It has been a whirlwind few days at the Liberty Stadium with Carlos Carvalhal tasked with leading Swansea City’s latest Premier League rescue mission. Here Alun Rhys Chivers looks at whether chairman Huw Jenkins and the owners have got the right man.
That a former Swansea manager, Garry Monk was involved in the match between his Middlesbrough side and Sheffield Wednesday that set off the chain of events leading to the appointment of the new man at the helm at the Liberty, Carlos Carvalhal, makes the goings-on between Boxing Day and December 28 all the more intriguing.
On Boxing Day, speculation was rife and a number of names were still being touted as potential successors to Paul Clement at the Liberty Stadium. The Swans’ hierarchy had sounded out a host of candidates – from Louis van Gaal to Frank de Boer among others.
But it soon emerged that the man who would be appointed just 48 hours later had been in a job as recently as Christmas Eve – four days after Clement had been sacked. It would seem then, that if Clement’s dismissal had been a long time coming, then Carvalhal wasn’t necessarily in the frame until he departed Sheffield Wednesday.
Despite Middlesbrough’s victory over the Owls, it was a match which would ultimately cost both Monk and Carvalhal their jobs. And it now seems it was a match which sparked the process which culminated in Carvalhal’s arrival at Fairwood training ground on Thursday morning after a 4am dash down the motorway.
Swansea had a tradition – certainly in the Premier League years – of employing a successful recruitment strategy when it comes to managers. Or at least they did until a string of appointments which started with Francesco Guidolin in January 2016 and went on to include American Bob Bradley whose tenure lasted just 85 days and 11 games and subsequently Paul Clement. Some will have similar doubts about Carvalhal’s appointment.
However, chairman Huw Jenkins and owners Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien – the trio tasked with replacing manager after manager in recent times – might just have got it right this time, according to Sheffield Wednesday’s fans who witnessed Carvalhal leading the Owls to the Championship play-offs in two successive seasons, proving that he has what it takes to be a successful manager at that level.
The cynical fan might argue that it is an appointment potentially made with one eye on the Championship next season should the Swans fail to turn around a dire first half of the season which sees them firmly rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table, five points from safety.
Crucially, the same accusation was levelled at Paul Clement’s appointment this time last year – and that didn’t turn out too badly come last May. That Clement was sacked at a similar time of the season to when he was appointed and went on to save the Swans from relegation, suggests that his removal might just have been premature.
Clement and Carvalhal come from different ends of the coaching spectrum. While Clement has coached at some of Europe’s top clubs, albeit as Carlo Ancelotti’s right-hand man, Carvalhal can only lay claim to have achieved mediocrity in managing Besiktas and Sporting Lisbon.
While Clement has enjoyed some of the highest highs in European football, Carvalhal has done things the hard way, rising through the Portuguese leagues – much like the Swans’ own meteoric rise to the dizzy heights of the Premier League and before that, from the fourth division to the first division under John Toshack, a manager of whom Carvalhal spoke in glowing terms in his first press conference in charge, the latter having been a member of Braga youth team when its senior side faced the Swans in the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1982. From then on, Carvalhal says he felt it was his “destiny” to manage the Swans.
An eccentric to a certain extent, Carvalhal admits to having slept at training ground offices in the past and alluded to being in charge of Besiktas when key staff members were in prison. He says he’s “allergic to money” – so it’s safe to say that Jenkins, Kaplan and Levien will be in charge of the purse strings, although Carvalhal is adamant that he will decide who comes in and who goes out. He stated defiantly that nobody would be leaving in January – despite Alfie Mawson being linked to West Ham and Swansea’s track record of losing key players during previous transfer windows.
Carvalhal, in that first press conference in Swansea, showed himself to be unafraid to make bold statements – on transfers and just what he expects from his players. He oozes charisma and style, going around each journalist individually to introduce himself and to shake hands on arrival.
But the Swans’ fanbase will also be looking for substance. They will want assurances that he knows the best eleven (an issue with which Clement struggled at times), that he can get the strikers firing again and that he has definite targets in mind for the January transfer window.
And above all, Carlos Carvalhal has to get back to the ‘Swansea City way’. If – and it’s a big if – he manages to do this with his attractive style of football, then he might just win over the Swans’ fans. But he clearly faces a monumental task.
40 (points) is the magic number. The Swans are currently nine wins away from that target – and with fixtures against Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man U, Man City and Chelsea still to come, a chunk of those points would likely have to come from fixtures against Watford, Newcastle, Leicester, Burnley, Brighton, West Ham, Huddersfield, Southampton, West Brom, Everton and Bournemouth.
The second half of the season could will be a long ride for Swansea’s new manager. He will have to live up to his name – Carvalhal means ‘oak-like’ in Portuguese, a tree known for its sturdiness and adaptability. A swan is known for its grace and its ability to keep a long-term partner – much like Carvalhal’s long-term love affair with Swansea.
Put all four attributes together and Swansea’s new manager might just have the ideal foundations for success come the end of the season. Hopefully!