JACK the lad SWANS into Premiership!

M

maccakid

Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2011
Messages
71
Reaction score
0
Points
0
View attachment 259846

Swansea have today shocked the football world by appointing unknown Jack Swan as the new manager. Swan has no previous management experience and is only 34 years old.

Huw Jenkins has backed his new manager to do well and revealed that he had appointed him under the recommendation of Brendan Rodgers. Like Rodgers, who recently left the club by mutual consent, Swan is from Northern Ireland and both Rodgers and Jenkins seem confident Swan is the man to carry the clubs legacy as Swansea seek to make their mark in the Premier League

Swan himself has already spoken to the press and has revealed some of his targets for the future,
  • To finish higher than the 11th achieved by the real Swansea
  • To do so while continuing with the entertaining, possession based football Swansea have became associated with
  • To keep the average squad age at 23 or younger
  • To maintain at least a 50% domestic player bias
  • To sign Sigurdsson permanently
Swan left the press conference with the claim that one day the 'Welsh Barcelona' would one day meet the real Barcelona in the Champions League, that they would enjoy the majority of possession, outplay them and beat them.

An unlikely claim but then again a complete unknown has just walked into one of the top twenty jobs in the country!
 
Last edited:
This is my first story so hope yous enjoy! I'm a Man United Supporter, and had originally considered doing a story about Newcastle or Everton, both who I've had enjoyable saves with before, but both had been done so have decided to try something new and give Swansea a go!

I'm using the 12.2.0 Database, that's the Steam update that includes January's transfers but none of this summers.

First update to follow shortly! :)
 
PRE-SEASON

Didn't want to be too cocky so just went with avoid relegation in season aims. Board gave me 5 million for transfers but very little in terms of extra wage so some deadwood may need to be shifted.

Had no assistant manager so immediately appointed Frankie Bunn, he has good stats for judging both current and potential ability as well as decent stats in motivating and tactical knowledge. Mutually terminated the rest of the staffs contracts and used Frankie to help bring in my own.

Now to the important bit...

TRANSFERS

Players In
Craig Dawson from West Brom 1.5mil
Stephen Kelly from Fulham 1.5mil
Jordan Rhodes from Huddersfield 4mil (over 24 months)

Players Out
Mark Gower to Brighton 500k
Leroy Lita to Watford Loan (Fee 400k, Future Fee 1.4mil)
Moreira to FCP Loan (Fee 100k, Future Fee 600k)
Darnel Situ to Preston Loan
Rory Donnelly to Notts County Loan
Ashley Richards to Colchester Loan

Really wanted to sell or even loan Stephen Dobbie and Andrea Orlandi too but nobody will show the slightest of interest!!

I plan on using a 4-2-3-1 possesion tactic I'd been working on in a previous save, pretty much suits swansea perfectly so my
team look like this...



Pre-season went ok, I let Frankie take charge for the most part and we ended up with 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats against a mixed bag of opponents. Now on to the real thing :)
 
Last edited:
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER UPDATE


Excited to get started into the new season. The media have predicted a 19th place finish for us but I've promised
the board we can avoid relegation. Secretly I would like to emulate the real Swanseas achievements and finish mid
table but we'll not get ahead of ourselves. Anyway this is how the first 2 months went...


Swansea 0-1 Arsenal
A tough opening fixture, the defence performed well and I was quietly content that the defeat was so narrow.
Also pleased to note that we had 67% possession, impressive considering the tactic is still new to the team.


Blackburn 2-2 Swansea (Dyer, Britton)
Billed as a relegation '6 pointer' we had to come from behind twice. Not a terrible result away from home,
pleased to have our first point.


LEAGUE CUP 2ND ROUND Brighton 1-4 Swansea (Sinclair 2, Rhodes, Caulker)
Relatively straight forward fixture sees us remain on target to meet the boards expectations of reaching 4th
round. Sinclair was terrific.


Swansea 4-1 Chelsea (Graham 2, Sigurosson 2)
Chuffed to bits with this result. 3rd league game and we completely dominate a 'top 4 side'. Highlight of the
game was a superb free kick from Sigurosson.


PLAYER OF THE MONTH: Leon Britton (Ave Rating 7.4) In a month with no real stand out Leon shades it. Very consistent, Leon contributed with a goal, an assist and a solid pass completion rate.

