After years of toiling in the lower leagues and once nearly going out of business, Swansea City now find themselves in the promised land of English football, the Premier League. The Swans are now gaining national recognition for their brand of attractive yet effective football. But it all could have been so different for the club from South Wales.
In 2003 Swansea barely stayed in the football league after a famous (amongst Swans fans at least) win over Hull City on the final day of the season. This less than two years after Swansea City were saved from the brink of extinction when a local consortium bought the club for a pound in spare change. Now, just 9 years and a brand new stadium later, Swansea are welcoming the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal to the Welsh City. But, not only are these teams coming to Swansea, they’re leaving empty handed.
Manchester City are the latest and biggest scalp to be claimed at the Liberty Stadium, going down 1-0 this past weekend. To put into context what an amazing achievement this is for the Swans, Man City brought on a substitute in Sergio Agüero who cost more than the stadium they were playing in.
The money that Manchester City pay Carlos Tevez and Yaya Touré is reportedly more than the entire Swansea squad get. But it’s not just oil rich City who have slipped up. Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea have all dropped valuable points there. This has helped Swansea all but confirm their Premier League status for another year, it would take an unprecedented collapse and a lot of bad fortune to relegate them now.
Impressive as this is, Swansea have also squashed the idea that you need to play ugly in order to survive in the Prem. Swansea have excelled by getting the ball down and playing football. They keep possession as well as any team in the country and don’t modify their playing style when up against the likes of Arsenal, a supposedly better footballing side.
All too often promoted teams come into the Premier League with the intention to ‘set up shop’ against the league’s elite, hoping to escape with a draw. But the Swans treat every game the same way. They play football.
Sure, they don’t concede a lot of goals, but this isn’t because they stick 11 men behind the ball and hope for the best. It’s because they are organised and because their opponents rarely see the ball. It’s this ‘Total Football’ approach that has given them the affectionate nickname ‘Swanselona’.
A lot of the credit for Swansea’s success should be directed towards manager Brendan Rodgers. In truth he was lucky to inherit a settled squad who had been together a long time and were already used to playing a passing game under first Roberto Martínez and then Paulo Sousa. But with little investment in the squad he’s taken them from nearly making the Championship play-offs to mid table of the Premier League in just 19 months.
Rodgers has made minimal changes to the playing staff, but each foray into the transfer market has been a shrewd one. Leon Britton, brought back to the club on a free transfer from Sheffield United, is now statistically one of the most accurate passers of the ball in Europe (rivalling the likes of Xavi and Iniesta).
Danny Graham, bought for a fairly modest £3.5million, already has 10 goals and a string of impressive performances to his name this season. Michel Vorm, plucked from Dutch side Utrecht seemingly without anyone noticing, is now one of the Prem’s most consistent goalkeepers.
Brendan Rodgers has done what every manager strives to do, spent the money available to him wisely and got the very best out of the players at his disposal. What more could you ask of a manager?
When Swansea opened their Premier League campaign in August with a defeat away at Man City there was little expected from the Welsh outfit. Fast forward 7 months and that same Man City team are getting turned over at the Liberty. And it’s fair to say that in doing so Swansea didn’t raise as many eyebrows as they once would have. The whole of the Premier League knows what Swansea can do, especially at home. And I’m sure Man City won’t be the last team to struggle in Swansea this season.
The Swans worked hard last season and achieved a lot. They toiled all year long in the Championship and earned the right to play in the Premier League. This season they have earned the right to stay there. Only time will tell if Brendan Rodgers can keep hold of the likes of Vorm, Scott Sinclair and Joe Allen. Or Rodgers himself could be tempted by a more lucrative offer from the upper end of the Prem, despite him distancing himself from the Chelsea position. Still, Swansea have lost managers and star players before without faltering, would now be any different?