The fact that Steve Kaplan and a personal assistant / advisor have remained in the United Kingdom since arriving in London on Monday afternoon may well get tongues wagging as to the reasons why. And we can add of course most of Kaplan’s time has been in Swansea, but most certainly not all of it.
It’s always best to speculate your wishes regards a sale of the club or even that Kaplan is here to change the management of the football team. Get it off your chest. That gives hope that the magic wand will be waved and all will be changed overnight. Russell Martin is on his way and the club will be sold, oh glory be and have a guess what ? Everything will be fine, King Kaplan is here.
Excuse my presumptive stance, I have been involved in Swansea City as a fan, running supporters clubs, I have written seven books on the club jointly and as sole author, plus the collaboration of silver shield to gain access rights to the land once called the white rock had to be outed.That led to meetings during 2000 and 2001 in Bristol, Oxford and London to force ownership removal be that from the aforementioned Silver Shield, Mike Lewis and yes, Tony Petty.
I believe as the owner of this website and involved in the daily running of it, as much as Phil Sumbler at Planet Swans ( even more so ) we have done the hard miles, the hard work and the hard graft. Sometimes others take the limelight once a crack appears and become the valued memory, but we know the truth, we know what we have learned. And on that there’s little we haven’t experienced over many years of Swansea City involvement.
So the recent speculation on Kaplan, similar to Silverstein last year,and of course the desire for the club to be sold on isn’t without foundation. Everything is up for sale, it always has been, even Manchester United. So why is Kaplan here ?
The timing is most certainly of note.
Unless there is indeed some form of interest in Swansea City Kaplan has to manage what he has and deal with what he knows, especially as the tax year draws to a close. He cannot let the club drift any more than it has over the last year and clearly now has to ensure whatever ducks he has left are at least lined up in some way. Not everything can be done on zoom calls, and his mere presence at the club and elsewhere from a psychological point of view is essential. He also gets to speak to and analyse his staff, and the few he speaks to weekly don’t offer that access on a screen.
The reason he is here is to ensure he has a full grasp on the finances, that’s what drives him, money. He also will be requiring full access to materials to see what maybe he isn’t aware of, those little things which are not afforded to him. Any owner and decision maker of any business would be wise to do so. Not everything is evident.
He will also want to see his staff face to face within their working environment, how they interact and conduct themselves most certainly. Of course when he meets with certain people at the club he will also be able to convey exactly what he wants, and how he wants it done after he leaves. If one or two heads roll in time as a result of this visit, I wouldn’t be surprised. Then there’s the PR side, Kaplan suffered greatly in January and clearly that is an area he needs to address face to face this week.
He has a lot to do when a more pragmatic view is taken.
Russell Martin and Steve Kaplan had a lengthy exchange on Tuesday, it sounded positive, to an extent, things were most certainly agreed, but how that pans out is anyone’s guess based on the experiences of January. That for me are the reasons why Kaplan is here, okay he may have other more broad business to attend to, but if there is anything else it won’t be as dramatic as selling the club, that I’m certain.
I would imagine as well as it is an extended visit we will hear from him as and when he leaves. It is the natural thing to expect, the club is in its worse league placing for many seasons, the investment isn’t there so something has to be done, and that’s why Kaplan is here. For me at least. It isn’t a charm offensive that’s for sure, it’s purely business, and the fall out I’m also certain will slowly trickle out in the weeks to come.
Even when it’s a none season this club still presents itself to the fans as one which can still grab your emotions and still keep you guessing. However, I’m certain the more speculative guessing on sales and manager sackings are far wide of the mark.