What on earth is happening at Swansea?

[Blackcanary]

So, there's been rumblings about Michael Laudrup being unhappy with Swansea's transfer budget. Today it was reported that his long-term agent was actually trying to dictate transfer policy. The club have now refused to deal with his agent again and said that Laudrup wants to stay and the agent in question has just called Swans chairman Huw Jenkins a liar:

@BayramTOficial
Swansea City Fans, you gonna see the real face of huw jenkins...
because he is lying so many times!!!!!!

Crikey!

 

[JerryGarcia]

Not good, Laudrup needs to get a new agent. He seems to be a classy guy and I doubt he'd want to have his name dragged through the mud.

 

[mpickard2087]

Laudrup and associates just seem to want to spend a lot of money to improve them, which either the club doesn't have or isn't prepared to invest, and is unsurprising given their model has served them well so far. Maybe after winning a Cup they thought the board would back down but they are standing their ground and so the spats have happened.

Personally I don't think Laudrup has done that great a job, yes they won a cup and did well to take a chance on Michu but in the League they have hardly done better than last season. Also his overall managerial record is pretty patchy. After reading a few articles about the Swansea set-up they sure do have their homework done and always a plan/targets in place, I don't think it would be a massive task to replace him in all honesty.

 

[JerryGarcia]

I think he did very well last year, they lost some players that were good for them like Joe Allen and Sinclair and it was his first season in the Prem. They maintained their level and stuck to their footballing philosophy and I'd expect them to improve next year too.

 

[nightgoat]

I think he did very well last year, they lost some players that were good for them like Joe Allen and Sinclair and it was his first season in the Prem. They maintained their level and stuck to their footballing philosophy and I'd expect them to improve next year too.

Caulker as well.

 

[JerryGarcia]

Caulker as well.

How could I forget Caulker, and Gylfi for that matter!

 

[swaninpeace]

hello you lot.........swans fan here.........looks like we're looking for a new manager again......seems ML Agent is trying to run our club so Uncle Huws told him to do one.......with everyone's support!........he really is a tit.....and a bit shady to say the least......

Jurys still out on ML but any good will certainly has gone......and I don't think we will be too sad to see him go provided Uncle Huws gets his 7m compo( and then maybe we can buy Gylfi back)....League results at the end of last season were terrible, some signings by camp laudrup have been fantastic but some others, well 5.5m for paplo H, schecter need I say more....I think the final straw was the suggestion we should sign that 30yr old tit from west brom (which is largely seen by the board as attempt by ML to engineer the move he and his agent want with out having to pay the compo per contract) plus it does help that ML is refusing to go on the preseason tour in Holland cause of his tax problems there which incidentally were handled by the very same agent.....it's going to be a long summer

 

[swaninpeace]

btw Sinclair deal........ most of us couldn't believe it when uncle huw said no to 6m......... so they paid 6.5m!!!!.......Muppets......he's far too predicable....would be better for him to drop down to a championship side and practise

 

[JerryGarcia]

hello you lot.........swans fan here.........looks like we're looking for a new manager again......seems ML Agent is trying to run our club so Uncle Huws told him to do one.......with everyone's support!........he really is a tit.....and a bit shady to say the least......

Jurys still out on ML but any good will certainly has gone......and I don't think we will be too sad to see him go provided Uncle Huws gets his 7m compo( and then maybe we can buy Gylfi back)....League results at the end of last season were terrible, some signings by camp laudrup have been fantastic but some others, well 5.5m for paplo H, schecter need I say more....I think the final straw was the suggestion we should sign that 30yr old tit from west brom (which is largely seen by the board as attempt by ML to engineer the move he and his agent want with out having to pay the compo per contract) plus it does help that ML is refusing to go on the preason tour in Holland cause of his tax problems there which incidentally were handled by the very same agent.....it's going to be a long summer

Didn't realise things were that bad, I hope though that for the sake of the league, you can get a new manager who can continue what has been done so far. It's been brilliant watching Swansea outplay so many of the big guns the last few seasons, have you picked up many fans from other parts of Wales? Just wondering how much you could potentially grow the club over the coming years.

 

[m00]

Sounds like swans are better off without him?

 

[swaninpeace]

Didn't realise things were that bad, I hope though that for the sake of the league, you can get a new manager who can continue what has been done so far. It's been brilliant watching Swansea outplay so many of the big guns the last few seasons, have you picked up many fans from other parts of Wales? Just wondering how much you could potentially grow the club over the coming years.

gus poyet or graham jones for me......Club is slowly growing.... stadium expansion planned...... new training ground and a fantastic new academy....but this far south west we are always going to struggle in terms of catchment....plus the red birds down the road will no doubt claim to represent the whole of wales..... I guess we may lose our Danish fans also.........and errr can we loan Gareth bet he'd love back in his homeland partnering Michu

 

[Blackcanary]

hello you lot.........swans fan here.........looks like we're looking for a new manager again......seems ML Agent is trying to run our club so Uncle Huws told him to do one.......with everyone's support!........he really is a tit.....and a bit shady to say the least......

