Welcome to the very first in a new series of weekly blogs, where we catch up with all the latest goings on with the Swans, and I ramble on about my opinions from what’s happened in the last week.

I can’t take credit for the blog name – T.A.W.E – a superb acronym thanks to FlangeBadger on twitter, he provided plenty of suggestions to be fair to him, but that was the obvious winner!

https://twitter.com/FlangeBadger/status/987397111867170816

It’ll feature the likes of a quick news roundup, what the fans have been discussing, our latest performances and hopefully the under-23s if I’ve been able to watch them in action.

We’ll be looking for your input and opinions via the usual social networks, mainly twitter but you can also catch us Facebook and Instagram.

Kevin Austin

News broke out this week about former defender Kevin Austin. Whilst I didn’t agree with how the news came out (via an internet forum), it was a relief to see it confirmed that Austin’s cancer isn’t in fact terminal.

“Austin is our hero!”

Kevin played a big part in our success through the lower leagues, particular under former boss Kenny Jackett and he was a big fans favourite, and we were all saddened the hear the news, but at least it’s not quite as bad as we first thought. We all wish him the very best in his recovery.

"I have pancreatic cancer, but my doctors have said they are happy with the way things are going and it is under control."

Former Swan Kevin Austin thanks the Jack Army for their well wishes ➡️ https://t.co/49g1VV4dWv pic.twitter.com/Gq1vGQCCZW

— Swansea City AFC (@SwansOfficial) April 17, 2018

Sanches is back!

Whether it’ll be worth the plane return ticket back to South Wales who knows, but Renato Sanches is finally back from Munich, after returning to his parent club to recover from injury.

It’s been long overdue and you have to wonder if he’ll feature at all in the final 5 games. He’s definitely out on Sunday at Manchester City, Carvalhal has confirmed that, but he’s in a race to rebuild match fitness to compete with his teammates who have long established a starting role.

I’d love nothing more for him to come back and prove some of us wrong, I’ll just be shocked (and obviously delighted) if it happened. He’s got plenty of potential but his attitude has fairly been questioned.

However, I don’t agree with this media criticism of him already. He’s barely landed back here and already Wales Online are having a field day. Iwan Roberts has called him a failure, and they’ve also written articles questioning whether he’ll play another game for us and looking at how much his loan will cost. Hardly the best way to welcome him back from Germany, he’ll walk into shops and on his first day, he’s on the back pages again. Let’s not forget he’s only 20 years of age, came with plenty of promise and because of that, he’s had all the attention for failing to live up to it.

Calling a 20 year old who has been dealing with injury for the majority of season a “failure” is at best short sighted. @renatosanches35 is going to be one of the best players in the world in the next 5-10 years.

— Brian Mannebach (@BrianManny) April 19, 2018

Vital gets a facelift

The Vital Football sites have had a much-needed upgrade this month and we hope everyone prefers the new, fresh look. Along with that, hopefully the content will improve too! I’m told there’s more to come, and the Message Forum is also brand new and optimised for mobile viewing.

If you’re having trouble logging in or using the site, please email membership@vitalfootball.co.uk and they’ll get you sorted.

Who deserves a new contract?

Another subject that’s come up this week on twitter is about player contracts, and who should get a new deal. After the speculation that McBurnie could turn down a new contract this Summer, we listed the players who are out of contract this Summer and the next.

Here's the current contract situation at the club.

Who should we be offering new deals to and who should we let leave?https://t.co/dydfaIiKxp pic.twitter.com/EWdNUCf1yC

— Vital Swansea (@VitalSwansea) April 18, 2018

Leon 1 year, mcburnie, fabianski, Olsson,VDH, Roberts, 3years for me. Rest can go

— Simon Williams (@sw37ans) April 19, 2018

Click the link above to view all the replies from Swans fans, you can imagine there was plenty of variety of opinions of who we should be looking to keep, as well as sell.

Wilfried Bony has been linked with a move to Turkey this Summer, Carvalhal told the press on Thursday that he hasn’t heard anything about it, but he’s bound to isn’t he? It’s not been the return that we all wanted from the striker, injuries haven’t helped but he’s just not looked the same player that got him a big money move to Manchester City a few years ago.

Match re-cap

Swans 1-1 Everton

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhtMmPDl7gm/?hl=en

So it was another draw last weekend, not quite what we wanted or need but the performance at the very least was satisfying, and like a few have said, performances at that level should surely see us do enough to stay where we are (out of the bottom three)

“Everton were there for the taking, you can’t afford to squander chances in the PL” – keith margam in the Message Forum

Match related articles:

Are We Staying Up!? Sky Sports Pundit Thinks So After Watching Everton Draw

Carvalhal’s New 4-2-2-2 Formation vs Everton

Player Ratings: Swansea City 1-1 Everton

Average Positions: Swansea City 1-1 Everton

Match Stats: Swansea City 1-1 Everton

Another point increased the gap from Southampton in 18th place to 5 points, but their draw at Leicester on Thursday night cut that back down to four, here’s how the Premier League table looks:

13		Brighton	34	-15	36
14		West Ham	33	-18	35
15		Huddersfield	34	-27	35
16		Crystal Palace	34	-18	34
17		Swansea	33	-19	33
18		Southampton	34	-20	29
19		Stoke	34	-33	28
20		West Brom	34	-25	24

13		Brighton	34	-15	36
14		West Ham	33	-18	35
15		Huddersfield	34	-27	35
16		Crystal Palace	34	-18	34
17		Swansea	33	-19	33
18		Southampton	34	-20	29
19		Stoke	34	-33	28
20		West Brom	34	-25	24

Nothing is guaranteed yet but fate is in our hands now. We have a 5 point cushing over the bottom 3 with a game in hand over Stoke and that’s against Southampton which is at home, so you would have to say the fixtures favour us. But we still have to fight for every point #COYS

— Berwyn Roderick (@B_Rod99) April 17, 2018

Arsenal U23s 1-0 Swansea U23s

So I watched the under-23s for the first time this season, live on the official site, and it has to be said the live stream was faultless and in excellent quality.

You can read the match report here for more detail, but it watching it was a welcome break for the senior side. Some good, neat football on display from both sides, although Arsenal had that extra bit of quality that got them the narrow win and moved them top of the Premier League 2 table. The Swans, in 4th, have probably performed much better in other games this season, but still – it’s been an excellent season seeing as it was their first season in the division after last year’s promotion. Hopefully I’ll be able to watch on Monday night when they face Sunderland (7pm) and provide updates in the forum and a match report. See our updates for the Arsenal game in the forum here

This weekend…

Champions Manchester City on Sunday at 4:30pm (Match Preview – here). Here’s the training video ahead of it, you know the one, it’s 3-4 minutes long, features plenty of footage of the players walking to training, stretching and warming up and possibly a spell of us kicking a ball in some sort of drill….have a watch below: