So Alan Sheehan is the new manager of Swansea City.
On the face of it, it’s difficult to argue with this decision. When he replaced Luke Williams we were in freefall, struggling to score, conceding by the bucket load and it felt as if we were staring a relegation battle in the face.
Sheehan has overseen a big uplift. The recent run of five wins in a row, the first in nearly two decades made it almost impossible for our hierarchy to look elsewhere.
We’ve seen an upturn from several players as well who looked lost at the beginning of the year including, Josh Key, Josh Tymon, Eom Ji Sung and Zan Vipotnik to name a few.
There can be no doubt the players are playing for him, even though I’d take comments from any of them saying he should have the job with a pinch of salt. They’re not exactly able to say “no” if they’re asked the question.
Performances on the whole have been better, Blackburn, Leeds and Plymouth, stand out although there have been a few that were less than impressive, our fortunate win over Derby wasn’t inspiring at all for example and we were lucky not to get stuffed when Burnley visited SA1.
In spite of all of this though I’m not sure giving Sheehan the job permanently is the correct move.
This isn’t a reflection on him, it’s more about what do we need for the future to be successful. Sheehan himself has spoken about the need for alignment at the football club, something that has been missing for a good few years now.
This club must have a clear plan to try and move forward successfully to try and get back to the top flight.
Richard Montague has been appointed to try and achieve that, and from his comments he appears to have a far better grasp of how this club should operate than Paul Watson ever did.
And if he and others didn’t have doubts about Sheehan’s long term suitability, then he would’ve most likely had the job a few weeks ago.
The plan clearly was to appoint someone else, but the fact we’ve pushed it until the end of the season has backed the club into a very difficult situation.
If Montague was to now turn around and give the job to someone else after our impressive form, both him and the new man would be under huge pressure from day one. A lacklustre start would’ve meant grumbling voices from the crowd and if it didn’t work out both men would probably be facing the sack.
None of this is Sheehan’s fault of course, but it’s also very different leading a team on a short term basis compared to doing it permanently.
Most caretakers who are appointed permanently don’t tend to sustain good runs of form or last long, you’ve only got to look up the road to our recently relegated neighbours to see that.
The Swans have already recruited a player for next season in Melker Widell. Given that we’ve spent a reasonable fee on him, the new man must try to get the best out of him and we will hopefully then sell him on for a profit further down the line.
This is how we have to operate in this profit and sustainability era, we can’t go signing a group of experienced players from this level like Lewis O’Brien. We have to be realistic, the only way he’s likely to return next season is on a deadline day loan if Forest have been unable to sell him, a bit like what Bournemouth had to do with Jamal Lowe a couple of years ago.
The fact that we made a huge loss last term in spite of selling Joel Piroe should be sending massive alarm bells ringing in SA1. It’s just not sustainable.
What this club desperately needs is a long term plan to try and prevent huge losses. Luka Modric coming on board may well help open the door for sponsorship opportunities and with player recruitment.
But what we really need is everyone singing off the same hymn sheet. Under Russell Martin we had that on the ground in Swansea, but our ownership weren’t with them, there were numerous times we passed on good players who would’ve excelled and then been sold on for a profit.
Under Duff we changed tack, signed a mish mash of players and it’s done damage that we’re still trying to recover from with plenty of those players still on her books that we’re unable to shift.
It was better under Luke Williams, but behind the scenes on the coaching staff we understand there wasn’t alignment with Sheehan and Martyn Margetson not on the same page as the previous boss. In truth both may have been removed by a stronger character, but Williams was weak here and it helped cause his downfall.
A fresh face, with a clear philosophy, who’s aligned to the Swansea way, understands the need to create assets and has knowledge of foreign transfer markets would be the ideal solution here, and it appeared that the club had found someone who fitted the bill in Kim Hellberg.
It would’ve been a calculated gamble, but if he would’ve taken the job and succeeded we would’ve stood a far better chance of longer term success than with Sheehan in my opinion.
But either way the decision has been made. Sheehan deserves our support based on the job he’s done, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have big doubts on this backfiring.
Back in 2016 I remember the clamour for Francesco Guidolin to the get the job on a permanent basis even though Brendan Rodgers was waiting in the wings.
Whilst you could argue he had achieved what he had set out to achieve and deserved to continue. Sometimes you have to be ruthless and brave if there’s someone better available. That Rodgers decision still haunts us to this day.
I hope we aren’t left rueing this one and talking about another rebuild midway through next season after another failed managerial appointment.
