Natalie Lloyd takes a closer look at Swansea City’s pre-season and questions whether a mix of new signings and old players can perform for the Welsh side next season.
“WBA, Saints, Swans and Burnley are going to really struggle this year, could three of these go down?”
Robbie Savage tweeted the clubs that he thought would face relegation this season. One team that gained promotion from last season. One team that has sold almost all of its first team (we’ve all seen the GIFs.) WBA, and Swansea. The same Swansea who finished 12th (two points ahead of 13th) and 12 points off the bottom of the table, a place occupied by our closest rivals, Cardiff.
Scrolling through the comments underneath, I couldn’t help but notice that most of the comments disagreed with Savage – about Swansea anyway. Could this team who really played Europa league football last season, who won the League cup in 2013, really get relegated after playing four Premiership seasons? Many seemed to disagree, some politely, some not so polite.
Here we are just under two weeks away from the first game of the 2014/15 season, wonderfully (for me anyway) this game kicks off at 12.45, and is Man United vs Swansea.
After an overall successful year for the Jacks – after Laudrup’s exit, things did start to look bleak, and although Garry Monk had lots of negative press (which was understandable, due to his absolute lack of management experience) he proved most wrong by winning 3-0 against Cardiff. Which, made him an instant hero with the fans.
In June we sent four players to represent their countries in Brazil – it’s time to look forward. Since the final game in May, Michu has left us to play a season for for Napoli (the team that cruelly knocked us out of the Europa League.) Pozuelo has returned to familiar territory in Spain playing for Rayo Vallecano and Ben Davies and Michel Vorm have left for Spurs (gaining us £15 million!) and although we have lost our first team keeper and one of our top scorers, when he wasn’t injured, Monk, in my opinion, has done some smart buying over the summer to replace what we’ve lost.
The return of Gylfi Sigurdsson is exciting. When he was playing for us during the reign of Brendan Rodgers, eight goals in 17 games and lined up to stay, when the contract from Hoffenheim broke down due to Rodgers leaving for Liverpool, I was disappointed. I remember watching Gylfi play in the Liberty during our first premier league season, pace and being able to finish (something we’ve struggled with) But, in a recent interview he has said that he feels it was an easy decision to make to return, always a positive around a new team!
We’ve also welcomed Bafetimbi Gomis on a free transfer. I cannot even control my excitement to see him team up with Bony! Along with Jefferson Montero our attack will be an absolute force to be reckoned with.
Marvin Emnes has finally signed for the Swans. A hero to the fans after his goal in the South Wales Derby, actually proved his critics wrong in the few games he played last season and I really hope he can do the same this season!!
Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I haven’t been able to make any away pre-season games. After reading match reports though, with the exception of one game, reports were positive. It’s great to see the new signings fitting in with the first team. It does seem like Monk really has settled in well to his managerial job.
When Jonjo Shelvey first signed for us last season, I will admit I had my doubts, but I have apologised (in spirit anyway) for my doubts. I think he’ll have a great season along with Routledge, but this hasn’t been a popular opinion with fellow Jacks.
This weekend is all about Swans vs Villareal, my first (and last) game of pre-season and Monk’s last pre-season game before the new season kicks off, as much as I will miss the South Wales Derby terribly (there’s no better atmosphere at a game! I can guarantee that!!) Watch this space to see if my excitement is all in the right places…
You can head over and follow Natalie on Twitter here: @naleeee