View attachment 260267

Sunderland 0-1 Swansea (Dyer)
More comfortable than the scoreline suggests, an early goal fom Dyer was enough to win this.


Swansea 3-0 West Brom (Sigurosson, Britton, Allen)
Very pleased with how we are controlling games at home. Great start to the season, this result seen us temporarily
rise to 3rd!


LEAGUE CUP 3RD ROUND Swansea 1-2 Portsmouth (Sinclair)
Back to earth eith a point. Despite a 'do not get complacent' half time team talk we conceded two 2nd half goals.
Sinclair had another superb cup game but the rest of the team were not at his standards.


Everton 1-0 Swansea
2nd defeat in a row. A drab game, a mistake from Vorm being the difference. Cant be too harsh, he's been solid thus
far. The most dissappointing thing is on his way to a motm award Neil Taylor picked up an injuty and will be out
for 3 months. Just as he was hitting form, which leads me to...


PLAYER OF THE MONTH: Neil Taylor (Ave Rating 7.7) 2 motm awards in 3 games, Taylor was really beginning to hit form so really not the ideal time for a long term injury.

View attachment 260270


All in all not a bad start. Team are starting to gel into the new tactic, and I'm pleased with how the goals are being
shared around. Disappointed to be out of League Cup already, especially to lower opposition, but delighted to be sitting 8th in League.

View attachment 260269
 
Annoying to be able to beat Chelsea and then lose in the cup.
All in all well done soo far though, keep it up!
 
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER UPDATE

Swansea 1-0 Norwich (Rhodes)
A 'fergie time' winner had me jumping out of the chair and had the club back to winning ways.

Aston Villa 0-2 Swansea (Sigurdsson, Sinclair)
Sigurdsson missed an early penalty but more than amended for it by bossing the midfield for the rest of the game.Scored another free kick and made the assist for Sinclairs goal.

Swansea 0-2 Man City
Played poorly, especially Graham who might find himself spending more time on the bench if he can't find some form.Both Citys' goals were scored by Kompany.

Tottenham 1-2 Swansea (Rhodes, Rangel)
A really good win, especially away from home. Spurs goal was a late consolation and we were really quite comfortable

PLAYER OF THE MONTH: Angel Rangel (Ave Rat 7.75)
Rangel played well in every game this month and capped it of with a goal in the last match

View attachment 260722

Swansea 4-1 Bolton (Sinclair 2, Sigurdsson, Caulker)
Our third 4-1 win the season. We created lots of chances as Bolton failed to deal with the creativity of our midfield trio Dyer, Sigurdsson and Sinclair

QPR 2-2 Swansea (Rhodes,Sinclair)
Slightly disappointed. After a 'don't get complacent' HT talk angered a few of the team in the previous game I tried 'you're doing well keep it up' when leading 2 nil here. Clearly didnt work as the team conceded 2 second half goals and came very close to throwing all 3 points away towards the end.

Newcastle 1-1 Swansea (Sinclair)
Our turn to come from behind in what was a pretty uneventful game. For the 2nd update in a row though its ends with another long term injury to a key player. Sigurdsson will be out for 6/7 weeks, so we'll be missing perhaps our most important player over the busy Christmas period.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH: Sinclair (Ave Rat 7.85)
No surprises here, Sinclair scored 4 goals in 3 games this month to extend his lead at the top of the clubs scoring charts with 8 so far.

View attachment 260723

Really pleased with how things are going, we're currently sitting 3rd in the table. This is partly to do with mostof the big teams dropping points as United run awaw from the league, but still...it was predicted we would finish 19thand we're 3rd!

View attachment 260724

In other news Kemy Aguestien and Luke Moore are both unhappy with their lack of 1st team football. Norwich haveshown an interest in Agustien and while I feel he is solid backup I'll be willing to sell if the price is right,with Ferrie Bodde returning we should have enough cover. Moore im happy to sell so he has now joined Monk, Orlandiand Dobbie on the transfer list. He's played poorly any chance he has got and I've noticed a couple of interesting forwards available for loan...namely Danny Wellbeck and Mario Ballotelli!

View attachment 260728
 
Last edited:
DECEMBER/JANUARY UPDATE


Wolves 1-3 Swansea (Rhodes, Graham 2)
Both Graham's goals were penalties but it was no more than we deserved in a game we dominated. Wolves had a man sent of late on.


