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This was posted on the Swans forum after a Fulham muppet was complaining that the only reason that we beat them 3-0 away was because we kept the ball off them after going 1-0 up?????
"We could have given them another ball and we would have won that back, kept possession of it and beat them with that too the way we played Saturday.

I know, to make things more interesting lets give them the ball back and see what happens.

Bitterness, everyone loves the way we play but don't like it because we play like that without a big name manager or by spending silly money.

We are basically spitting in the face of every manager and chairman who spend big money to compete.

For years managers have moaned about a lack of finances when in a relegation battle. Guess what? We are proving them to be rubbish managers.

You hear people all the time "we got relegated because we didn't spend on big players". Guess what? QPR did that and they look screwed.

We are Swansea City AFC, and we prove your excuses to be utter crap."
 
The Swansea Way. No big money, big ego players, just good under-rated players who are technically proficient, running their guts out for their team mates. And a brilliant young manager who refuses to compromise his vision of the beautiful game. Oh, and we are owned by the supporters, and a few local companies owned by fans.
No oil, blood, mafia money for us, ta.
The template is there for others to follow.
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I wouldn't go as far as to say "The Swansea Way". There are a few teams around the globe that are set up and play in similar fashion to Swansea, Brisbane Roar is a good example and most have had an eye on Barcelona when developing their system. And I think that is where a good manager comes in, being able to implement that system and having the right players to suite the system.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/11/25/goalkeeper-short-passing-distribution/Bullion2012-03-20 14:07:33
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I guess where it is different is that they have done it as a newly promoted side in England - although even then Blackpool tried (and failed) to do something simila, but it is impressive nonetheless BarryZuckerkorn2012-03-20 14:13:18
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Buffy, the Swansea way is not just playing Cruyff style beautiful football, it is more importantly about bringing the game back to the fans in ownership and input, in having a team that plays for each other without players who play only for the money.
Most big name players would not work at Swansea because they don't work hard enough, and most of Swansea's players would not work at another club, because they aren't "star" players. They'd sit on the bench. Scott Sinclair knows that, Sigardsson knows that, from very recent experience. And Routledge has been a relevation at the Swans, whereas he has been a flop at 7 or 8 clubs before.
It is a template other teams can follow. You don't have to pay $50 million for Appaling individuals such as Tevez ,Suarez and El Hadji Dioufs, nor sell your soul for Arab, Russian or Sub-continent blood, sweat and theft money.
You can do it with local companies, run on a budget and with players that don't cost the GDP of a medium sized country.
And it shows that British, and by association, any country, can play the beautiful game, if they are managed properly, if their fans are educated into being patient, and the players buy into the ethics, and strategies involved.
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I meant Bullion, not Buffy, my eyes are getting old
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I think the way Swansea has been playing is great and the way it has been set up is great too. Just that there is precedence in this.
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Brisbane Roar is nowhere near close to Swansea have done, in playing that style against sides which have spent upto 50 times more money on players than they have. The Roar play in a salary cap league. Their style of play is the same, but coming from near bankruptcy, 9 years from being 45 minutes away from being out of the league, and done with local money. I don't think so.
Leon Britton was told he was too small to play in the premiership and dumped by both Arsenal and West Ham.
He was there in that game against Hull on the last day of the 2002/3 season. He has played like this all the time.
 
 
 
 
 
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Athletic Bilbao >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Swansea
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Buffon II wrote:
Athletic Bilbao >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Swansea
 
Spain >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The U.K. 
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Holland>>>>>>Spain>>>>>Wales>>>>>>>>>the world
HZA
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Daikiwi, not too sure about your aggressive approach with this, but i completely agree with every word

The way swansea operates is everything i look up to. I hope rodgers stays long term and doesn't have his head turned by big money

I really hope that swansea continue to push for more and become a real powerhouse, setting a template for others to follow - they've shown that you dont have to be stoke to come up and stay up, and you dont need foreigners to play a technical game.

perhaps their small stadium size could be a barrier to pushing on further, but i hope not

