| Clement speaks on 21:22 - Feb 2 with 8786 views | forkbeard |
This has been the season of the shock managerial sacking. Eight and counting in the Premier League, starting with Frank De Boer after only four league games, then Craig Shakespeare, Ronald Koeman, Slaven Bilic, Tony Pulis, Paul Clement, Mark Hughes and Marco Silva. There are websites dedicated to the sack race, bookies have lists updated at the drop of a point, and 60-point headlines scream P45. Antonio Conte, head coach of the champions, Chelsea, could conceivably be next.
“It’s not easy being a manager now,” Clement reflects in his first big interview since leaving Swansea City in December. “You fatigue a lot, mentally. As well as tactics and training, and the media looking for performers in press conferences, you’re counsellor to players and dealing with chairmen and owners.
“With the demands of the Premier League, the importance of staying in it, how big every game is, the scrutiny, and analysis around every game, there is noise everywhere and there’s the keyboard warriors. Everyone has an opinion. It’s like that with owners and with fans. It’s an opinion that’s not based on deep knowledge of the profession, is it?
“Defeats hurt me more than anybody, more than any fan, more than any player, more than any owner. You put all that effort in, all that planning, all that emotional time, physical effort, to get what you want and when you don’t get it, it’s hard.
“I was under no illusions; the reason I got the sack was because the results weren’t good enough. One win in ten, bottom of the table. But the atmosphere around the training ground was good, my relationship with the players was good.
“It’s interesting what’s happening now with [Carlos] Carvalhal [Clement’s successor] because it’s almost a carbon copy of what happened when I went in one year ago. I got that new manager bounce. I went four wins out of six, and he’s three out of five, almost identical. He’ll probably get manager of the month. I got manager of the month for January.”
Clement kept Swansea up last season and was shortlisted for manager of the year. “Because they beat Arsenal and Liverpool [under Carvalhal], the perception is straightaway, ‘Oh maybe it wasn’t a problem with the players, the problem was me.’ Perception is unbelievable, how it can be shaped in people’s minds without knowing really the details behind everything.” Like recruitment.
“The chairman [Huw Jenkins] is very passionate about the club,” Clement continues. “His idea of selling the club [controlling interest to the Americans Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien] was to get other people to take it on with further investment. Maybe that’s not happened at the level everyone thought.
“The Swansea model is interesting. They got a lot of success and admirers for the football they played, and the way they did their business. But people catch you up. Other clubs are investing in a really high level now. Swansea’s investment is clear over the past five or six years – it is the lowest [in the league]. They have even got a [positive] net spend [this season], which is incredible for the Premier League, compared to other clubs. Other people are investing. Other people are doing really good stuff behind the scenes. You can’t stand still.
“I felt the fans’ nervousness. At the time the results weren’t going well, they were more angry with the ownership, the chairman, the recruitment and the Gylfi Sigurdsson/Fernando Llorente situation. We lost two players who created and scored goals, and we replaced them with someone [Wilfried Bony] who had not played football for the last two years and who was going to be a big gamble. There were mistakes made, for sure.” [Post edited 2 Feb 2018 21:22]
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| Clement speaks on 21:22 - Feb 2 with 8768 views | forkbeard |
One mistake was the 36 days between Everton starting to woo Sigurdsson and his leaving the Liberty Stadium, a delay that ruined Clement’s hopes of bringing more significant talent in. “It was a big frustration,” he says. “It went on too long. I understand from the owners’ point of view they want to maximise revenue because he’s an asset, but at the same time you are eating away at time and potential targets are slipping through your fingers. From my point of view, that was a mistake.
“I’d be lying if I said I had a player forced upon me at any point. But at the same time there was one player that I really wanted [Nacer Chadli of West Bromwich Albion], and we didn’t get it over the line, and if we’d got him it would have made everything so much better.
“We ended up with the squad that was not balanced. Take the left back position. We sold [Stephen] Kingsley to Hull to get [Sam] Clucas, and ended up with one left back [Martin Olsson] and then he gets injured. For me that’s not a sensible way of planning your job strategically.”
Swansea signed three central midfield players– Clucas, Roque Mesa and Renato Sanches – in the summer when they were well-stocked there. “So you have eight midfielders, three spots and a management headache.”
He was hoping to build around Sanches, who arrived on loan from Bayern Munich. “I thought that was a massive coup for us, to attract a player of that level after what he’d done a summer earlier in the Euros [with Portugal],” Clement says. “I knew it would take some time. I was with him the first six months at Bayern [as assistant to Carlo Ancelotti], and he hadn’t played regularly. His physical condition was down. His confidence was down. When I called Bayern, [the chief executive Karl-Heinz] Rummenigge initially said to me, ‘There are ten other clubs in,’ and I left it.
