The Swans Fly High Part II

Great form pal! Pitty about the united lose but a domestic double is still a great achievement ;-)
 
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It was always going to be really difficult against a top class United team, we just come up against a better team. It's really frustrating because Chelsea beat Southampton and they're now top by three points but there's not a lot we can do apart from improve the team in the summer.

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It's very unlikely that we'll win the title, Chelsea have to lose against QPR, we have to beat Spurs and make up an eight goal margin on the goal difference. We couldn't even manage the victory, Spurs played well but I'm really disappointed with that, we should be be winning matches at home and we almost lost, Routledge came on to rescue a point.

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It didn't matter anyway with Chelsea running out clear winners against QPR, 4-0 in the end. Cardiff were relegated to the Championship, that means they'll be no derby games next season, unless we draw them in the cup. It's a shame because I've really enjoyed playing them, with two wins out of two.

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Really disappointing end to the season for Swansea, with just one point from two games but having said that, Chelsea would of won the league no matter what we did. Next time we'll round up our second season at the Liberty, there's some big finals to take a look at and there's players awards and stats to look over as well.

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Bad luck not being able to finish the season in style, but then again you did finish above teams with huge financial power.
The champions league qualification will also help you the finances, good luck for season 3
 
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A final look at the table reads incredibly for the Swans, we were in the title race all season long, although we did seem to lose our way in the last few months of the season. Chelsea won the title in the end, while Cardiff, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa were relegated and my team Liverpool endured another horrific season.

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It was all about Jose Mourinho and Chelsea this year, not only did he beat me to the BPL title, but he also led the Blues to the FA Cup and the Champions League, what a season!

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Hernandez won the Golden Boot, Gomis was brilliant this season and came second. I was surprised to see Conor McAleny win the Goal of the Season award, I wasn't that impressed with the goal, given how the keeper was well off his line but it does take a lot of skill to score from that distance. Cillessen enjoyed a solid first season at Swansea and he narrowly missed out on the Golden Glove award, meanwhile I won Manager of the Year.

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[video=youtube;oDVL0YhZ6Oo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDVL0YhZ6Oo[/video]

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On to player performances and nobody had a bad year at Swansea, Peruzzi was Mr consistency and Gomis scored bags of goals. Bartley and Williams were solid in defence and Sigurosson, rightly so had the most assists, however it was a poor season for Leon Britton and I expected a little bit more for Jon Flanagan but he hasn't been here long so I'm sure he'll improve.

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My Player of the Year goes to Jonjo Shelvey, he was very consistent this season and I was really impressed with how many goals and assists he contributed, you don't expect that many from your box to box midfielder. He played the same number of games as my number one, Cillessen, only missing two games all season, that shows how much faith I put in him and how important he's been. The Swansea faithful agreed with my choice, also voting him their Player of the Year.

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No Surprise as Bony is our biggest shirt seller and Gomis is in second, we gained a big increase in sales this season with 35k shirts sold compared to last years 8k. The Euros are coming up and there's four Swansea players going, Cillessen, Santon, Shelvey and Flanagan.

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Next time we've got a busy summer ahead of us with the Euros coming up, there's big managerial changes and some fantastic news for the club. After the deal for Santon saw us pay out instalments we've not been given the biggest of transfer budgets, I was a little disappointed after a season in the Champions League but we are still paying our debt off, find out who we spent it on and who got shown the door at Swansea, in the next update.

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Good luck for next season mate, hopefully you can fight for top spot next season!
 
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The progress we've made as a club over the last season has been exceptional. It's crazy what a good season in the Champions League can do, most surprising of all is the fact that we're now ranked 12th on the richest clubs list.

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The best news of all is the fact that the Liberty has now been expanded, not because it holds 25k because hopefully now the board will agree to expand it further or even build a brand new stadium. The board yet again agreed to upgrade our youth recruitment, again good news.

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Moving on to the Euros and Netherlands were the winners, of course Jasper Cillessen went with them but unfortunately for him, he only played the one game as he struggled to compete with Tim Krul but a winners medal for him none the less.