What situation is their academy in? Is there a youth set-up to get some beef underneath their first team/reserves?
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paulm wrote:
The way swansea operates is everything i look up to. I hope rodgers stays long term and doesn't have his head turned by big money


So if Wenger got the chop or moved upstairs you wouldn't want Rodgers at Arsenal? Cause it wouldn't be the worst appointment, and it would be a big money move.
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would be a decent appointment at arsenal in future if the opportunity arose for us

but for swansea's sake i'd hope he'd stay there

coyle made a move sort of like that to try and boost his career and that hasnt worked out so well for him this season, not to mention the damage it did to burnley
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Coyle moved to Bolton though. Bit of a difference going Burnley > Bolton than Swansea > Arsenal.
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that's why i said 'sort of'

When coyle moved he said it was because bolton were '5 years ahead of burnley' in their plan for the future

I'd hazard a guess that swansea probably have lofty ambitions like making the top 4 within the next 5 years, and i hope they do (but not at our expense!)

do you get what i meant now?
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paulm wrote:
I'd hazard a guess that swansea probably have lofty ambitions like making the top 4 within the next 5 years, and i hope they do (but not at our expense!)


Really can't see that happening.
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Wasn't meant to sound aggressive, I was trying to establish that some were missing the point that it was not the style of football, which is clearly not of our making, but it is the "way" we have gone from bottom of the league to eighth, which is through finding a style which works, for the means we had at our disposal.
The irony of Bullion's example is that it was someone from the Brisbane Roar's founding club the Brisbane Lions (Tony Petty) who was the very person who nearly brought the Swans down.
Petty bought the club for a pound, sold our best player (Stu Roberts) and then tried to sack the rest of the team to bring in a group of Australian youngsters. After these plans were thwarted, the Supporters Trust was founded and raised the money to buy him out, with the help of a small group of local businessmen.
 
They made mistakes, nearly went out of the league, but eventually came up with the plan to play possession, passing football and
luckily the Swansea captain of the time Roberto Martinez, who was best mates with Johan Cruyff (and also his dad Johan), persuaded them to give him a go. With advisers such as these, and the rest as they say is history. Which is why I posted Holland, because of course Cruyff has been the genius behind Barcelona's style of football.
 
Garry Monk, our captain (and probably our next manager), and another who has been with the club through all four divisions, thinks we can push on to the next level. The club has announced this week that a new training facility and a 10,000 stadium expansion are being planned and the club also intends to get the academy upgraded.
 
It produced Joe Allen and two other youngsters in the first team squad including Ashley (Jazz) Richards who has played half a dozen first team games when Neil Taylor was injured. The best used to get picked off by other clubs (Sam Ricketts being one) but not any more.
 
There are several other clubs trying to do the same thing, Brighton, Exeter and even, to some extent, Norwich, while the club which tried the old buy big names (QPR) is odds on to go down. Everyone during the year tried to compare us ad nauseum with Blackpool, but they had no defence, while one of the unheralded qualitied of the Swans is their defensive nous, which has led to 12 clean sheats (I think off the top of my head).
 
I hope everyone continues to enjoy our wee journey (and I thank everyone for the great compliments), but I also hope that other club chairman take note of the "way" we did it.
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Actually Martinez had left the club, but I've been supporting them since 1964 so I don't do years very well.
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Also on the subject of spending, Everton and WBA have both spent less (and sold more) over the past 24 months than Swansea, and both are doing just as well, and both play reasonably good football (particularly WBA).
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Buffon II wrote:
Also on the subject of spending, Everton and WBA have both spent less (and sold more) over the past 24 months than Swansea, and both are doing just as well, and both play reasonably good football (particularly WBA).


I assume you haven't watched us, in a while Buffy?
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Everton FC wrote:
Buffon II wrote:
Also on the subject of spending, Everton and WBA have both spent less (and sold more) over the past 24 months than Swansea, and both are doing just as well, and both play reasonably good football (particularly WBA).


I assume you haven't watched us, in a while Buffy?


