Michael Laudrup by some, and the media love nothing more than to jump on board this type of fan disaffection. Only a small handful of reporters have the inside track on this latest Swansea development, and as ever London's tabloid journalists are making inaccurate stabs at the situation. They openly and ignorantly report with such vigour that a number of  their readers will believe their inept ramblings, and SKY TV are just as bad - recently to such an extent that the club Chairman Huw Jenkins saw fit to speak to the media to reassure the managers situation on Sunday night. 

Whichever way this current situation at the top of the Swansea tree resolves itself there is another far more concerning situation developing right in front of us that we as supporters can resolve in a heart beat. The situation I speak of is you, and you alone - The Swansea City supporter. I have never minded the length of stay a person makes as a Swansea follower, be that for the Premier League, for now - or for life. We support because it is our own free choice, nobody forces us in to this situation, and we can leave just as quick, and for no good reason if we wish - without seeking any permissions.

It is clear to me today, and to many of you I am sure, that what we do and say as we support The Swans in difficult times openly affects many things - and I mean far more than Huw Jenkins, the Swansea board or Michael Laudrup, his agent, tactics or life itself. Since Swansea City beat Newcastle United in a home game the week after winning the League Cup last year and qualifying for Europe things have slipped. In the minds of some so dramatically they are arguing in pubs and in work, on football forums and anywhere they can about the reasons why. This is healthy football debate, and football thrives on it. 

Most of the time.

Certain fans are blaming other fans, people are being sought out and identified as blameworthy and others for some reason or other are shouting blindly 'Support the team' - we as football fans may not be the brightest of intellects in the minds of certain folk, and unfortunately some of the stuff I have read of late confirms this, no matter your side of the fence. I have been alarmed at the degree of hate directed towards fellow Swans supporters. For the first time in a long time too. It's unhealthy, and no matter whether you are being positive or perceived negative, it doesn't help. 

It is the type of hate too that I for one would not accept from anyone regardless of the subject. Sadly it seems to have come to this. 

So what can we as supporters do come Saturday, because it is Saturday that matters first. Just what can you affect? And how hard will it be? First of all, and this has been said many times, The Liberty needs a vociferous upgrade. A louder mix of throat lozenge needs taking pre match to increase the volume from the stands. When a Swansea move does go wrong or breaks down, the cheering must not subside in to moans and groans, it somehow has to increase. We must not now settle for a quieter life and a 'suck it and see' strategy from all four sides of the stadium on Saturday. This is crucial. The atmosphere at The Vetch Field was a solid punch in the face (at times) and this has rarely been reproduced at our new stadium. 

On Saturday this must change.

There is a rallying call for us all to take up. No matter your age you can add your own degree of noise come 5.30pm on Saturday, and this needs dragging forwards as we seek those thirteen or so points that may mean Premier League safety in 2014. If you want to punch something, punch the air, if you want to shout loudly do so towards the away end and roar at them with an intensity they have not felt before at a football ground. In fact two fists is better. Many people say you can't change what you can't change, and this is true. Getting stressed over uncontrollable matters is pointless. However, there are things firmly within our Swansea fandom grasp. Noise levels is one, a defined and aggressive, but lawful noise level intimidates to hell. You can do that. 

These things are easily obtained and delivered, and it is the intensity of that delivery that will see immediate results. Your attitude and behaviour from the stands will make the significant difference on Saturday, that much is so, so true. I spoke to a Swans player the day before yesterday, they made it very, very clear to me that they immediately pick up on discontent from the paying public. Their words ' You have no idea how impactive it is when the crowd turn against you as an individual or team'. As a player they went on to explain they have had their game totally affected by barracking from the stands at the Liberty, and recently too. Equally then we as supporters must realise how positive it is when the volume hits ten and the roar gets so painful it changes the whole dimension of a game. Regardless. 

This is the ingredient we can all bring to the derby game on Saturday evening.

We are in uncertain times at Swansea. The boardroom and the management (including some players) are fighting for their own and the clubs immediate future. And some feel isolated. There is little if anything any of us can do about that in the main, but what we can do is increase the pressure on the opposition, their fans and entourage, so much so that they feel so uncomfortable it puts them off their game. And I mean so uncomfortable that they look round and feel incredibly unsure. So much again, and I mean this -  that they question their ability to match us. They must feel inadequate. We need them to feel so lost and so hopeless that they feel they cannot compete.

They need to look at us with envy, and in turn our pride as a collective group of supporters, I assure you - will return. 

