Swansea City’s relegation to the Championship was all but confirmed this week when Huddersfield Town got a point at Chelsea, meaning the Swans will need to beat Stoke, Southampton to lose against Manchester City and a -10 goal difference to be reversed.
It’s just not going to happen. Southampton will surely not concede 5 or more goals against the Champions, and even if they did, the Swans, who’ve netted just twice in the last 8, would also need to score 5 and keep a clean sheet at home to Stoke City.
So, with the reality of Championship football next season setting in, some fans are prepared to be patient in our hopes of returning to the top flight. It’s a view shared by club legend Leon Britton, who along with Angel Rangel, confirmed they will leave the Swans as players after Sunday’s season showdown.
After his retirement was confirmed, Leon Britton said that he believes we can bounce back “but the important thing is we have a clear idea of how we are going to move forward as a football club.”
Britton has got it spot on, patience is required because a rebuild job is certainly needed, which needs to be in place before we are ready for Premier League football again.
“But if we go down to the Championship it will give us the opportunity to rebuild and try have a clear idea of what we want to do.
“Hopefully we can do it in a season, but if it is two, three or four years down the line that has to be in place.
“I would rather not come back next year and be in the same situation. I would rather it take longer to have something built to be sustained over a longer period in the Premier League. – Leon Britton
A fan in the Message Forum posted something along the same lines:
“Personally I’d settle for 2-3 years of the Championship if it meant us getting back to our old ways, what got us to the premier league, playing good, attacking football with a young, ambitious manager, and signing the right players that suit the philosophy, everything has to fit basically.
I don’t just want a quick fix to get back up as soon as possible and whatever it takes. Some fans will want that, but not me, there are so many problems that need sorting out and this is the opportunity to do that. Like Curtis said, we’ve not had a chance to get back to our ways as we’ve just had to do quick fixes and whatever it takes to get results and stay up.” – swans87
We’ve got our work cut out, to say the least, this Summer, and it would be some achievement if we were to bounce back in our first season. Personally, I’d settle for somewhere around mid-table. We’re going down with a poor squad, and we will surely lose our better performers this season. We’ve got a new manager to sort out, a number of on-loan players to return as well as contracts to offer, or not. Surely to do that, we’d need to get a manager in first, because after all, it’s up to the manager what players they want, right!?