“It was only a couple of weeks later when I spoke to Carlo and asked, ‘Have you got any players for me?’ Tongue in cheek really, and he went, ‘Renato Sanches.’ Bayern really supported it. They thought he was going to a club who played football, and to a coach who would care and give him the attention he needs.
“He wasn’t so keen initially. He thought he was going to go to Man United, Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain. Bayern were saying, ‘You’re not going there, it would be the same situation, you’re not going to play.’ When he came, he was far more damaged than I thought. It was really sad. He was a boy who had almost got the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“In training, when that pressure is not there, he was the best player. He could do things no one else could do. He’s got power, can go past people, got a shot on him. But then in games, I looked at the choices he was making, shooting from 45 yards on the angle, and he kept making those mistakes.
“He had a desire to please and a desire to prove everybody wrong. He got in a vicious cycle of poor choices. The other players were saying, ‘He’s playing like that and you’re not picking me,’ so it became difficult to pick him.”
Sanches was the best player in training, says Clement, but he was “far more damaged” than the manager had expected
Having worked, as Ancelotti’s assistant, with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale at Real Madrid and Philipp Lahm and Robert Lewandowski at Bayern, Clement found himself trying to accentuate the skills and minds of lesser players, first at Derby County and then Swansea. “It was frustrating,” he says. “I liked the lads. They were good groups of professionals but that was a big thing for me: I went from Real Madrid to Derby and then from Bayern Munich to Swansea.
“I have a really clear idea of how I’d like to play, and then you hear criticism that ‘the tactics are negative’. Well, OK, I was dealing with the players I have. They talk about ‘the Swansea way’, possession-based football. OK, then you open up and – whoosh – you get cut through by the big teams.”
Clement has worked now under two systems: the Americans and Jenkins at Swansea and Mel Morris at Derby, where he lasted only 33 games, being dismissed with the team only five points off top of the Championship. “At Derby, the chairman was very, very hands-on. One game, we’d drawn 1-1 with Reading, were still second, but we’d played really poorly and he [Morris] was really angry.
“He’s gone into the dressing room and was shouting at the players, about spirit and playing for the shirt. We had a trip to Dubai organised for the following week, and on the way out, he said, ‘And you can forget that trip to Dubai, you can train here on the muddy pitches.’ The next game we got beat 3-0 at home by Birmingham.
“His answer to me was along the lines of ‘create a siege mentality with the players, we’ll show you’. It was bizarre. I don’t think that was a good combination at the time, a first-time manager, and he’s just taken ownership of the club. If you’re going to have a first-time manager, have an owner who’s got experience.”
Southgate can change the perception of English managers if he succeeds with the national team, says Clement
Gary Rowett is doing well with Derby, but Clement has a broader warning for homegrown coaches. “English coaches don’t have a good reputation and for me they never will until somebody, whether it is Gareth [Southgate] with the national team or whether it is one of the English coaches in the Premier League, goes and does something really special,” he says.
“There’s big responsibility on Gareth. If he manages to crack it, which is really tough, then and only then will we start to get that reputation, like the Dutch have had in the past, the French, the Spanish, now the Germans.
“I want to better myself as a manager. I’m going to see some other managers, people I really like and respect. I had a chat with Paul Lambert yesterday. I’m going to go and see Pep Guardiola at Man City. I will probably go back into the academy at Chelsea. I’ve got a visit to see Sir Alex [Ferguson] next month. I’m going to go with him to the Man United-Chelsea game.
“I really hope I get another chance soon. I believe I have the ability to work at the top level. I’d consider working abroad again. Ideally it would be back in the Premier League, but it’s really tough now.” | | | |
| Clement speaks on 21:35 - Feb 2 with 8669 views | Landore_Jack |
Deservedly taking a parting shot at Jenkins regarding player recruitment. | |
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| Clement speaks on 21:40 - Feb 2 with 8631 views | Glyn1 |
Thanks for this, but any sacked manager always says almost exactly the same. | |
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| Clement speaks on 21:40 - Feb 2 with 8631 views | Jack123 |
Looks like a very nice CV, but at the end of the day, Clement just can't cut the mustard yet. | |
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| Clement speaks on 21:47 - Feb 2 with 8538 views | Headmaster |
Indeed. He makes some good points to be fair. Here's a summary:
We're standing still, while other clubs around us are investing (similar to what Laudrup said).