This much we can achieve from The Liberty stands. This isn't about raising our game, this is about sheer people impact. The many hours spent in division over things that are beyond our control is lost time and wasted energy. What we can achieve for our club is what matters now, and it only takes a change in mindset to do so.

On Saturday we need to feel so exhausted post match it hurts, and the players need to feel that Swansea City love again. Just look what we as a club has achieved over the recent past - surely what we need to do now is just a natural response to our current plight ? 

It is very much down to us all. And remember - your mindset, your club, your future, your voice, your choice.

Increase the pressure. This is Swansea !

Keith is a published author and you can buy any of his books by clicking the link at the top-left of the page, or you can follow him on Twitter: @_KeithHaynes

Swansea strike deal for fans to get cheap tickets at Hull & Newcastle

When I said "I'm sure we'll see offers for Swansea fans" I didn't think it would be that soon!

Following on from the previous blog where I looked at a deal we'd agreed with Newcastle to provide their fans with cheaper tickets, the club have announced that firstly, the Newcastle deal is reciprocal (so Swansea fans can purchase away tickets for the Newcastle game for just £20), and secondly an identical agreement has been reached with Hull City. 

Swansea Vice-Chairman Leigh Dineen explained that these initiatives are something the club has been putting a lot of work into:

“The reduced away ticket price initiative is something we started looking into over the summer. We contacted all clubs in the Premier League, but received very little feedback, but we’ve kept working at it and I’m glad to see that things have slowly started to gather pace.  

“We are in constant dialogue with other clubs in the Premier League and hope to announce additional reciprocal deals over the course of the campaign. We are determined to help keep the costs down for travelling supporters; not just for our own loyal fans, but those supporters of other clubs around the country as well.’’ Leigh Dineen  

http://www.swanseacity.net/news/article/ticket-initiative-newcastle-1117254.aspx #DO0FApZHgDez62Hi.99

It's quite easy to envisage the Swans holding a meeting whereby a lot of fan-pleasing initiatives were discussed, and it's good to see other clubs are now looking to offer similar deals. As mentioned in the prior blog, Swansea fans travelling to Crystal Palace had the option of a half-price adult seat when bought in conjunction with a junior ticket, while visitors to St Mary's in our most recent league outing received a free hot meal. When you couple that with a free scarf for anyone who attended the West Brom game and £15 off coach travel to our visit at Spurs, the goodwill missions really are stacking up.

The latest scheme put in place will see anyone making the trip to Craven Cottage to see us play Fulham receive a free matchday programme, with again the offer being reciprocal - Fulham fans will receive a copy of the Jack magazine when they visit our fair city.

I say good on everyone at Swansea City. It's impossible to change the big-money nature of the Premier League, but by putting in place a number of schemes which benefit the ordinary, loyal fan they'll definitely help to stem the tide of disillusionment we're seeing in football at the moment. 

Swansea do deal with Newcastle to provide their fans with cheap tickets

The Swans continue to do their bit in the battle to keep prices down

At the risk of sounding like an explanation on Have I Got News For You, this is the news that Swansea are one of two clubs to reach an agreement with Newcastle to provide their fans with cheap away tickets. Visiting fans making the lengthy trip from the North-East to Swansea will be able to get tickets for just £20, which will undoubtedly help as it's not going to be a cheap day out. Elsewhere, WBA have agreed an even more generous deal, which will see the Toon Army only have to shell out fifteen quid - not bad at all!

The Swans have put on a number of initiatives for their own fans this season, and I think it's safe to say we'll see more as the season goes on. They did a deal with Crystal Palace so any adult ticket was half-price when purchased with a junior ticket, and provided a free pie (I think?) for their fans at St Mary's. Very traditional, and you can't argue fairer than that. Critics will no doubt cry "It's all irrelevant if tickets prices remain so high!" and while that's a point to consider the pricing of matches in general is clearly something on the Premier League's agenda.

I think it's only to be expected that any "common sense initiatives" that get taken on on a league-wide basis will also be supported by the Swans, as they've developed a reputation for doing things properly. They put on a buy one get one free/get one half price deal for Europa League tickets, and I think this sort of thing should outweigh any frustrations fans have over the ticketing system which the club are clearly addressing.

With fan power developing more of a role in the way the Premier League is orchestrated hopefully we'll see deals like this put on for Swansea fans when they're travelling to grounds up and down the country. We can but hope.

Who are we, Jack Army?

Swansea's increasing status within the game has seen a growing number of overseas fans taking an interest...with the Jack flag even flying in Kathmandu!

