Swansea City club legend Leon Britton will take charge of Saturday’s fixture with Crystal Palace, after Paul Clement was sacked on Wednesday evening.
Britton has been taking training alongside under-23 coaches Cameron Toshack and Gary Richards, who will also be in the dugout alongside goalkeeping coach Tony Roberts.
The 35-year-old became a player-assistant coach in November after Claude Makelele left the club to become manager of KAS Eupen.
Britton in charge
The key clash with Crystal Palace will be Britton’s first senior game as a manager, after 15 years of success as a player at Swansea.
Interestingly another club legend Alan Curtis was not called upon to join the coaching staff on a temporary basis, after doing well in previous spells.
There were rumours that senior officials at the club informed Curtis that he would not be taking charge of the side permanently via text message, so there is a chance that the relationship has become strained.
Britton will be facing the media Thursday afternoon, while the club were reportedly trying to appoint a manager for Saturday’s game, Britton will be in charge to face the Eagles.
The situation is similar to when Garry Monk was placed in charge of Swansea ahead of a vital game against Cardiff City in February 2014, and the Swans were triumphant against their bitter rivals 3-0 that day.
Replacing Clement
Clement was sacked on Wednesday with the club sat 20th in the table, and having scored the fewest goals of any side in the top four English divisions.
On the sacking, chairman Huw Jenkins said: “To change the manager, especially at only the halfway point of the season, is the last thing we wanted to do as a club.
“We had three different managers last season and as a result we all wanted to give Paul as much time as possible to turn things around.”
The chairman has come under criticism from fans over the sale of the club and poor recruitment during the Swans’ slide down the table in recent years.
He went on to say: “But we felt we couldn’t leave it any longer and needed to make a change to give us the best chance of an uplift and a turnaround in fortunes with the club bottom of the Premier League.”