There are not many of today’s Swansea City fans who were alive in 1927 when Swansea Town – as they were then known – went on an invitational summer tour to Spain to play in front of King Alphonso. Only a few were watching when Swansea went from the bottom of the fourth division to competing in the first between 1977 and 1981.
But for 99-year-old Ron Horsey, his favourite memory will always be when the Swans finally reached the Premier League in 2011.
It has been 10 years since Swansea finished eighth in the top flight, their highest-ever finish, but now after their sixth defeat in seven games the Swans are 17th in the Championship, which would be their lowest league finish since they won League One in 2007-08.
“The future is not looking very bright for us, I am downhearted and we are going downhill fast,” Swansea local Horsey tells The i Paper.
The club’s decline is caused by a variety of factors, but Horsey believes it stems from a lack of investment in the club and its future.
“It is down to the owners, they are just looking for ways to put money in their pockets, and the money is not going back into the club,” he says.
Swansea fans have had issues with ownership since 2018 when Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan bought a 68 per cent stake in the club and the Swansea City Supporters’ Trust threatened legal action for being excluded from the takeover negotiations.
The dispute was settled in 2022 and fans thought this trouble was finally over when Levien and Kaplan sold their majority stake to chairman Andy Coleman, fellow shareholders Brett Cravatt and Nigel Morris and businessman Jason Cohen in November.
Yet the last two weeks have shown that under the new owners, mismanagement has persisted, affecting two main areas of the club’s match-day performance.
The arrival of Luke Williams, in January 2024, marked the fifth permanent head coach in six years.
Williams oversaw the promotion of Notts County into League Two with a 60 per cent win rate over 80 games and he was seen as an exciting prospect for the club due to his trademark possession tactics.
Williams has stuck with this strategy and Swansea hold on average between 50 and 60 per cent of possession in every match. Yet Swansea have won only 18 of the 55 games Wiliams has taken charge of.
While the success of his strategy provides opportunities for goals – Liam Cullen is joint 10th in the division’s top-scorers’ tables this season with nine goals – their style leaves them vulnerable to counter-attacks due to their slow build and their poor defence has led to 42 conceded goals already this season.
Williams has tried to find a scapegoat for their poor results, recently blaming their “allotment-like” pitch.
Swansea share the stadium with the United Rugby Championship’s Ospreys and due to the recent bad weather, the wear and tear on the pitch has continued to worsen.
Unfortunately for Williams, the blame cannot be placed solely on the pitch quality. On the road, Swansea have been defeated nine times, compared to only five times at home.
Their dismal away performances have contributed to 14 defeats and, at this current rate, could surpass the 19 defeats from last season – their highest-ever as part of the Championship.
Consequently only one year into the job, Williams has already lost the support of fans.
“I am just disappointed in him. We need someone to come in and change it up,” Horsey says.
Williams faced an onslaught of online abuse thrown towards him and his family as a result of the recent performance, making him question “whether the role was still worth it”.
While Horsey does not support the abuse, “There is so much anger towards him and you can see that with the fans, he was booed on the weekend, and I have not heard that at the club for quite a while. It is because there is no investment in the club.”
The supporters’ investment fears were validated in the transfer window, as the club failed to deliver on key potential signings, such as Manchester City’s defensive midfielder Jacob Wright, to resolve their issues at the back.
It is a previously seen issue for the club as former head coach Russell Martin criticised the owners’ approach to the transfer market in 2023, but this year Horsey believes the situation is worse.
“They have just sold Matt Grimes, our best player, and I can’t see anyone outstanding in our team to take his place,” he says.
The shock departure of defensive midfielder Grimes, who signed for Coventry City after 10 years at the Swans, will present many challenges as the talismanic captain was involved in almost all aspects of their style of play.
In his last match, a 5-1 defeat to Norwich City, Grimes had a 94.2 per cent accuracy from 103 passes, more than any other player on the pitch and in their 2-0 defeat to those same Sky Blues last weekend his absence was noticed.
While Swansea have tried to mitigate the damage with replacement skipper Ben Cabango, the rush to sign former Nottingham Forest central midfielder Lewis O’Brien suggested a Grimes-less season was not the plan.
And yet, Horsey remains hopeful Swansea will stay in the Championship. But at this vital point in the season, where the Swans end up is yet to be seen as they face difficult fixtures over the next few weeks. If they survive this season, it will be the longest they have been in a single division of English football since 1965 – back when Horsey was 40 years old.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/zcqmANe
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