Since their promotion to the Premiership in 2011, Swansea City's flag has flown higher and for longer than ever before. By claiming their first major silverware and securing a third successive season where they can dine at football's top table they must now surely have eclipsed the achievements of the 80's side which featured Curtis, James et al, and every season we spend at Premier League level increases our fanbase not just at a local level but also worldwide. This serves the club well in terms of increased revenue through commercial ventures and even ticket sales - as we saw with countless Korean fans visiting the Liberty to see their beloved Ki strut his stuff.

When I started the site back in February, one of the things I was most excited about (and yes, I know this  is rather sad and geeky) was the ability to track pageviews by both the source of the referring link, but also by the country the viewer resides in. This allows me to get an insight into where interest in the Swans is taking hold, and it's been interesting to see viewers from different countries starting to have more and more of an interest in the team. For example, in the first few months pretty much all of the views were coming from the UK, the United States and Denmark (no doubt thanks to Michael Laudrup - the Danes do love him), but as time has gone on there's been a shift and it seems we're now attracting more attention from Germany, China & Australia - check out the graphics (below) to see what I mean.

This first graphic shows pageviews in the last month. You can clearly see that Germany produced the third most visitors, followed closely by China & Australia. Next up, let's have a look at the "all time" stats (from February until now), to see how that tallies.

Quite the difference, eh? As I was saying, we've had a lot of interest from Denmark since Laudrup was appointed manager, but almost half the views from German visitors have come in the last month alone, and a nod to the monthly stats shows how overseas interest is increasing rapidly. 

Obviously, there's always going to be fans of other teams interested in the Swans prior to matches, but that doesn't account for all of the visitors, I'm sure. I've spoken to numerous foreign students in Swansea in the last few weeks who have an interest in football in general, and almost all of them were able to tell me something about the Swans, even if it was only, in one fan's case, that we're known as being a team who have "crazy fans who sing a lot". Not my words, the words of Karl the German. 

When you compare that to my experience of living and working in Ibiza, dealing with multinational tourists from all sorts of places, it contrasts remarkably. I can honestly say that in three years spent working there, around 80% of all Europeans I spoke with were completely unaware of Wales. Yep, Wales. I often ended up chewing their ears off about how we have a flag, a language, we probably play you in football every so often...but it really did surprise me that so few Europeans had heard of Wales. Scotland and Ireland, sure - perhaps it's something to do with an exportable stereotype. Scotland has haggis, kilts and whiskey, whereas Ireland has leprechauns, Guinness and St Patrick's day - as a result they appear on the mental maps of overseas residents whereas Wales is a little harder to place. 

The rise of the Swans, and now Cardiff, serves well to introduce Wales to the world, and long may it continue. I'm sure the guys at VisitWales.com will be able to back that up with stats about increased tourism based on the exploits of our football teams, and there were also a load of articles published which showed Swansea's Premier League status was worth countless millions to the local economy - at the moment that's much-needed revenue for an area with it's fair share of economic problems, but for the time being it seems Swansea are set to continue plying their trade at the top level of British football, which is no doubt music to the ears of any business which relies on the Swans for part or all of their trade.

Perhaps the most bizarre example of overseas Swansea fandom I could find was the appearance of a "Swansea Fans XI" at the nattily named "Foreign Leagues Fan's Cup Football Tournament" in Nepal (link). They managed to get to the semi-final, and despite there being scant information online I can say they didn't beat their opponents (fans of Manchester United) as the final was contested between Man Utd & PSG fans. In attendance was the Nepali team manager as well as other footballing dignitaries, and it shows how far we've come that Swansea's name is being mentioned along with Manchester United & Paris Saint-Germain some 6,300 miles away. A far cry from 10 years ago...

The continued success of the Swans seems set to help further expand our fanbase to all corners of the world. I've spoken to Spaniards who love how many of their compatriots ply their trade in SA1, Koreans who love Ki (and who are probably now supporting Sunderland) and it seems our Dutch following is also growing, but let's not forget our new fans hailing from Wales. It's important we build a solid fanbase that will ultimately merit stadium expansion, and the club are making great strides at building a community feel by running numerous "football in the community" initiatives, as well as bringing Lee Trundle in in a combined coach/ambassador role, so they deserve credit for that. 

If we can carry on improving both on the field and off it, we'll continue to see interest from all over the world, which can only benefit Swansea City, making sure the Jack flag flies high in previously uncharted territory. Long may it continue. 

Are you reading this somewhere other than the UK? What's your story? Get in touch and let us know how you came to support the Swans, and whether you've noticed an increase in awareness of our team where you live in the last few years. Either use the comment section below, the forum (link at the top of the site) or tweet @TheSwanseaWay