Adios Amigos

The first wave of Swansea cuts is in, and I must admit my heart is very sad to see Swansea legend Alan Tate was one of them – but like an old dog that no longer enjoys his walks its almost sad keeping him going – others shown the exit sign on the Liberty stadium include Gerhard Tremmel, Rory Donnelly, Curtis Obeng, Giancarlo Gallifuoco, Scott Tannock, Joseph Jones, Kurtis March, Corey Francis, Tom Atyeo, David Cornell and Gareth Owen.

So my earlier piece suggesting we need a new keeper was true – https://passingpashion.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/owain-fon-williams/

With all these exits we now have to start speculating as to who might be arriving, and I heard today that we are being linked with Dutch winger Ola John. This Benfica winger looks like a decent prospect, strong, decent crosser, etc, but lets face it at this point its all speculation ……

Owain Fon Williams ???

I am in no way suggesting that the excellent Fabianski loses his place between the sticks but we need a capable backup and, with the exception of two years ago, Gerhard Tremmel has looked more than a little shaky recently. Now why would Owain Fon Williams, a keeper Tranmere have just released, be any better?

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32882386

Maybe its my heart speaking more loudly than my head but I’ve always been impressed with the 6’4″ goalkeeper…..my heart liking the fact that he’s Welsh (sorry), plus he’s still only 28 year old, relatively young for a keeper. He’s good on crosses, a good shot-stopper, to be hoenst I really can’t understand why Tranmere are releasing him (maybe their finances aren’t so pretty, let me know if you know).

Excellent season ends for Swans

Another excellent season has ended for us, and although we narrowly missed out on European football we should all be celebrating a further cementation (word?) of our Premiership past/present/future. The signings of Fabianski, Kyle Naughton, Jack Cork, Monetro and Gomis all really impressed by seasons end, not a sentiment I (and many) thought at the beginning.

Monk and his team have a realy excellent eye for a player and with a few careful acquisitions this offseason I am very confident we can/will do well in 2015/2016.

What we need:

(1) keep what we have, very little trimming needs to be done to the squad Monk inherited one year on. Personally I’d like to see Tremmel and a few of the less impressive youngster leave.

(2) bring in a good young left-back to compete with Taylor

(3) bring in another young winger, ideally a cheap developmental project

(4) bring in a young striker, either one good enough to start now (e.g. Danny Ings) or a developmental project

(5) bring in a younger, more promising, back up goalkeeper, ideally from one of the big clubs squads as they are often talented enough but painfully short of chances to impress

None of this needs to cost a lot of money, instead we can focus on improving the squad and giving Garry his kind of players…..as a long shot I’d also like to see Michu get another chance (come on Garry, give the kid a go he’s a maverick, i’m sure he didn’t mean whatever he said/did, we all deserve second/third/fourth chances don’t we?)

Great season, what’s next

So we are putting the finishing touches on another excellent season, and it really is very hard to imagine a better one really. Garry Monk has exceeded pretty much the expectations of the world (probably even himself), and really looked to be an excellent appointment. So where do we go next?

Ideally I’d like to hear some more about the ground being extended, if we want to stay in the Premiership long-term we will need a bigger ground, so any news on this would be great.

Garry Monk needs a new contract, but regardless I have no worries about him doing a Brendan, Garry “really” loves this club

Lets continue our recent excellent run of signings – Jack Cork has been sensational, keep them coming Huw et al.