Swansea 1-1 Liverpool (Rhodes)
A draw was a fair result in an even game. Always nice to gain points against the so called 'bigger' teams.


Stoke 3-2 Swansea (Dyer 2)
A terrific game. First half was hectic Stoke scored, we equalised then Stoke raced into a 2 goal lead. I voiced my
disgust with the team at half time and we piled on the pressure 2nd half but unfortunately came up just short


Wigan 2-4 Swansea (Rhodes, Rangel, Sinclair, Williams)
Again we found ourselves 2 down, this time the HT team talk had the desired effect though as we tore Wigan apart in
the 2nd half and ended up fairly comfortable winners in the end.


Swansea 2-2 Fulham (Dyer, Allen)
The team are determined to put me through all the emotions at the minute. We conceded another early goal but again
came out a better team in the 2nd half and equalised through Dyer. Allen then scored a 25 yard screamer in the 77th
minute which I thought had won us the game only for Fulham to square things up again near the end .


Man Utd 2-1 Swansea (Williams)
It looks like we performed well and defensively we did but United could have won by a lot more. Possession was 2% in our favour but the Red Devils had many, many more chances.


PLAYER OF THE MONTH: Nathan Dyer (Ave Rat 7.4)
Didnt really perform against Liverpool or United but was superb against Stoke, Wigan and Fulham weighing in with 3
goals and an assist.

View attachment 260737

Arsenal 3-0 Swansea
This game just 2 days after the trip to Old Trafford and my tired team just couldn't deal with the Gunners.


FA CUP 3RD ROUND Watford 0-3 Swansea (Rhodes 2, Sinclair)
No slip up against lower league opposition this time Watford could not deal with Rhodes as he ran riot, scoring twice
and setting cup specialist Sinclair up for the other.


Swansea 1-1 Blackburn (Sigurdsson)
Really should have won this, we had the majority of possession and chances. Nice to see Gylfi marking his return with
a goal.


Chelsea 1-0 Swansea
Another away trip to a big team led to another defeat and we're now starting to slip down the table. Thats 5 games now in the League since our last win. Failed to register a single shot on target.


Swansea 3-0 Leyton Orient (Britton, Dawson, Owen)
An easy easy game. We created chance after chance whilst Orient didn't have a single shot on or of target

Swansea 2-1 Sunderland (Sigurdsson, Dyer)
Despite the scoreline this was almost as easy as the Orient game. We had 70% possession and far more chances,
Sunderlands goal a being a late consolation.


PLAYER OF THE MONTH: Gylfi Sigurosson (Ave Rat 7.75)
Glad to have him back we struggled to control games in the same manner without our chief playmaker. Despite not being fully match fit after his lengthy lay of, he scored twice and provided 2 assists in his 4 games. Will be desperate
to make his deal permanant in the summer.

View attachment 260738


So a mixed couple of months but overall im quite happy, we had some very tough away games so all in all not too bad.
Now sitting 7th in the table.

View attachment 260744



There was however disappointment in the transfer window. Could not get rid of Orlandi, Dobbie or Moore even when I offered them for £0. Let Monk leave for Derby on a free to avoid 4 players sitting wasting wages in the reserves.

Also failed in landing Ballotelli or Wellbeck. City wanted 30% of Ballotellis wages paid and the board would only
let me offer 20% and United wanted 100% of Wellbecks wages paid but annoyingly the board would only let me offer 90%. United refused to compromise and I had to look elsewhere.

Graham hasnt scored from open play since August so a striker was my priority. I terminated McEachrans loan contract to free up a space as I felt midfield was well enough stocked and began to trawl through various domestic reserve squads. I found my answer in...Michael Owen. My scouts didnt rate him but with 19 anticipation, 18 off the ball, 17 finishing and 16 heading I think he can be a good short term fix. He got of to a good start scoring his first goal against Leyton Orient.

View attachment 260743


So with Sigurosson back to set goals on a plate for England legend Mickey Owen hopefully the Swans can really push
on as we hit the business end of the season!
 
Last edited:
Was away for a couple of days there, noticed a few other Swansea stories have started in my absence! Interesting to see how others are doing with the same team. Anyway, should hopefully have an update later this evening!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Top