Alright just WBA then. Although with some of the players in your squad i would of thought you could play something half decent.
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It's not how much you spend Buff, it's the way you spend it.
Moyle is a fabulous manager, especially with the resources he's had.
Did you know the Everton district was once Welsh-speaking.
WBA also does great, but Birmingham is the second biggest city in England, Swansea is the second biggest city in Wales.
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Daikiwi wrote:
The Swansea Way. No big money, big ego players, just good under-rated players who are technically proficient, running their guts out for their team mates. And a brilliant young manager who refuses to compromise his vision of the beautiful game. Oh, and we are owned by the supporters, and a few local companies owned by fans.
No oil, blood, mafia money for us, ta.
The template is there for others to follow.
 
*cough* Toon *cough*
 
sotto voce: 12th last season after gaining promotion and without any big name players. Currently looking to steal 4th spot or at least finish well above 5under1and.  Shame about the owner however...
 
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Two out of three ain't bad.
Still to visit White Rock. Should be a cracker. The atmosphere will be great.
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great news about stadium expansion and extra funding for the academy, i really do hope that swansea push on daikiwi.

A lot of teams like QPR and Wigan previously have been down the spending path (wigan on a smaller scale and they stopped somewhat when they got into the EPL) and have not done well - wigan can be considered fairly successful staying in the prem so long but have always been teetering, and the crowd numbers are poor, their empty stadium is a blight on the league.

Teams like that have long followed either the chelsea or leeds blueprint, and a lot of managers/chairmen seem to assume that debt spending or the acquisition of a sugar daddy is the only way.

The more teams that enjoy success in the mode of swansea, brighton and norwich the better, as more teams will start looking that way, especially in the current economic climate. The transfer market has changed quite drastically in the last 2 seasons, only debt-leveraged clubs and sugar daddies are paying more than about 15 mil for a player at the moment. If you ignore those clubs then the market really has reduced to what it was 10 years ago, price-wise at least.
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paulm wrote:
Teams like that have long followed either the chelsea or leeds blueprint, and a lot of managers/chairmen seem to assume that debt spending or the acquisition of a sugar daddy is the only way.


Lets look at the league leaders around the top European leagues right now then.

Spain: Real Madrid - Massive spenders. (Barcelona in 2nd also spend plenty, but have a few more youth graduates in the mix)

England: Man Utd - Massive spenders. (Man City in 2nd, perhaps even bigger spenders, with perhaps a better squad)

Italy: AC Milan - Big spenders. (Juve in 2nd, spent sh*tloads to get back to the summit following relegation in 06)

Germany: Dortmund - Above average spenders. (Bayern in 2nd, massive spenders, like City perhaps have a better squad but lie in 2nd)

France: PSG - Massive spenders. (Montpeillier in 2nd, small spenders, overachieving)


A pattern emerges. Teams that spend big tend to win titles. Only Montpeillier are an exception above, although 1) The French league is dire and 2) They won't end up winning it anyway.


Swansea have been a success in comfortably staying up in their first season, playing good football along the way. Reading and Ipswich have been there, done that, both inside the past 10 years, and were relegated the season after.

So if Swansea are an established top half side 3-4 seasons down the line, with the same manager, the same philosophy, a small budget, and a host of youth graduates breaking into the first team, then hats off.
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And those are mostly all the teams I despise, thus supporting my argument that I hope more teams follow the Swansea blueprint � I�d like to see the majority of those clubs alter their philosophy and move into financially responsible management, but that may be wishful thinking. The Italian ones you mentioned have both been guilty of match-fixing and other corrupt activity. We�ve seen the fan protests over the debt levels at ManU. Real Madrid have been in debt trouble countless times, even resulting in the ridiculous blatant stealing of public money when they sold their facilities to the council and had them leased back for nothing. Not sure about the situation in France to be honest, but Dortmund are NOT big spenders with their current side, and the German league in general should be applauded for their approach. So many different league winners over the last few years, a lot of financially responsible clubs, highest average game attendance in Europe, the list goes on. If it was on tv I would be a regular viewer.

