Swansea City

Full name --- Swansea City
Nickname --- The Swans

Founded 1912 (as Swansea Town)
Ground -- Liberty Stadium

Chairman --- Huw Jenkins
Manager --- Brendan Rodgers

Capacity: 20,532
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The young Swansea City manager Brendan Rogers has come out with a statement of intent ‘that the Swans are here to stay in the Premiership’, bold indeed. The winners of the championship play-offs traditional go straight back down. But most teams that come up for the first time try to make the most of their short stay by playing attacking and exciting football, the likes of Blackpool, Hull, Wigan an example of. But Swansea have zinged it around to climb the league ladder, employing a complete culture change from the normal lower league ‘boot it in to the mixer’ style and have some played some great football for quite a while now, rewarded with a premiership place their football deserves, the first Welsh team to make the new Premiership, their last visit to the top tear back in the early 1980s after three promotions in four season, finishing sixth in the old first division in the 1981-1982 season, descending just as quickly thereafter though. In fact the Swanns history is all about a rollercoaster ride in the league. It looks like the great rivals Cardiff may join them next season the way both teams are playing.

Ok, they maybe known as the Brazil of Wales and sweep it around the green baize like Ronnie O’Sullivan but things change for teams like this as the frost hardens things up, more injuries piling up and the big budget squads squeezing the newbie’s like Norwich, QPR and Swansea back down the league. I think Wigan and Blackburn are nailed on to go down with Wolves joining them and so we may have the first ever premiership season where all three promoted teams stay up.

I have said before that too many average foreigners are being purchased by premiership teams for all manner of nefarious reasons, forcing top British talent down the leagues and so some of the championship sides coming up are nearly all British elevens full of top players and ready to reclaim the Premiership. Swansea were unlucky to be beaten by Manchester United last week and will lose close games like that ad not worry too much about it, purely because they don’t have the quality up front to grab the very few chances they will get against the best defensive teams. United have clicked into their winter rhythm by using their midfield enforcers of Carrick and Park and their best back four on show and so were always going to keep out the likes of Swansea City, who tend to concede lots of ball in danger areas when they deploy their passing style against teams that are better passers than them, leading up to the mistake that would let Giggs set up Hernandez for the winner. But Swansea can defend, earning a brilliant clean sheet draw at Anfield. And on Liverpool it’s noticeable that before Liverpool’s excellent win at Stamford Bridge, Dalglish has accrued the same amount of points as Roy Hodgeson did after the opening 12 games in the Premiership for Liverpool. Roy would certainly not have shelled out £35m for Andy Carroll.

In 2002 the Swans were rock bottom in 92nd place under Nick Cusack’s ‘leadership’ as consortiums battled for control of the club and heads rolled, sold for just a pound the year before. But once they moved away from the old Vetchfield ground to the swanky Liberty Stadium (with an un un-ambitious 20,000 capacity) the forward moment was resumed and their 92 points in the 2007-08 League One season was a record for Welsh teams in the league structure, powered on by the goals of Jason Scotland, who didn’t quite have enough at the top level with Wigan Athletic to make it, their record sale for two million quid. Their impressive 4-2 win over Reading in last years play-off saw Swansea become one of a very small band of teams to win trophies at the old and new Wembley and the Millennium Stadium.

---Players---

Gower looks a very promising young player in the way the long forgotten David Bentley did, good looking and topping many of the Premier League stats tables for midfield players, He gets around the park and works well with young Danny Graham up front, their record signing 3.5 million. But unlike newly promoted Norwich City with their very British squad or young and old, Swansea has a real mix, more English lads than Welsh, too! Their Dutch goalie Vorm is very impressive and their back four solid and disciplined with passing the ball to through the midfield and not just hoofing it. Their wing- backs look comfortable at this level and a striker or two on the bench means they could indeed stay up. They will need 45 points at least to be safe though and there’s going to be a lot of teams in the drop zone to compete with.

---The Squad---

1 GK Michel Vorm
2 DF Ashley Williams
3 DF Neil Taylor
4 DF Steven Caulker (on loan from Tottenham Hotspur)
5 DF Alan Tate (vice-captain)
6 MF Ferrie Bodde
7 MF Leon Britton
8 MF Andrea Orlandi
10 FW Danny Graham
11 MF Scott Sinclair
12 MF Nathan Dyer
14 FW Stephen Dobbie
15 MF Wayne Routledge
16 DF Garry Monk (captain)
17 MF David Cotterill
18 FW Leroy Lita
19 FW Luke Moore

----No. Position Player ----

20 DF Federico Bessone
21 GK José Moreira
22 DF Àngel Rangel
24 MF Joe Allen
25 GK Gerhard Tremmel
26 MF Kemy Agustien
27 MF Mark Gower
28 MF Thomas Butler
29 MF Ashley Richards
31 MF Lee Lucas
32 DF Darnel Situ
33 DF Ben Davies
34 DF Joe Walsh
35 DF Daniel Alfei
37 MF Jordan Smith
38 MF Gwion Edwards
39 MF Kurtis March
44 DF Vangelis Moras

= = = = Honors = = = =

Trophy wise they have always been a small club and as the Welsh league is nothing like the Scottish league they chose to play in the English league and so trophies hard to come by, the Football League Trophy and the League One title their only recent need to get the Brasso out. They will be tough to beat in the FA Cup though with some home draws and so if you fancy a real outsider then why not? They have stopped entering the rather comical Welsh Cup and so its Premiership attention all the way to May.

--Championship--

Third place (promoted after winning play-offs) 2010–11

--Second Division—

Third place (promoted) 1980–81

League One (3rd tier) Champions 2007–08

Third Division (3rd tier) Third place (promoted) 1978–79

Third Division South
(3rd tier) Champions 1924–25, 1948–49 Third Division (4th tier) Champions

Third place - 1999–2000

---Fourth Division—

Third place (promoted) 1969–70, 1977–78

Football League Trophy Winners 1994 - 2006

Welsh Cup Winners -1913, 1932, 1950, 1961, 1966, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1989, 1991

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