He really wanted Chadli.
He didn't expect Sanches to be so bad.
The Sigurdsson saga took too long, replacing Llorente with Bony was a mistake.
We couldn't play the "Swansea way" because we didn't have the players to do so. [Post edited 2 Feb 2018 21:48]
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| Clement speaks on 21:54 - Feb 2 with 8463 views | monmouth |
Self justifying load of shit. You don’t have what it takes pal. Frightened negative man that creates frightened negative teams. | |
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| Clement speaks on 22:02 - Feb 2 with 8355 views | longlostjack |
Kept us up last year though. Having said that I never took to the bloke after he came running down the steps at Selhurst Park to give advice to Curt when Rangel put us in front. Typical London bragger. [Post edited 2 Feb 2018 22:05]
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| Clement speaks on 22:02 - Feb 2 with 8343 views | Swansea93 |
Then how has Carlos changed our style of play with the same team then Paul? | |
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| Clement speaks on 22:08 - Feb 2 with 8283 views | Headmaster |
He was talking about possession-based football there. I don't think our possession has increased under Carvalhal, but he has been much more tactically versatile and adaptable than Clement so far. | | | |
| Clement speaks on 22:22 - Feb 2 with 8138 views | mysonsarejacks |
Biggest point in the article is recruitment. Not having options at full-back is still an issue despite the transfer window. | |
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| Clement speaks on 22:48 - Feb 2 with 7946 views | awayjack |
Do they ? Can't remember many questioning why DOF signed too many central midfield players but had no LB cover or AM sold late. Fair play calling out Jenkins from his illogical recruitment polocy again. | | | |
| Clement speaks on 23:21 - Feb 2 with 7788 views | Fireboy2 |
It hasnt but Carlos' positive behaviour is the difference | | | |
| Clement speaks on 00:01 - Feb 3 with 7650 views | bringbacklaudrup |
What we've been seeing is largely not a new manager bounce.
A persistent problem we've seen at Swansea in the past several seasons has been that the physical conditioning programmes are not close enough to the state of the art, so it takes several months after the start of the competitive season for the fitness and work rate to become adequate to perform well at this level. Look at how Sigurdsson's performances were mediocre to below average in the first few months of the season for the past few years, and it is only in mid to late January that his performances begin to approach his best. Of course this is partly due to the fact that Iceland has had to play more matches such as at Euro 2016 due to its success on the international stage. But this problem is mostly due to a fitness deficit.
The iconic Swansea style of play is very demanding fitness-wise, because players are required to constantly make themselves available for the pass before the player who passes the ball to them receives the ball. Under Rodgers and Laudrup, the players possessed the fitness necessary to play this style. In recent years, especially with the ball-at-feet focus in training, this fitness has waned. Specificity ("Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands") is only one principle in training. Another important principle is the Overload Principle, which says that the load of the training needs to be upgraded for any significant improvements in fitness or strength to be gained. It is very difficult for a training focused too much on ball-at-feet to adequately meet the demands of overloading. If one's body needs to be exposed regularly to carbohydrate depletion in order to be able to produce the physical resources to cope in such a state, their training needs to include a lot of aerobic activity that is continuous and long enough to make efficient use of carbohydrates necessary, and so the body is prepared to access other energy sources when carbohydrates are being depleted, which usually occurs only after about one hour of continuous exercise. Training focused mostly on ball-at-feet training wouldn't be continuous enough to efficiently prepare the body for such demands. When watching Swansea matches, the lack of explosive strength, speed, and endurance seemed obvious. Under Laudrup, the problems that occurred in the first half were mostly resolved in the second half; but after Laudrup, the many problems, particularly of tiring well before the end of the match became very visible.
Of course I am not saying that ball-at-feet training isn't essential. But it needs to be complemented with other exercises that are meant to boost the efficiency of cellular processes, which often change after the hour mark. [Post edited 3 Feb 2018 0:04]
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| Clement speaks on 00:28 - Feb 3 with 7517 views | westside |
Why did clement throw Sanches straight in if he had no confidence ?
Didn't clement say clucas was a utility player who could play full back like at west ham | | | |
| Clement speaks on 01:31 - Feb 3 with 7394 views | TheResurrection |
I'm disgusted by those comments from the boring tvvat.
Clearly hurting cos he's just not up to it. Moans about central midfield then goes out and brings another one in. The fact he didn't know. Sanches was struggling for form, or maybe just not got it, says it all.
Oh and he kept playing him regardless of form.
