Flops

[ivoralljack]

Came upon an interesting thing on line where Bob Bradley was listed at #14 in a list of the 15 worst ever Premier League managers. He lasted 85 days. K&L have a lot to answer for. They asset stripped the club; got us relegated; invested practically fuck all to get us back up and sacked a good man in Guido treating him like shit in the process. What did we ever do to deserve them? Thanks a bunch Messrs Jenkins and Morgan - your greed and treachery will never be forgotten. Oh, and their tasteless behaviour regarding Guido also cost us the support of one of our most fervent supporters in @Rainbow who has never forgiven the club. She and how many others I wonder?

 

[CroJack]

They asset stripped the club

I talked to Swiss Rumble and he says they didn't.

They ..... got us relegated

It was Jenkins that got us relegated.

• First by sacking Laudrup and bringing in Monk,
• Then by allowing an 85% wage to revenue ratio, which later prevented us from investing in the squad.
• Then by not hiring Bielsa when Bielsa was interested,
• Then by following orders from the USA to sack Guido and appoint Bradley,
• Then by not replacing Sigurdsson, etc.

Jenkins was Swansea's CEO for two years after the takeover, he ran the club while K & L were absent.

invested practically fuck all to get us back up

Actually, they have invested more than the majority of Championship clubs. Year after year we were in the top ten for investment in the squad while most of the Championship clubs were signing free agents and loanee's.

sacked a good man in Guido treating him like shit in the process.

Agreed. Yeah, that was awful.

Thanks a bunch Messrs Jenkins and Morgan - your greed and treachery will never be forgotten.

Many of our fans don't want to understand that Jenkins, Morgan and Co. were the problem, the American owners not so much.

 

[ivoralljack]

I talked to Swiss Rumble and he says they didn't.

We have sold well over £200 million worth of players and replaced them with cheap, third rate dross which was funded from those sales and not from extra investment from them that was promised on takeover. I saw that particular interview on telly myself when false promises were made.

First by sacking Laudrup and bringing in Monk,

I was told that Laudrup's dismissal was on the expectation of the Yanks coming in which had been in negotiation for quite a time behind the scenes. Laudrup was regarded as a divisive figure with far too high a profile for 'some peoples' taste' but Jenkins is on record as saying that he had a great deal of respect and admiration for him and that they worked well together. As a matter of fact Jenkins told me as much on one of the many occasions I went to watch training at Llandarcy. We must have chatted for well over an hour and it was very enlightening.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

I think Morgan had more to do with stuff and more conflicts of interest than most people might realize.

 

[ivoralljack]

It's well known that a certain individual had pressure put on him due to difficulties in a relationship which required money to resolve.

 

[CroJack]

We have sold well over £200 million worth of players and replaced them with cheap, third rate dross which was funded from those sales and not from extra investment from them that was promised on takeover. I saw that particular interview on telly myself when false promises were made.

Okay mate. I keep hearing the same argument. On WOL, Facebook, Twitter, etc. And to be honest, I'm a bit tired of explaining to Swansea fans that the American owners didn't steal money from the club. If they had, I would be the first to tell you. On the contrary, they have lost money. You all know it was my idea to sue all of them already in 2016. It was me who wrote long posts on the Jack Army forum explaining what fraud on minority is and what the Supporters Trust should do. So be sure I'm not defending them, but I also don't want to accuse them of something they didn't do.

It's true that we have sold players for over £200, £206 million to be exact, between 2016/17 and 2022/23.

Here are the facts.

Looking at 7 years from 2016/17 to 2022/23:

Cash absorbed from operations = £96m

Net cash from transfers = £51m (sold for £206m, bought for £155m)

Cash spent on capital expenditure (facilities, etc.) = approx. £10m

The sum of these 3 is a cash outflow of £55m. I hope you understand what that means. It means a LOSS.

Over the same period, the owners have injected £49 million into the club. That's extra investment, so we don't have a huge debt at the moment like some other Championship clubs. The majority of that investment has been equity. In other words, by issuing the new shares, which had a negative impact on the Supporters Trust shareholding in the club. That's what I don't like: Our debt has been funded by the Trust's shares (money) and no one is talking about it!!! That's the problem. Everybody told me I was crazy when I kept arguing that I didn't want the new owners to invest in the club because I knew what would happen to the Trust shares - I'm a lawyer after all. In all those years of American ownership, I think I was the only one who didn't want them to invest, while everyone else was screaming invest, invest! I always wanted them to run the club in a sustainable way. And you know what? I don't blame them for not investing even more of their own extra money in the club, I blame them for the extra money they invested. I blame them for not being able to sell more than they bought. I blame them for being bad businessmen.