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I'm a man in demand, Newcastle and Arsenal both offered me an interview but of course I stuck with Swansea. Signing a new one year contract extension, keeping me here for the next two years and putting me on a six figure weekly salary.

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I wasn't the only one at Swansea signing a new deal, Shelvey didn't seem interested in a move back to Liverpool and I'm not surprised after their last two seasons, he didn't want to much money either, which is nice to see. Lewis Thomas signed his first professional deal and he's progressing really well at the moment, another season and I think he'll be ready for the first team.

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Arsene Wenger had come to the end of his time with Arsenal and surprsingly, Roberto Mancini took over. Elsewhere Spain suffered a poor Euros, only reaching the last 16, getting knocked out by Poland. They hired Unai Emery and City replaced the spainard with Jurgen Klopp.

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The news we all want to hear about is the signings so let's get to it, unfortunately we didn't have a lot of money I did try and shift a few players but after a brilliant season, nobody wanted to leave. Kranevitter comes in to replace Britton and I think we've made a big imrpovement there, I'll probably start him over Coquelin as well.

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With Tremmel retiring, Eduardo came in and I'm confident he'll be a solid back up to Cillessen. The big signing though is Hirving Lozano, replacing Nathan Dyer. I was amazed we picked him up so cheaply, at aged 20, he's still got time to improve, not that he needs to, he already has the makings of a top class winger. I can't wait to see him play!

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Amat moved on after not getting much game time, Lewis Thomas will step in as fourth choice centre back. I mentioned earlier I tried to shift a few players on, they were Fernandez, Routledge and Montero, because they're all inconsistent and I felt we could find better options, unfortunately they were all reluctant to leave though.

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Peruzzi and Sigurosson both wanted to leave after there was interest from moneybags PSG, I really want to keep the pair of them but they're throwing their toys out of the pram. So that's five first team players all sitting in the reserves for the start of the season, there's a bit of money left but if we're going to replace them, we really need the funds from their sales to bring in the right replacements. Anything could happen between now and the end of the transfer window.

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Next time we kick of the season and we can do it in style by beating Chelsea and lifting the Community Shield. Unfortunately Lozano and Santon are competing in the Olympic Games and they'll miss the first game or two, which isn't great as our squad is already thin enough, find out how we get on in the next update.

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With all these players sitting in the reserves and a few away at the Olympics as well, we've only just been able to name a bench for this one, Haughton, Thomas and Copp are all on it. It would be fantastic to start the season with a trophy but I wasn't getting my hopes up Chelsea had an incredible season, last season and they'll be looking to continue that. They really did hammer us here, I was frustrated how little of the game we had but we're probably playing the best team in the world right now, Mourinho continues the winning tradition at Chelsea.

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Talk about letting the team down, Bony got himself sent off at a time in the game, where we were piling on the pressure. It gets worse, Gomis is out for another week after picking up an injury against Chelsea so that means we're left with young Kyle Copp to play up front. On to the game and we put on a good display but struggled to find the breakthrough, luckily Bertrand found it towards the end of the game.

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Barclays Premier League - Swansea 3-1 Derby

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We'll talk about players going out later in the update but for now let's talk about Younes Belhenda. We signed him for almost half of his value, after he was unhappy and transfer listed at Chelsea, he has cost us 70k per week, which also puts Bony's wage up as well but I'm happy with the signing, he adds bags of quality to our team and he should do well.

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The Olympic Games finished with Santon making the Dream Team with Italy. A brilliant tournament for him, reaching the final, eventually losing out to Germany. Who coincidentally won the competition under the management of one of my coaches, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

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The draw for the Champions League was made and I was a little annoyed to still be fourth seeds, after we progressed to the last 16 last year. Another year where we had a fortunate draw, there's no easy games in that group and It'll be difficult to beat Real to top spot but hopefully we play better, than when we played them last season. I think we can definitely beat Leverkusen and Ajax to finish second but it will be tough.

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Barclays Premier League - Stoke 0-4 Swansea

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I signed Humam Tariq more as precaution a few weeks back in case Routledge, Montero and Dyer left. They did all leave we replaced them with Belhenda and Lozano but we just didn't have the money to buy another so Tariq will now see plenty of game time, this season, hopefully he does well.

