winter was our summer of discontent
By Phil Sumbler
There ‘s no doubt that the summer search for a manager was a bit of a disaster, not helped by the Mexican stand-0ff between the club and the outgoing Steve Cooper. ATFV Founding Father Phil Sumbler reflects on the damaging shambles that developed – and he pulls no punches when it comes to Chairman Julian Winter………
I remember the moment well when it became obvious that Steve Cooper was on his way out of Swansea City.
I was on my way back to South Wales after the play off final (unlike our team I turned up on the day) and was listening to the post-match reactions in the car as I headed away from Wembley.
All the plaudits were for Brentford and eventually they turned to Steve Cooper for his views on what was really a performance that summed up the second half of last season.
Cooper was already talking as a Swansea manager of the past tense. He referenced how he would look back on the two years in fondness and at that moment it was obvious that Steve Cooper had checked out of Swansea City and was eyeing up pastures new.
Of course, the lead up to the play off final had seen Cooper linked with the vacancy at Crystal Palace and it was looking as if he was on his way there.
We know now that is not how it played out as Palace appointed Patrick Vieira and Fulham in the end went for Silva after Cooper was linked there.
Problems & Questions
The problem was whilst all this was playing out in a host of media rumours and widespread speculation, the Swans summer was disappearing in front of us and putting us well behind the curve of most sides – let alone one in our position, that is of a side that had a summer of rebuilding ahead of us.
The heavy reliance on loan players the past two seasons was probably essential given the precarious nature of our finances but when those loan deals ended then it was essential that we had a full summer ahead of us to adequately replace them.
So the question has to be if it was that obvious on the Wembley turf that Cooper was on his way how did we let it get to the last weekend of the close season before we appointed a new manager
I get that we were anticipating the compensation that an appointment at another club would bring but surely our CEO (and owners) had a list of potential replacements?
Surely they were putting out feelers for potential replacements rather than sitting back and waiting for the moment where we had to start thinking about decisions?
Looking in from the outside and with the evidence presented it does seem though that we were happy to sit back and wait for the summer almost to pass us by.
We knew the previous manager was off yet we allowed him to still be here for the start of pre-season training whilst making some of the transfer decisions that ultimately would start building a new manager’s squad.
That doesn’t make sense to me.
Palace Intrigue
Nobody will ever fully know what went on with Cooper and Crystal Palace – I am convinced there is more to that than meets the eye – but whatever it was it was harmful to Swansea City and those who were responsible for that need to take their share of the blame.
It left us playing catch up and, with this article being written the day after a 0-0 draw with Hull City, it has left us with a slow start to the season that sees us with just five points from six games.
The responsibility for these things simply must sit with the man charged with running the club daily and that is Julian Winter.
I accept that he is only here to act on the instruction (or is that whims) of our majority owners but when you accept the job then you accept the things that go with it, the biggest of which must be accountability.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of us delaying then they were delays that ultimately went against us.
A decision should have been made the Monday after the play off final that he was about to leave with a settlement agreement easily protecting our compensation for a period of a few months.
Cooper didn’t want to be here at that stage and it appears we didn’t want him to be either.
Had that happened at the end of May we could have had a new manager in place before the players returned for pre-season training and he would have had more time to shape his squad ahead of the new season.
Fit For Nothing!
To hear Russell Martin bemoan his players lack of fitness after the fifth league game of the season says much about how our summer failed us and that has to sit squarely on the shoulders of one man – or at least the man who sits in the firing line here in Swansea.
Julian Winter has a difficult job here at Swansea.
He is the man tasked with undertaking the work of a majority ownership that largely lost interest in the moment we lost our Premier League place.
He has steadied a financial ship that was rocking pre-Covid in a way that has to be admired.
But in taking the credit for that good work he has to take the criticism for the way this summer panned out, and our current league position is down to the way it unfolded in front of his eyes and a seeming inability to do anything about it.
WINter in their minds
There is a chance that maybe Mr Winter was at the front of our owners minds telling them they needed to make a decision and sign off on an early departure for Steve Cooper.
But if he was then he wasn’t forceful enough to outline the reasons why and ensure that it happens – the role of a CEO is as much to influence those above them as it is to control the business on a daily basis.
So when we sit on the summer that passed us by in 2021 it will be one that I hope doesn’t come back and haunt us for too much longer.
We have definitely started the new season playing catch up. It wasn’t the summer we wanted after a second successive play off defeat but it was the one that we were given.
