Football, especially in the cutthroat and crazy Championship, has a habit of making very little sense very quickly. How can a club change their director of football and head coach days after the January transfer window has shut? How can that same club sell their captain, a midfield stalwart, late in the window and fail to replace him? Swansea fans have been asking themselves these questions.
The Swans have been plunged into crisis, with the sacking of the head coach, Luke Williams, on Monday coming after a run containing seven defeats in nine league games. Those results, which included alarmingly heavy defeats by Portsmouth, Norwich and, most painfully, their south Wales rivals Cardiff, meant they slumped from the brink of the playoffs to 17th, with a relegation fight possible.
The nosedive in form prompted the chairman, Andy Coleman – who heads a consortium that acquired majority ownership in November – to act decisively. “This was a difficult decision and one that has not been taken lightly,” said Coleman, who less than a week earlier heralded the arrival of Richard Montague as the director of football.
Montague had been a close ally of Williams at Notts County, the pair overseeing promotion to the Football League in 2023, and champions a data-driven approach to recruitment. Williams was in favour of the appointment. Yet one day before Montague officially started at Swansea, Williams was gone. It’s fair to say this was not the plan.
Nor was the departure of the captain Matt Grimes on the final day of January to Coventry, a sale that left a bitter taste in the mouth of supporters, especially as the club failed to sign many of their desired targets.
“We do have a contingency,” Williams said as Grimes joined Frank Lampard’s playoff hopefuls after a decade of service. However, it proved to be a late and largely desperate scramble for reinforcements, and Lewis O’Brien – not a like-for-like replacement – was ushered in on loan from Nottingham Forest on deadline day. Without Grimes’s ability to drop deep and dictate play, Williams was left fumbling for tactical solutions and results suffered further.
That the window was overseen without a director of football, with Coleman taking the lead on negotiations, rankled with fans. Montague’s predecessor, Paul Watson, left in October but finding a replacement became a drawn-out saga. Swansea say Montague’s “deep understanding of data analytics and his first-hand knowledge of the football industry and operations make him the outstanding candidate”. But he was not around to help in January as he served his notice period.
It wasn’t just the transfer window that derailed Williams. Other issues were of his own making. The way he handled media links with the West Brom job during the festive period created a schism with fans and Coleman referred to the speculation as “unhelpful”. “I created a lot of the noise without meaning to,” said Williams. “That was handled poorly by myself.”
Luton and Plymouth played out a low quality 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road that did neither side any real good in their efforts to avoid relegation. Jacob Brown gave bottom-placed Luton a 55th-minute lead but Maksym Talovierov equalised as both teams remained in the relegation zone.
Matt Bloomfield is still searching for a first victory since replacing Rob Edwards as Luton manager after their miserable winless run extended to 11 matches. Bloomfield’s men sit two points from the last safe spot, one point behind Argyle, with both teams having 13 games to play.
The hosts should have led inside three minutes as Alfie Doughty’s inch-perfect cross was met by Lasse Nordas but the Norwegian forward, on his first start, headed over from a few yards out. Nordas had another crack in the 14th minute after Mark McGuinness’s long throw dropped at his feet, only to see it deflect over the bar.
Plymouth thought they had scored when Callum Wright reached Tymoteusz Puchacz’s pass ahead of the hesitant Thomas Kaminski to find the net, but the linesman’s flag was quickly raised. Replays suggested he may have been level, giving the hosts a major let-off.
The Hatters responded with another effort from Nordas, who attempted an ambitious 20-yard volley from Kal Naismith’s long ball, but he skewed wide.
At the start of the second period Luton went close once more when Izzy Jones’s cross was not cleared properly by Nikola Katic. Elijah Adebayo read the flight of the ball but could only power his volley over the top.
With the forward then taken off, his replacement Brown broke the deadlock with his first touch. Doughty’s cross was nodded down by Nordas for the substitute to beat Hazard to the ball and angle his header into the net, ending Luton’s run of four and a half games without a home goal.
Argyle were level within 15 minutes. With McGuinness off the pitch to receive treatment, the visitors took full advantage by sending in a deep cross and the centre-back Talovierov rose highest and placed his downward header inside the far post.
Town should have been back in front as Shandon Baptiste’s shot deflected away and then Brown somehow put a free header straight at Hazard from Doughty’s cross.
Although eight minutes of stoppage time were added, Luton could not fashion the winner they were desperate for, with the substitute Millenic Alli putting his backheel over the bar from a last-gasp corner.
The coming months will be illustrative of the club’s next direction. Most pressing is a home clash with the Championship’s other managerless club, Blackburn, on Saturday, when Alan Sheehan will be in the Swansea dugout. Sheehan is well-regarded at the club and steps into his second spell as caretaker after a period in charge after Michael Duff’s sacking in December 2023. Work is under way to find Williams’s long-term successor, with Coleman and Montague leading that search. It’s not an appointment they can afford to get wrong.
Supporters will get a chance to air grievances at a fans’ forum on 3 March, with Coleman – who has borne the brunt of supporter discontent – to be present. The forum was initially due to take place this Tuesday with Williams slated to attend, before it was hastily rescheduled.
The names in the frame for the job include the former Oxford manager Des Buckingham, but the search is expected to take a little time. What’s clear is whoever takes the role will have a big task on their hands. Avoiding relegation will be their first objective and results must take precedence over style, in a departure from the “Swansea Way” that was once sacrosanct.
It almost feels irrelevant to recall that a decade ago Swansea finished eighth in the Premier League. Friday’s 10-year anniversary of a famous 2-1 win over Manchester United will not be toasted with great nostalgia given the events of recent days.
Since relegation in 2018, Swansea have twice come close to promotion, losing playoff clashes with Brentford in successive years. They’ve shown promise and had exciting young managers (Graham Potter, Steve Cooper and Russell Martin) poached by bigger, wealthier clubs. But in the post-Covid years attendances have dropped, money has been tight and stagnation has set in. The Swans must keep their heads above water.
