Sunday's 3-1 defeat to Manchester United brought to light the turmoil surrounding Swansea City at this moment in time. Bob Bradley's team were almost non-exsistent at times in the first half of the game. The Swans' ninth defeat in only thriteen games in all competitins brought fans to their feet, but not for positive reasons.
Hero's to Zero's
After Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first goal and United’s second the boo’s rang out around the stands of the Liberty Stadiums with cries of “Jenkins Out” becoming more popular as the game fell further away from Bradley’s reach. A chant of “we want our club back” gathered momentum on the east stand and was received with a standing ovation by City supporters on the opposite side of the stadium.
With other expletive chants along the lines of “You greedy *individuals* get out of our club” being aimed at Huw Jenkins, Leigh Dineen, Martin Morgan and company it seems Swans fans have completely turned on the board after the enlightening Swansea City Supporters Trust statement on the subject of the sale of shares.
Missing identity
Since the arrival of Francesco Guidolin the philosophy that has become so accustomed to Swansea City has seemed to fade away, from short, sharp, possession based football that helped them rise up the leagues to varying styles, formations and line-ups.
It was completely understood and widely accepted amongst the fans when Guidolin was given the task of keeping us up with only just over a quarter of the season left and only two points above the drop zone why he would have to tamper with our style of play making us harder to break down.
Over a year on and with the sacking of Guidolin and the appointment of Bob Bradley since we still haven’t returned to the old ‘Swansea Way’ and if you were to ask a Swansea fan the style the Swans now play they would probably find it difficult to answer you.
Are Swans supporters finding it hard to accept the Yankee Dollar?
With some fans still not happy with the decision to relieve Guidolin of his duties it was always going to be tough for Bradley to win the hearts of the Swans fans. After the former Le Havre boss’ appointment a Twitter user ‘@Swanspolls’ tweeted an interactive poll asking Swansea City fans to vote on who would they prefer at the helm of the club Bradley or Guidolin. 87% of 130 voters answered the Italian.
Over a month on and Bradley taking four of Swansea’s games it's not hard to notice the absence of the traditional chant of “…………. …………. Barmy Army!!” which has been sung by the fans home and away, under every manager of recent years. One song that was sung for all to hear against United was “You can stick you ******* Dollars up your ***” which was directed at the new business men who recently bought into the club, it begs the question is the Manager as unwanted as the new investors Kaplan & Levien?
With plenty of other issues on and off the pitch that could be brought up for example, players lack of work ethic, effort and commitment which was highlighted by England and Newcastle legend Alan Shearer & fans fighting amongst themselves at half time after going in 3-0 down to Manchester United, it is certainly worrying times for the Swans.