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Even after the Fernandez deal, we didn't have enough money to bring in a replacement, at centre back either that's because unfortunately the club have only been giving us 40% of transfer sales. I may need to enter the loan market, or even the free market for another centre back. We have our two senior centre backs in Bartley and Williams and perhaps the reason I haven't rushed to get a third is Lewis Thomas. The lad continues his impressive development and if he had more expeirence in the game, he'd be more than ready to be a first team player.

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Elsewhere in the league, there wasn't to much going on, in the way of transfers. I was a little surprised given how many big deals happened last summer. City again spent a lot of money and it seems inevitable that Sterling moves to CIty on FM, they also splashed out on the Ox and United spent big money on Volland and Saul.

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Despite missing out on the Community Shield to Chelsea it's been a solid start to the season, in the absence of Bony and Gomis, Copp has really stepped up. He was incredible against Stoke, netting a hatrick, as where the team, I won't be dropping him any time soon, when he's in that sort of form. Next time, we can set down an early marker on our title rivals by beating United and there's some big Champions League games against Ajax and Leverkusen, I'll leave you guys with a screenshot of Kyle Copp, he's looking very promising!

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Barclays Premier League - Swansea 2-0 Hull​

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Champions League Group C - Swansea 4-2 Ajax
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Barclays Premier League - West Brom 0-2 Swansea​

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Capital One Cup 3rd Round - Norwich 2-1 Swansea

We had control of the game in the first half and rightly went in to the lead, unfortunately in the second half we got complacent and our defence was absolutely shocking! Norwich pulled one back and scored the winner in extra time, I'm really disappointed to go out in the Third Round and to newly promoted Norwich. We even got a man sent off but fair play to them, they came back strong in the second half but we were really poor.

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Barclays Premier League - Swansea 1-0 United

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Champions League Group C - Leverkusen 3-2 Swansea​

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September 2016 - Player of the Month

There wasn't many stand out performers this month, despite having a poor game against Leverkusen, this months player of the month award has to go to Kyle Copp, he's scored twice and set up two goals in five starts. He's keeping Gomis and Bony out of the side at the moment, which is no easy task, he's definitely surprised me and long may it continue.

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A mixed month for the lads, we went crashing out of the Capital One Cup and we narrowly lost a really important Champions League game away to Leverkusen but there was solid wins against Hull, Ajax, West Brom and a massive win against Man United. Next time we've got some huge games in a very congested schedule, there's big away games in the league against Arsenal and Chelsea but can we go one better and beat Real at the Liberty?

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Unlucky about going out the COC mate but everything else looks good so far Copp has paid off your faith in him!
 
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Barclays Premier League - Chelsea 1-1 Swansea​

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Barclays Premier League - Arsenal 1-0 Swansea​

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Champions League Group C - Swansea 2-0 Real Madrid

We've had some really tough games recently and it didn't get an easier with another one against Real Madrid, incredibly though we managed to beat the giants. In truth it was a really close game that could of gone either way but the team can take massive spirit from defeating a great side like Real.​

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Barclays Premier League - Swansea 1-0 Everton​

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Barclays Premier League - Swansea 3-0 Sunderland​

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Incredible start to the season, in the league for Swansea, despite the defeat to Arsenal and the drew away to Chelsea, we're sitting pretty at the top of the table. Hopefully we can hold a title challenge for the whole season this year, it'd be incredible to win it!

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In the Champions League well as you can see our group is still wide open and there for the taking. With three games gone and three games remaining it's still anyones to take, despite winning twice and sitting top of the group, we've still got work to do. It's going to be really difficult to pick up anything in Madrid but if we can pick up four points from Ajax away and Leverkusen at home, that should be enough to qualify.

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We started off the month with a fortunate draw against Chelsea and then rightly got defeated away to Arsenal, much to my surprise, we hit back after a dip in form with a huge win against Real and then we went on to smash Everton and Sunderland. Next time it's all about the Champions League, we've put ourselves in a very good position but we need to keep it up if we're going to qualify for the last 16.

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A great month there mate and a top result against Real Madrid!
 
