Swansea Appoint Carlos Carvalhal As New Manager

The managerial merry go round is in full swing right now and that is no less evident than at the Liberty Stadium as Carlos Carvalhal has been named the new manager of Swansea. The appointment ends the two game caretaker stint that former Midfielder Leon Britton was in charge for and after being at the helm of their 5-0 defeat at Anfield on the Boxing Day it was quite apparent that the South Wales outfit would have to act fast.

The task in hand for the former Sheffield Wednesday boss is undoubtedly survival with the club currently at the foot of the table and five points from safety. That obviously is not the biggest hurdle to overcome but the fact that they have only scored 11 goals from their first 20 matches will be an area that Carvalhal will need to improve on immediately.

If you were to extrapolate over the course of the season it would mean that the Swans would have scored just 22 goals all season and that in anyone’s book is a tally that is only good enough for a drop down to the EFL Championship. The question now is whether or not the new man will be backed in the transfer window or whether or not he will have to work with what he is given.

You would imagine that Swansea have the funds in which to bring some new names in but Huw Jenkins now has to decide whether or not to roll the dice in a bid to beat drop. The gamble here is either go big and have a proper crack at getting out of the bottom three or be more pragmatic and begin to plan for life in England’s second tier.

Failure to bring in new names next month would suggest that the club are waving the white flag and the fact that they have bought in a manager with Championship experience could lend itself to that. Although that should not necessarily discredit Carlos Carvalhal as he did manage to get Sheffield Wednesday into the play-offs in the past two seasons.

This season though was a different story though as it seemed apparent that he had taken the squad as far as he could Carvalhal and he was dismissed by Wednesday on Christmas Eve, with the Owls 15th in the Championship table. But the world of football certainly moves quickly and just four days later he has swapped Sheffield for Swansea.

The appointment of Carlos Carvalhal could also be a boost for Renato Sanches as the Portuguese international has failed to live up to expectations since his loan move from Bayern Munich. The fact that he now has a manager who speaks his language may allow him to flourish in the second half of the campaign and show the talent he displayed during Euro 2016.

Swansea are one of six teams that have rolled the managerial dice this season and it is fair to say that it has worked for four of the other five clubs who have changed managers, however you get the feeling that they can’t all beat the drop come next May and it is then when we will see just how shrewd an appointment this one is.

EDIT: After the article went live it was also announced that Carvalhal is initially only contracted until the end of the season with the option of an extension on offer. Seems as if Swansea are hedging their bets and seeing which way the wind blows.