Jurys still out on ML but any good will certainly has gone......and I don't think we will be too sad to see him go provided Uncle Huws gets his 7m compo( and then maybe we can buy Gylfi back)....League results at the end of last season were terrible, some signings by camp laudrup have been fantastic but some others, well 5.5m for paplo H, schecter need I say more....I think the final straw was the suggestion we should sign that 30yr old tit from west brom (which is largely seen by the board as attempt by ML to engineer the move he and his agent want with out having to pay the compo per contract) plus it does help that ML is refusing to go on the preseason tour in Holland cause of his tax problems there which incidentally were handled by the very same agent.....it's going to be a long summer

Hello and welcome!

I think most outsiders are very impressed with Laudrup - it's interesting to read that actual Swans fans have their reservations! It sounds to me like the situation is untenable now and he'll be off, which might be for the best. Jenkins seems to have instilled your footballing mentality and runs the club so smoothly that I have no doubt you'll get a good manager next time round too.

 

[dontcallme]

From an outsiders point of view I'd say Laudrup has done a decent job.

But Swansea have to be careful not to make the same mistake so many other clubs have made by spending more than they can afford when they are on a high.

It happened to Portsmouth after they won the FA Cup and an unsustainable model was created. I know they had other problems but their wage bill was ridiculous.

Levy had to say no to Redknapp sometimes and the Swansea board have to stand strong with regards to what they can afford to spend.

 

[agrdavidsfan]

I broke this about 2-3 weeks ago in the transfer rumours thread. Having some family that are close with Swansea I get the odd bit.

Apparently the whole argument started when Swansea refused to pay the price that Liverpool cranked up for iago aspas (Liverpool over paid quite a bit Swansea were in discussions at a lower price).
Laudrup and his agent seem to have had ideas above their station after the PSG & Benfica links Swansea were warned he has attitude and an ability to look after only himself before they appointed him.

If he does go I would expect a look at Jones or Poyet but hope it's neither quite gutting for Swansea that Martinez has took the Everton job!.

 

[yojambo]

I like Laudrup, but i wouldn't trust him. He will do what his best for himself, he has no loyalty.
The way he moved from Barca to Madrid shows that.
But thats his character and Swansea would of known that before hiring him.

 

[RichieS]

I like Laudrup, but i wouldn't trust him. He will do what his best for himself, he has no loyalty.
The way he moved from Barca to Madrid shows that.
But thats his character and Swansea would of known that before hiring him.

And the going on holiday instead of representing his country at Euro '92. That worked out well for him...

 

[nailsy]

Swanseas end of season results weren't really a surprise though were they. Exactly the same thing happened to us after we won the cup.

 

[Toela65]

I broke this about 2-3 weeks ago in the transfer rumours thread. Having some family that are close with Swansea I get the odd bit.

Apparently the whole argument started when Swansea refused to pay the price that Liverpool cranked up for iago aspas (Liverpool over paid quite a bit Swansea were in discussions at a lower price).
Laudrup and his agent seem to have had ideas above their station after the PSG & Benfica links Swansea were warned he has attitude and an ability to look after only himself before they appointed him.

If he does go I would expect a look at Jones or Poyet but hope it's neither quite gutting for Swansea that Martinez has took the Everton job!.

Thats not quite right mate.

Aspas had two release clauses. One if they stayed up and another price if they were relegated. If they went down the price lowered significantly to around £4m.

Swansea, Valencia and a few others were stalling waiting for the La Liga season to end to hopefully see Celta go down and then they'd get their man cheaper.

We really wanted him, so when we found out how close he was to signing for Swansea/Valencia, we decided to jump the queue by not waiting around like the other clubs and just paid his higher release so as to defo get him. We valued him around £7-8m anyway so we still felt we were getting value, even at the higher release clause, so got it done quickly.

Laudrup was fuming about it, especially with the Chairman, as he'd put so much effort into striking a deal with Aspas, just to lose out on him because Swans wouldn't go above £5m, and wanted to see if Celta got relegated first. This is one of the main things that's caused the recent issues between Laudrup and the Chairman/Board.

 

[3Dnata]

It's an absolute curse the Carling Cup if you're not an established Sky 4 side.
It did for us and Birmingham.

 

[swaninpeace]

for those of you who might be interested in a bit of background take a look at