Next Swansea Manager Tips, Odds & Predictions
Content Editor at Free Super Tips, Alex was born in the shadow of Old Trafford and is an avid Man Utd fan. After graduating from university he combined his love of football, writing and betting to join FST and now closely follows goings-on in all of the top European leagues.
The inevitable has finally happened and Garry Monk has been “reluctantly” sacked by Swansea City chairman Huw Jenkins, but the big question is who do they have lined up to replace him? Let’s take a look at the potential replacements who will pick up a Swansea City side struggling just 1 point outside the relegation zone in 15th position.
Gus Poyet
Former Sunderland boss has been heavily linked with the Swansea City job and is now favourite with some bookmakers, 2/1 with Ladbrokes but you can still get 11/4 with bet365. The Uruguayan was sacked by Sunderland in March this year and Swansea’s chairman is a ‘big fan’ of Poyet and reportedly offered him the job back in 2010.
Newspapers are reporting that the club have already been in contact with Poyet to make an enquiry about Poyet. In his first season in charge of Sunderland he secured them Premier League safety with just one game remaining and took them to a League Cup final. However with only a 30% win percentage in his 75 matches this saw Sunderland sitting 17th in the Premier League and resulted in Poyet being sacked in March 2015.
Brendan Rodgers
Rodgers could well be the obvious choice for Swansea City. He was appointed manager in 2010, taking over from Paulo Sousa who had been head hunted by Leicester City. Taking over a team who had finished 7th in the Championship, the next two years saw the Jacks not only qualify for the Premier League by winning the Championship Play-Off final (against his old team Reading) but then proceeded to finish 11th when favourites with many bookies for relegation.
As was the norm, despite signing a new deal with Swansea in February, he was head hunted by Liverpool and joined them on June 1st. He wrote a memorable open letter to Swansea City, thanking them for his time and praising Huw Jenkins. He even went as far as saying: “Swansea will live in my heart for the rest of my life and one day I would love to return to this great club and city.”
There’s plenty of debate about whether Rodgers did a good job at Liverpool – even though he took them to 2nd in the league – but there’s no doubt that with the lower expectations of Swansea he could again work his magic and get results. With a great relationship between himself and the chairman, an obvious love of the city, plenty of respect from the players and no current job, Rodgers looks a good fit.
Rodgers has drifted out to 7/1 with bet365 after reports suggest he is holding out to be next England manger.
David Moyes
It’s been an odd couple of years from David Moyes since he left the relative safety of Everton; an unsuccessful spell at Manchester United followed by an unsuccessful spell at Real Sociedad, where he lasted less than a year following a poor start to their second season. He had a 52% win percentage at Manchester United in his 51 games, while the fact remains he took an Everton side which were regularly in the bottom half of the table and turned them into a solid top half team.
He was linked earlier this week to the Swansea post, but according to an interview with BBC Wales Sport he was not interested in taking the role. Whether this will change now Garry Monk has been sacked remains to be seen but if he could do the same job with Everton as he did with Swansea City then he would make plenty of Swansea City fans very happy indeed. He is currently as short as 1/1 with Sky Bet to take up the job.
Mark Warburton
An odd range of odds available here from just 5/1 with Sky Bet all the way through to 8/1 with Paddy Power, Mark Warburton has only just joined Rangers but has been linked with a number of clubs already. Most recently that was Fulham, but there are rumours about that he may be in line for the Swansea job.
He was previously manager of Brentford, gaining them promotion from League One to the Championship, before falling out with the club’s hierarchy who wanted to reshape the management structure. He’s currently on a 3 year contract at Rangers with a 86% win percentage (19 wins from 22 games).
It would be a gamble to take Warburton on, as he’s only managed 100 games in his career and only Championship level at that. While Huw Jenkins has shown he’s willing to take gambles by giving Garry Monk the job in the first place, it could be that the phrase “once bitten, twice as shy” applies here and the chairman may well decide that what the club needs is proven Premier League experience to get them back on track.
Roberto Di Matteo
Currently without a job and 33/1 with Coral, Roberto Di Matteo would be one of those who has proven Premier League experience, having gained an easy bounce-back promotion for West Bromwich Albion. He was sacked from West Brom after a poor start to the season but despite taking Chelsea to a 57% win percentage and winning both the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League as interim manager he didn’t last long as a permanent manager.
He then went to Schalke, where they threw away a good position in the league with an awful run in their last 10 games and ended up finishing 6th – outside the Champions League places – before resigning after falling out with the management. He’s got previous top level management experience and was heavily linked to both Newcastle United and West Ham in summer. He’s got previous playing experience in the Premier League which Huw Jenkins may see as a bonus (as he did with Garry Monk) and there were stories in Italy that he was 3rd on the list of potential Liverpool bosses behind Jurgen Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti.
The big breaking point could be his wages – he was reportedly on £130,000 a week at Chelsea – while Garry Monk was the reportedly the joint lowest paid Premier League manager on just £10,000 a week. However, if di Matteo is willing to significantly reduce his expectations Huw Jenkins may be willing to sign a big contract knowing that Swansea need to stay up to qualify for the big hike in prize money next season.
Other Contenders
A quick look at the other potentials:
Nigel Pearson
Worked wonders in his 4 years at Leicester, working them up from League One to the Championship before returning to take them from the Championship to the Premier League. His sacking was largely linked to his son’s role in the infamous racist sex tape and he’s got a lot of experience.
Walter Mazzarri
Out of a job since 2014 when he left Inter, he spent 4 years turning Napoli into a top team who he nearly took the Champions League quarter finals. According to the Metro he’s been living in Manchester to learn English so he can manage a Premier League team and he would be a very interesting recruit.
Harry Redknapp
The man, the legend, Harry Redknapp is linked to most jobs going and it’s hard to see his style of football suiting Swansea City, and it would be a significant change in direction over any manager they’ve previously hired to bring him in. His last season at QPR was a mess, picking up a record zero points from away games despite being in game week 24.
