Huw's a Good Boy!

It’s been a tough week at Swansea City but the events of the past few days have once again served to illustrate what a brilliant Chairman we have in the shape of Huw Jenkins.

From the dignified way he handled the exit of Brendan Rodgers (in stark contrast to the Scousers’ behaviour) to the negotiations that saw a whopping £7million in compensation AND a clause to prevent any Rodgers’ raiding of our players, Huw has played a blinder!

It goes to show that with Huw Jenkins and the rest of the superb Swansea City Board at the helm, we are in totally safe hands. Managers and players come and go and on-field fortunes fluctuate but Huw and Co. give us stability behind the scenes and ensure we continue to grow and prosper as a football club.

Yes there have been blips and mistakes along the way – and I’ll be honest here and say that appointing Graeme Jones would be another one in my opinion – but overall Huw’s heirarchy have done an AWESOME job and continue to do so.

I guess I’d better qualify that statement regarding Jones. I’ll confess I felt seriously underwhelmed when it emerged that the Swans had been given permission to speak with our former coach, currently second in command at Wigan. It’s said that Jones is highly thought of and respected within the Liberty Stadium Corridors of Power but for me there are three big reasons why we shouldn’t take such a monumental gamble at this time:-

1) Jones has never managed in his own right before; true he’s rated as an excellent coach but how many of those highly rated No.2′s have failed spectacularly when taking the “big chair”? Steve Kean and Terry Connor are obvious examples from last season whilst you have Alan Irvine as a prime example in recent times and Colin Harvey at Everton sticks out like a sore thumb for me from days gone by. And I think there’s a big difference between a Martinez-like experiment at League 1 level and a novice manager cutting his teeth against the likes of Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp.

2) I agree that there would be a synergy with our style of play given that Jones and Martinez pretty much started the ball rolling  - and Jones is of course noted as the tactician between the two. But hold on…in the Championship under the pair we struggled to score goals and were suspect defensively and their three years at Wigan show that no lessons have been learnt. Do we really want to become the sort of pretty but brittle and toothless side that Wigan were for all but the last eight games of last season?

3) We’ve just had our fingers burnt with a manager walking out on us…do we really want to replace Rodgers with someone that has already done the same AND compounded that by snubbing us twice in the past? I’m sorry, but I don’t!

But hey, if Huw Jenkins and his Board really, REALLY believe the opposite and think that Graeme Jones is the man to keep us in the Premier League next season then who am I to argue? Every appointment they’ve made has been a gamble and – Nick Cusack aside – those gambles have taken us from the bottom division to the top in short time and in great style.

And so if Jones is installed I will put aside my reservations and back him 100%…

…because anything Super Huw comes up with right now is good enough for me!

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