Swansea City Football Club have some real decisions to make this week on the future of head coach, Luke Williams and indeed his staff as the long spell of poor form gets worse and worse this year.

The Swans haven’t won this year as we approach the end of January and only one loan player to date has agreed to come to the club. That signing, Hannes Delcroix looked one of the better players on the pitch at Norwich City yesterday. A game the Swans lost 5-1.

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⚽️ Swansea get battered, Williams has to go

The texts and calls were buzzing yesterday after the defeat to the Canaries with nobody knowing anything but to offer opinions on what may happen to Luke Williams. The only reasonable piece of information came in the guise of the club board and investors do have talks on the day after Saturday games. To be honest we would be pretty annoyed if those new investors were now not pressing the alarm continuously to speak with Chairman, Andrew Coleman on Luke Williams future. The Chairman did mention ‘three vital games’ before the Swans lost to Sheffield United and now Norwich City. That indicated to some Swans fans that a decision may be made (whatever that is) after the Coventry City home game next Saturday.

Well, if that decision is the future of Luke Williams, then what’s the point in waiting a whole week ?

There are though some issues for Andrew Coleman if he does decide to pull the trigger this week. One has to be that a manager-less club is hardly going to help attract whatever players may come to Swansea over the coming eight days. As it stands that looks limited with Leyton Orient midfielder, Ethan Galbraith seemingly heading the charts to become a Swansea player. The Belfast born twenty three year old was released by his first club, Manchester United in 2023. It has taken him two years to settle at the O’s after a few loan spells but this season has been his best to date. Claims he is the League One version of Iniesta by Northern Ireland manager, Ian Baraclough seems a big title to stand up to. Lastly on that whether Luke Williams is at Swansea or not won’t affect Ethan’s decision if it actually does come to that.

The main issues for those who make the decisions at Swansea City were highlighted yesterday afternoon in a performance that Luke Williams stated post match was pathetic. There seems to be nothing Williams can do to stem the tide of fifteen goals conceded in four away games this year (Inc FA Cup) The only point picked up was an injury time leveller by Joe Allen a few weeks ago against West Bromwich Albion at home. The other thing that really must be concerning the club is the slow regression of Josh Key and Ronald since Luke came to the Swans. You could possibly include Josh Tymon as well, all three players haven’t had the best of seasons.

⚽️ Talking point : Post match yesterday when asked by BBC journalist Simon Davies about any players coming in Luke replied, ‘Not to my knowledge’ That comment sums up Luke Williams for us, he simply doesn’t care.

The training clearly isn’t getting the squad fit to play and compete in a game for ninety minutes. The performances all season have reflected a team that isn’t competent enough to match their opposition, no matter who they are in the main. Be that match fitness, poor mechanics when delivering a strategy for a fixture or just a lack of belief in the head coach from the players. Things are now at a head. It all seems so long ago (a week basically) when four club employees including Coleman and Williams were all set to go and watch a player to ‘assess’ him in Holland. That for us was yet another alarm bell for a club that insisted nearly four weeks ago things were positive, targets had been spoken to and two were indicated as looking good to sign.

Now Luke’s Swansea win rate is falling dramatically towards thirty percent, his win rate at Swindon was at twenty six percent when he ‘mutually agreed’ to leave. His final season there taking the club down to League Two. He’s done it before but time like most things have coated over his poor record. At the Swans after fifty four games he has won just eighteen. So do the club wait longer, just to see what happens ?

The final concern has to be the desperately poor attendances at home this season. They are gradually falling and anyone who was at the home loss to Sheffield United last Tuesday will tell you an attendance like that has never been seen in the league for years. That means financial losses for the club, losses that the Swans cannot sustain. With the club bleeding money despite a year of commercial progress, huge salary cut backs in the playing staff and indeed behind the scenes a club losing money as the Swans are have to take stock very quickly. The P&S restrictions are also hardly helping. Coupled with that any money to rid the club of Luke Williams is declarable via P&S, yes it will be in stages, but he has a three and a half year contract that he has only fulfilled a year of. Michael Duff we are told only concluded his payments this month. We genuinely thought it was longer.

Any money spent now to sack Williams will most certainly come out of this months player trading, including the summer if player trading ever happens that is. These payments will continue forwards for some time. The long term financial hit could well leave Coleman in two minds as to what action to take in the immediate.

That can mean anything this week but those we know are split fifty/fifty. Based on that it is possible that Luke Williams will still be head coach next Saturday. Personally I’m not so sure for all the reasons in this report this morning. However, this all comes down to finances as much as Luke Williams poor coaching record at Swansea City. And money always wins.

Photograph licensed from Reuters and open source

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