The end of the road

Garry Monk is a Swansea City legend and he always will be. That’s what makes writing this blog particularly hard but unfortunately I can’t let my affection for him detract from the fact that his reign as our manager should now come to an end.

I wrote a blog a month or so ago expressing concerns about recent performances and results but at that point I still thought Monk could turn it around. Sadly I no longer believe that to be the case.

From September through to the last International break had been a poor spell for the club but there was hope we would get back on track with a win over newly promoted Bournemouth. But the Cherries completely outplayed us and reminded me of when the Swans came into this division with swagger and confidence to outplay the opposition regardless of them having a weaker side on paper and we were very lucky to escape with a draw.

Following this a team meeting took place and after a better display in a narrow defeat at Liverpool last week Monk believed we had then turned the corner and would improve from here on in. Unfortunately it seems like we’ve turned the wrong corner as Saturday was the worst display yet. Once again careless in possession, very poor going forward and often caught out hopelessly at the back we were lucky it wasn’t a real hammering.

We look a shadow of the team we were at the start of this season. Hardly anyone is justifying their place in the side and one of the few bright performers Leon Britton was bizarrely subbed with half an hour to go on Saturday. At least he was always showing for the ball and looking to move it quickly when he got it, Ki was giving him no help whatsoever.

Our full backs seemed more concerned about going forward than defending which left us horribly exposed to the counter attack. They were still doing it at 0-2 before half time when the priority should have been don’t concede another before the break. Kyle Bartley had a mare just like he did in the last home game; what was he doing giving a soft corner away like that?

Another big question is where was Jonjo Shelvey? Monk said he wanted to keep faith with the players from last week. I’m not buying that at all, I could understand him being a substitute but when he’s not in the eighteen behind Marvin Emnes and Mo Barrow who were on the bench for first time in weeks it doesn’t add up. Something must have gone on there.

I have to question the desire of our players, would you say any of them were running through a brick wall to dig us out of this hole? Very few are if any. In the press they seem behind their manager but the time to stop talking and start doing has long gone. The Jack Army are fed up of empty words in the media, we want to see answers on the pitch and we are not getting them.

There are usually two key questions to be answered when considering the future of a manager. “Do performances and results warrant the sack?” With half a dozen shockers and six points from eleven games the answer to that is yes. So because the answer is yes you have to ask “Do you believe the manager can arrest that slide?” and my answer to that is no. Monk himself said after Saturday’s game that he didn’t know what had gone wrong and if he doesn’t know the answer how is he going to put it right?

I’m afraid there can only be one outcome now. The board might be reluctant to pay him off but they are surely much more reluctant to see us go down and risk missing out on next terms lucrative TV deal which is looking increasingly likely as the present time unless something changes soon and the change needs to be in the dugout.

Thanks for all you’ve done Garry, you are a club legend and will always be welcome at the Liberty but sadly we can’t let sentiment cloud our judgement. For us to move forward we need someone else to stop us undoing our good work of the last decade.