I got it wrong about Clement, I genuinely thought he would be someone who continually evolved in the role. He wasn't, he was just as the Derby fans said all along, and his dour demeanour and dress sense really rubbed off, not just on the players, but everyone attached to the club, fans and all. The fact there were polls on here about sacking him with 95% infavour said it all. But he was allowed to rumble on and cause more damage.
Managers normally sign a gagging clause when leaving their club's, I hope that means the Swans will keep some of his severance money back.
Just like Monk, Clement, you won't make it either. Managers like you with your shape and fack all else grow out from cornflakes boxes two a penny, along with the badges you're so proud of. | |
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| Clement speaks on 02:07 - Feb 3 with 7338 views | JethroJack |
He gets an opportunity to run all this past the nation verbally on the telebox on Goals on Sunday. | | | |
| Clement speaks on 02:10 - Feb 3 with 7335 views | bringbacklaudrup |
Those comments are seem overly harsh for someone who created a minor miracle at the end of last season.
Clement is a competent manager, but his main weakness seems to be that he doesn't seem to be able to improvise as well as Carvalhal when lacking resources. But there are not so many of these managers, so he is no worse than most. The players brought in during the winter transfer window last season were ready to contribute upon arrival. The fact that players like Carroll were fit enough to play even when he got so little playing time at Spurs is an indication of how good the conditioning programme at Spurs is. But the problem is that while some of these players arrive at Swansea in good shape, the training during the off- and pre-season and competitive season doesn't seem to be ideal, so these players experience difficulty maintaining their form at the start of the next season. If the likes of Carroll or Olsson left Swansea early in this transfer window for another Premier League club, it seems unlikely they would have the impact they had last season upon their arrival at Swansea. This would indicate that the problem is with Swansea's ability to keep players in peak condition.
Has Clement spent so long at clubs having plentiful resources that he is at a loss of what to do when those resources are severely lacking? Even if this is the case, it doesn't mean that he's any worse than say a Mourinho, who would probably have experienced similar frustrations at a team such as Swansea, as he has often proven lack of ability to make do without high levels of talent. [Post edited 3 Feb 2018 2:10]
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| Clement speaks on 07:16 - Feb 3 with 6998 views | Dr_Winston |
Clement grumbling about a lack of attacking options when he played an attacking box to box midfielder at DM or LB is a bit odd. | |
| Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair, or f*cking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back. |
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| Clement speaks on 07:58 - Feb 3 with 6852 views | JethroJack |
Clement - square pegs into round holes.
Carlos - square pegs into square holes (and with a broad smile).
Not rocket science. | | | |
| Clement speaks on 08:07 - Feb 3 with 6819 views | STID2017 |
A few points he makes are justified, but overall the grumblings of a failed manager.
CC has showed a difference in a short time not just in results, but importantly in tactics and giving players confidence.
Analogy - under Clement, headless chickens, under CC proud peacocks (or Swans! ) | |
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| Clement speaks on 08:17 - Feb 3 with 6781 views | Dr_Winston |
We were headless chickens under Bradley. Under Clement this year we were just plain chicken.
Clement had a tactical plan. It was just the wrong one for the players he had available. A good manager will always get the best out of what he has. Clement failed in that this season.
This post has been edited by an administrator | |
| Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair, or f*cking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back. |
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| Clement speaks on 08:31 - Feb 3 with 6680 views | WarwickHunt |
Not having PL full-backs at full-back is still an issue and has been for three years and counting. | | | |
| Clement speaks on 08:50 - Feb 3 with 6568 views | STID2017 |
This season defensively, 7 teams are worse than us, two are the same as us, whilst other teams, including Liverpool, Arsenal and Leicester are only marginally better than us.
If you take out the 5, 4 and 4, scored against us by Liverpool, Manure and Citeh, it is clear that our problem has been not scoring goals (largely due to Clement and his negativity)
Our two "Championship level" full backs play as part of a unit which is showing itself to be strong.
Why Naughton in particular gets so much stick for being part of a reasonably tight unit is beyond me | |
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| Clement speaks on 08:52 - Feb 3 with 6557 views | Jinxy |
The opening gambit is all about the fatigue from the "pressure" etc.. As a consequence, he dithered decision-wise - rabbit in headlights fashion - (remember last year home v Boro, 0-0, Baston on the bench and eventually no subs!), didn't have the ability to deal with it adequately, and passed it on to the squad. Simple as that for me. He should re-evaluate, and stick to what he does best - not management Paul - it's not for everyone. | | | |
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