Obviously you incorrectly interpreted my argument and thought I was claiming that big-spending clubs are not successful at all, which is absurd. What I was saying is that when smaller emerging clubs attempt to follow the blueprint of those clubs, they often fail to the detriment of the common fan. And contrary to your claims, the Swansea approach has not been preceded by Reading, Ipswich or most of the other teams you reference. They do not have fan-ownership schemes (as far as I�m aware, could be wrong), and they did not play football at anything like the technical level we are seeing at Swansea. Swansea may well suffer the second-season blues, who knows, I am not claiming they definitely will be successful, just saying that I sincerely hope they continue to progress from here.

I�ve underlined my actual points this time to make sure you get it, but still I�m not sure that will work.

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Buff.
There is a pattern with big spenders, and that is for every one of those big spenders, there are dozens who did so and are struggling to compete, beset with financial problems or even gone into adminstrationan. Look at Portsmouth, Charlton, Leeds Southampton, Crystal Palace, even our cross country rivals Cardiff, massively in debt, trying to buy there way out of it. Feck we tried it in the 80s, and ended up in adminstration. Did you know that 55 English and Welsh clubs have gone into administration since 1984. 55.
We decided to try another way. And so are a bunch of other enlightened teams, such as I said, Brighton, Norwich, Exeter, Brentford, AFC Wimbledon to name a few. Living within our means, trying to play real football. It's building a club culture and sticking with it. People are tuning in, our message board is full of other supporters saying they should follow the Swansea way, and there will be more doing so in the future, thank goodness.
 
And PS we dicked Arsenal at home, played you off the park, and you were so lucky at Emirates, when we gave you a goal when the ball rolled out by Vorm bounced off Rangels feet to that waste of space Arshavin, who couldn't believe his luck. It can understand where you are coming from, because Arsenal have famously, not spent as much as the supporters want,  but again, I believe it is more to do with how you spend, than the ammount.
 
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paulm wrote:
I�ve underlined my actual points this time to make sure you get it, but still I�m not sure that will work.


No need to be like that.
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This is what financial fairplay is all about. I'm not sure it will work as intended but credit to Platini and UEFA for realising the problem and addressing it.

In regards to those German clubs, I believe there is a rule in Germany that 51% of all clubs must be owned by supporters trusts, which is why they are always so financially stable
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Daikiwi wrote:
...The irony of Bullion's example ...

What I was alluding to is that there are clubs that have fan ownership, Swansea supporters hold 20% of shares in the club while there are clubs not set up as a limited liability company and run as a registered association with fans purchasing membership and form the governing body of the club. These clubs have also gained success, and I use the word success as relative to expectations and financial outlay, playing a style/system of football similar to Swansea.
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Daikiwi wrote:
And so are a bunch of other enlightened teams, such as I said, Brighton, Norwich, Exeter, Brentford, AFC Wimbledon to name a few. Living within our means, trying to play real football. It's building a club culture and sticking with it.


Good for them. If everyone follows suit though there will still be someone who comes first and someone who comes last, so there will be failures regardless.

The Swansea way is not the only way, nor is it an original way.
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It is an original way, and a very successful one, we've gone up from the fourth division playing it and beat your boys and snatched their crown as the most entertaining side in the Premier League - and at a snip at 7.5 million.
The difference was palpable when we played you. Our boys ran their guts out all day long, never gave in, while at least four of Arsenal's players couldn't give a sh*t. Arshavin was the worst culprit, but Walcott was equally lackadaisacal. That's to do with character. Big money, big egoes, we've seen it all season long.
Our culture was forged in the dark days of nine-ten years ago, in League Two, League One, at places like Rochdale, Carlise and Plymouth. We've been to nearly every stadium in the land and proved and improved our selves, on what has been one of the longest upward journeys in Premier League history. 
And in our dressing room, there is the steel, which that adversity brings, and players like Tate, Monk and Britton, who all played in that lower tier. Every season we were the bookies favourites to go down. Every year, they said we couldn't succeed playing that style.
We are far, far tougher than we look, and we have far more character than those "bought" teams.
We are original, but we also have shown a really good example of how you can do it without selling your soul.
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Loving the Swans!


+1 and Keith Quinn is a massive fan also

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Daikiwi wrote:


It is an original way


Nope. Bilbao have done it for 100 years. They've also won things.

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