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Champions League Group C - Real Madrid 2-1 Swansea

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Good and bad news for the club, McAleny picked up an injury in training keeping him out for 4-5 weeks but the good news is we've got money to spend in January, that's if we need to.

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Barclays Premier League - Swansea 4-1 Fulham

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Barclays Premier League - Norwich 0-2 Swansea

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More injuries and we should have the numbers to cope without Coquelin but the frustrating one is Lozano, he was really finding his feet at Swansea with four assists and two goals in his last four games. With McAleny also out, we've now got no out and out wingers fit, we might have to change the formation up.

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Taking a look at the table, this game isn't quite winner takes all but a loss for either side could be the difference between Champions League and Europa League. We can't lose this game and with McAleny and Lozano out and Alli suspended I had a decision to make. Copp, Gomis and Tariq are all in terrible form, as is Shelvey but despite that, I trust him to get back to last seasons form.

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Champions League Group C - Ajax 1-1 Swansea

A change in formation then, hopefully my decision to bring Shelvey back pays off. In short it didn't, he got himself sent off and really let the team down. Shortly after the sending off we managed to take a shock lead but unfortunately we couldn't hold out for what would of been a huge win, Fischer levelled the match with an absolute screamer! Denying us all three points.

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I put faith in Shelvey there and he threw it back in my face by getting sent off and then throwing a hissy fit when I fined him. He can sit in the reserves for all I care, he's been really poor this season, right now we're better off without him.

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Barclays Premier League - Crystal Palace 1-2 Swansea

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Quite simply, we have to win this game, Ajax have a really tough game against Real in Madrid. So if they pick up more points than we do, they go through but let's not worry about that, if we win our game, we qualify, it's as simple as that.

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Champions League Group C - Swansea 1-1 Leverkusen

We should of won that match, the teams overall body language was very nervous, I do have a young team and they're all new to this situation but we still have to be disappointed that we didn't secure the win. I checked the other game, with sixty minutes gone it was 0-0, I made some attacking changes to make sure we make it through, our lads couldn't finish it but luckily for us Real did.

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Not exactly the climax to the group we were hoping for, there was some very nervous moments towards the end but we got there in the end, we're in the pot for the next round, that's the important thing.

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Our league form has been really good this month, convincing wins against Fulham and Norwich and we grinded out a win against Palace as well. In the Champions League we were poor though, we should really be beating Ajax and Leverkusen but we just about went on to qualify. Next time it's all about the League, we've got some really difficult games, against some really good sides.

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Barclays Premier League - Swansea 1-0 Southampton​

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Barclays Premier League - Swansea 2-2 Man City

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Another injury is all we need, luckily we've got a fair few players on there way back but Peruzzi has only just got over the fact that he wasn't allowed to move to PSG in the summer. Now he's out for a few weeks and he's definitely one of our most important players.

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The draw for the last 16 of the Champions League was made and all things considered, that's a pretty good draw for us. AC Milan, reached the Quarter Finals of the Champions League last season, getting knocked out by Chelsea but they got their revenge this year, beating them 4-1 at Stamford Bridge and pipping them to top spot in Group A. They're a good side but not the force they once were, we have to be looking to progress further than we did last year and this is a good opportunity.

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Barclays Premier League - Swansea 4-1 Liverpool

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Barclays Premier League - QPR 2-2 Swansea

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Barclays Premier League - Tottenham 1-2 Swansea

Fantastic performance from the lads here and what a goal from Gylfi Sigurosson!

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[video=youtube;QjF1LzLWyHY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjF1LzLWyHY[/video]

Barclays Premier League - Swansea 3-1 Newcastle

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What a season we're having in the league, we sit top of the table and there's a healthy six point gap between our nearest challenger, Man United. We were in a similar position this time last year and the inexperience in the team got the better of us. Hopefully this time we can hold our nerves and push on to lift the title!

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Overall that's a solid month for the lads, we might of turned those draws against City and QPR in to wins on another day but we did well to pick up some big wins against Southampton and Spurs. Next time, we'll see if we can hold our throne at the top of the table and the FA Cup kicks off with a difficult game at the Liberty against Stoke.​

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Great thread, I'm only at the start of the second season reading it, great finish to the first season.
 
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