Food for thought: Why Carvalhal’s appointment does not guaranteed success for Swansea City

Why Carvalhal’s Appointment Is Not A Guaranteed Success For Swansea City

Swansea City have named Carlos Carvalhal as their new manager, initially until the end of the season but with an extension option beyond that.

The Portuguese coach agreed on a deal to take over at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday evening and travelled to meet his new squad and take over training on Thursday.

The 52-year-old manager left Sheffield Wednesday after they lost at home to Middlesbrough. Ironically, the opposition sacked their manager after that game too, although Carvalhal may already think it was for the best, after trying to become a Premier League manager with the Owls.

His new side is 5 points behind 17^th place with 18 games to go, though the new man in charge believes he can lead the Swans to safety with what he called “strong commitment” from the players, despite acknowledging that it is a difficult challenge.

He will take charge for the first time, at Watford this weekend, which is a tough start, though any result at Vicarage Road will not stop many from feeling he will improve the team over time. The question is if he is the right choice.

Yes is definitely the answer as far as Lee Bullen is concerned. Sheffield Wednesday’s interim manager told in a press conference that Swansea have got a ‘top class coach’ coach on their hands. Bullen said that Swansea’s decision to bring in Carvalhal was no surprise to him and pointed to Carvalhal’s overall record in the two-and-a-half year spell in English football.

Carvalhal averaged 1.56 points per game with Sheffield Wednesday, which, given that he didn’t have the sort of budgets that some recently relegated Championship sides have enjoyed, is not bad at all. He seems consistent then at least, though his persistence with the 4-4-2 means he may leave a weak Swansea City squad open to stronger Premier League midfield set-ups. So this is something which may worry some fans.

He takes over from previous coach Paul Clement, who was sacked because of this season’s poor results to date. Leon Britton had until now been working as a player-caretaker manager but it is as yet uncertain whether he will stay at the club now that Carvalhal has arrived.

To date, Carvalhal has managed 15 different teams in 4 counties including such names as Sporting Lisbon, Braga and Besiktas, so he will at the very least bring plenty of experience to this role.

Having gotten to grips with English football, he may be a decent bet to steady the ship and steer it to calmer seas, however, there is clearly no guarantee of that.