Dark Munster

How many goals did he score when he was there?

In fairness he may have a point. Niemi is 51 and Shilton is 74.

He does seem like a top quality manager. I wonder where we’d be in the league if Ankersen chose him instead of RM?

Skates actually deliberately lost to WBA, but anyway that result was irrelevant to us. We would’ve gone down regardless of what happened in that match.

But then he won’t be able to score 95th minute winners.

Not really. We shouldn’t be 9 points behind Ipswich given the disparity in resources.

The concern is that we can't expect to keep winning by the skin of our teeth. Today was an example where we won but could've easily drawn or lost. Ditto many of our other wins and draws. Yes it's admirable that we keep going until the end, and I'm delighted with those wins, but if we're serious about challenging for the top two we need to start winning most matches more comfortably (annihilations not required!) We've got the squad that should be able to do this against most of the dross in this division. 1-0 wins are fine if we create lots of chances and the other team doesn't look like they'd score in a month of Sundays. Basically like what Ipswich did to us earlier.

Not sure why you'd think that. We were crap under his coaching before he became manager.

I think there are plenty of Swansea fans who would disagree with that. After the diabolical 4 match losing run we have indeed improved (it couldn't be any worse), but as others have said most of the wins have been by the odd goal (some almost the last kick). It's been a fine line between success and failure since Leeds, and fortunately we've been on the right side of that line so far. Hopefully he can get the full potential from the strong squad he has at his disposal, and we can catch Ipswich (who have far less resources).

Under garbage managers. Also against PL defenses. AArmstrong was also garbage as well. I reckon Tall Paul C'veDAJFU in this league.

Did he give a PowerPoint presentation to the kids?

No it's not. Do keep up.

He’s a good Championship defender.

Not even close. That was one match. The comparison here is over 2 seasons.

Me neither until I listened to TSP the other day. The WBA guest fan made some very interesting remarks about him.

And if we lose would you agree they have a much better manager, given the vastly greater resources we have?

He also said they don’t have a pot to piss in (or words to that effect) and their owner is AWOL, taking money out and not investing a penny. Basically they’re doing well solely because of their brilliant manager. He did very well against all odds last season too. But not hipster enough to be on Ankersen’s radar in the summer apparently.

You can say that again.

You can say that again.

As they say, when wolves are chasing you, you don’t have to outrun them, just be faster than the fat guy in your group.

Let's not get carried away. With our squad we should be where Ipswich are. Hats off to their manager for doing a great job with a squad that cost a fraction of ours. We have an expensive top two squad, with only Leicester arguably better, and there is no excuse for us not being in contention for automatic promotion. His tactics earlier were appalling, I don't buy the excuse that the players were having a hard time learning a great new system. Having said that, he does seem to be learning from his mistakes, midfield is much more solid, and defensively it's night and day, with THB and Janny B. forming a very good partnership in the centre, with KWP being brilliant all season. Credit RM also for sticking with Bree after he came in and did a good job, and leaving his bff Manning where he belongs on the bench.

With one exception I presume?

Sounds great doesn’t it? Until you realise the Sky money would drop to a drip once the big boys have left, along with all the good players, and that the new “premier league” would just be the Championship in drag.

Plus he got us promoted at his first attempt from L1. Plus he got us automatic promotion to the PL in his first attempt, being in the top 2 for most of the season. Plus we didn't concede a shit load of goals. Plus he didn't have his team play tedious propaganda football for more than half the time, nor did he at his previous club. But apart from that I guess he's exactly the same as RM. Strange he is much more popular with the fans. Must be because he's Spanish. Oh wait ...

Maybe he’s our new possession coach.