I was told that Laudrup's dismissal was on the expectation of the Yanks coming in which had been in negotiation for quite a time behind the scenes. Laudrup was regarded as a divisive figure with far too high a profile for 'some peoples' taste' but Jenkins is on record as saying that he had a great deal of respect and admiration for him and that they worked well together. As a matter of fact Jenkins told me as much on one of the many occasions I went to watch training at Llandarcy.

Jenkins is full of shit, but I believe him when he says that it was not his idea to sack Laudrup. It was Morgan who was pulling the strings, which is perfectly normal - he was the majority owner and a successful businessman, which is more than can be said for the other shareholders at the time.

They didn't sack Laudrup because of some imaginary would-be owner from the US, they sacked him because they were afraid we would go down (we were only 2 points above the relegation zone) and they knew that if we went down they wouldn't be able to cash in. They knew that you lose money in the Championship. Also, the senior players in the squad were complaining about Laudrup's training sessions ("not as intensive as Rodger's") and Monk and Tate were benched (read humiliated, Laudrup preferred Chico Flores). Then there was that lunatic agent of Laudrup's who publicly humiliated the club. Then there were the Swansea fans who called for Laudrup's head, and you know that the club hierarchy always listened to what our fans had to say. I remember a few months before he was sacked there was so much hostility towards Laudrup from the vast majority of Swansea supporters. So there were many factors that influenced the club hierarchy to sack Laudrup, but the could-be American ownership? Absolutely not.

 

[ivoralljack]

I agree with much of what you say but not all of it. It's true that we were flirting with relegation when Laudrup was dismissed but it should also be remembered that we weren't that far off the top six either. It was that kind of league in those days. A couple of wins would have seen us ease away comfortably from the relegation area which is what actually happened.

As for training, Laudrup was the victim of malicious planning by some senior players and their cohorts. Monk had more than enough motivation. He was not happy about the Flores situation; even less happy when Laudrup picked Ki at the back in preference to him for the Final at Wembley. And he didn't appreciate Laudrup's criticism after a 5 goal rout at Liverpool where his mistakes cost us goals and him his place against Bradford.

He was eagerly backed by Tate, a whole-hearted but extremely limited player, who knew that Laudrup didn't rate him and would only give him pitch time when he had no other alternative. Leon joined them in their approach to Jenkins with their 'complaints' but was quick to distance himself when he could see which way the wind was blowing. Of course Ashley Williams was heavily involved being close mates with Monk and Tate. But I've seen Ash being interviewed about Laudrup and his training after the Dane's dismissal. He made no criticism of it whatsoever and grinned hugely when he said that Laudrup very often joined in and was easily the best player despite having long retired as a player.

Then there was Wayne Routledge who is on record (something which has often been posted on here) as saying that Laudrup was easily the best coach he had ever worked under. And remember that Wayne had been at a number of clubs and worked with some very good coaches. When asked to expand on his opinion he said that instead of TELLING a player how to do a particular thing, he SHOWED him how to do it.

It seems that Laudrup became the victim of a personality clash and of a 'nobody's' attempt to further his own career, which I'm pleased to say has since crashed and burned. The trouble is that Laudrup was a reserved, aloof kind of character, which is a trait of many, not all, Scandies. Some can be dificult to get along with, CJ, as you might have discovered living there as you do.

I've had limited experience of Scandies, both Swedish as it happens. In Wales we had a neighbour called Margherita who was oddball to say the least. Nice enough in her way but she did some strange things on occasion! In Spain we moved to a new house with a Swedish family as our immediate neighbours and the vendor actually warned us about them the day we moved in; said they were 'strange' people that he'd always had difficulty in establishing a rapport with them. We got along okay with them until we fell out. They took us to court over an issue with our respective dogs and they lost, the court finding in our favour. We never spoke again!

By the way, back in Laudrup's time I had some good sources within the club and what I posted above is derived from info that I was supplied with at the time. I made a promise of non-disclosure then but enough time has passed to dilute much of which has since come into the public domain anyway with a lot of opinion having been expressed on the subject.