Massive concerns

[Ric Flair]

I've had a few beers on my lunch and i'm sat at my desk watching videos of fookin Japanese midfielders and other foreign players we've been linked with. The problem with this is, how many foreign players actually make an impact outside of the premiership in England?

If you add that to the fact that our current crop of players from last year look a shadow of their former self and there is a disaster waiting to happen. Sousa will get the sack soon, mark my words and then we'll be left with a plethora of players who will need to be shipped on by our next manager as they won't fancy them, this happend under Allen and Holloway and cost us a fortune.

I can't help but be disillusioned with what's unfolding at Leicester, even the takeover has left me feeling uneasy. I'm now having to pin my hopes on Robbie Neilson, Matt Oakley and Steve Howard to try and win us games that will keep this club afloat. Hoping and praying that Mandaric and Hoos stay for a while too, so that we atleast have someone with a basic knowledge of English football to appoint a new manager is a farce given it's these clowns that have been responsible for a hideous ratio of shithouse managers.

It just get's worse. Pinning all our hopes on DJ Campbell, a player who hasn't wanted to be here since Allen got the sack and i'm sure he was delighted that Sousa rejected several bids for him. DJ will be a waste of space again soon, I can see it and that is another £1.5 million and a seasons wages down the bastard pan. The relentless offsides and glaring misses have become more evident since the opening game of the season.

I wasn't buying in to this rumour at first, that the players were unfit with Paulo's new regime but look at the injuries we have already picked up. Vitor, Gallagher, Weale, Dyer and Fryatt all in quick succession. It just adds insult to injuries.

Our defending has been atrocious in the games i've seen us play so far and I cannot accept that. It doesn't look to be a minor blip either, Sousa has blantantly got them trying to play a zonal marking system and they can't. Nigel had Hobbs, Berner, Morrison and occasionally Neilson playing very well as a unit and teams would never rip us apart. It's unforgivable and no doubt he'll think he needs 4 new defenders and waste more money.

This whole summer has been an utter disgrace and i'm sure some of you will find my outburst ludicrous, but i'm genuinely serious. We are heading for relegation under Sousa and god knows what else.

I expect him to be removed within the next 6 weeks. Season over already for me.

[hackneyfox]

A bit OTT at this stage of the season.

But they did make Fryatt remove the boot inserts he uses for flat feet and that caused the injury.

[richardsfoxes]

We are 3 games into the season, 2 losses and 1 draw. 2 of the games played are against teams that have spent far more than us/have a better squad and are favourites to go up. After 15 games thats when the season starts to unfold, where you can take a real look who will be challenging, as i remember reading last year, nearly bottom of the league, went on an amazing run of games and only just missed out on a play off space. So yeah....delete this thread and make one if were in this position after 15 games, until then back the team.

[Babylon]

Whilst I share many of your concerns, I'm trying to keep my gob shut and give the bloke a fair crack of the whip. Negative comments snowball on here and other forums, we've all seen it before and it does nobody any good.

[Simo86]

Whilst I share many of your concerns, I'm trying to keep my gob shut and give the bloke a fair crack of the whip. Negative comments snowball on here and other forums, we've all seen it before and it does nobody any good.

Well said Babylon, I think thats what the majority are thinking at the moment

[Ric Flair]

Whilst I share many of your concerns, I'm trying to keep my gob shut and give the bloke a fair crack of the whip. Negative comments snowball on here and other forums, we've all seen it before and it does nobody any good.

I know mate, I have tried to keep my trap shut all summer but I was massively wary of Sousa being appointed and although it's then easy for me to kick off when things go sour, I just honestly can't see this working. We are back on the way to League One unless he is disposed of asap.

As for the rumour about Fryatt, that is criminal.

[C-man]

Pretty much sums up most of my fears nicely. I'm willing to back Sousa (well, at least give him a fair crack of the whip - it has after all only been 4 games) but the whole summer process has left me pretty bitter towards the club. I'm extremely fvcked off that I shelled out for a ST before last season had even finished expecting us to continue our progress under NP, only for some goons to decide he hasn't got an exotic enough name. Feel cheated. Cvnts.

[jamesmilner]

we are in deep .... sousa cant even talk football to me , he talks poo and lots of it . the players have lost confidence in themselves and surely alot of fans have lost confidence in sousa . a guarantee of premiership football in two years ? come on , what kind of comment is that ? benitez style and look at that idiots exit .

[James.]

From memory you're normally a pretty optimistic poster aren't you Ric. Quite worrying really that someone who normally looks on the positive side is having serious doubts - even if it is after a few beers.

Must admit, when Crouchback started a similar thread I wasn't able to just brush it off as knee-jerk premature nonsense. And it's the same as this. There's something in it, things aren't good at the club at the minute. davieG alluded to as much when he mentioned the body language of the players during warm up the other day.

We have to give him time, obviously. But I'm not confident that things will turn out rosy, not at all.

[Guest Mee-9]

Agree with this. A quality poster sharing the same view as me!

We can't simply go on conceding 3 goals every away game, and the odd home, and drawing the rest of the home games.

I know Pearson's football wasn't the most prettiest, and I've critisized him for it in the past. But we need to get back to what we play best. Like that Newcastle home game last year.

[hackneyfox]

'We can't simply go on conceding 3 goals every away game, and the odd home, and drawing the rest of the home games.'

Well I'm glad you've explained that to me.

I think you should all go back to the pub.

[sdb]

there are signs that things aren't too good, but aside from Sat and 10 mins on the 1st day of the season, we've been ok. it's too early for this. a few more games like sat and then we come to this sort of discussion.

[Guest Mee-9]

'We can't simply go on conceding 3 goals every away game, and the odd home, and drawing the rest of the home games.'

Well I'm glad you've explained that to me.

I think you should all go back to the pub.

Oh get a fooking grip mate. I think you need to get real. We've conceded 3 goals 3 times this season. And it's our 5th Fixture tonight. How many times did we concede 3 goals last season?

I can think of Bristol City (Home) Watford (Away) WBA (Away) and Forest (Away)

[Babylon]

it's too early for this.

Yup... people love misery though. You only have to look at this place after a good win, it's usually dead!! If we lose a game though it's full of people ready to chuck themselves from the nearest roof top.

[dandannieldanok]

Funny how people hate any breath of negativity at the stadium on match day from people who sit near them, but will happily denounce and dress down a manager who's had 4 measly competitive games in charge on here.

[Callabinho]

Sacking sousa is not an option, he would require a stupid pay out! and to be honest its pathetic suggesting it, If the players cant get a ball down and pass it then why are they playing football? Isn't it what their paid to do? Paulo is trying to get them to do their job properly and play football. The new owners are partly to blame too, for taking sooo damn long to reach a decision! He never got a chance to bring in the players he wanted? For crying out loud its been three days, and to be honest id be more concerned about you drinking a few beers at lunch time.

[Bablemikey]

we are in deep .... sousa cant even talk football to me , he talks poo and lots of it . the players have lost confidence in themselves and surely alot of fans have lost confidence in sousa . a guarantee of premiership football in two years ? come on , what kind of comment is that ? benitez style and look at that idiots exit .

So imagine for a moment the initial job interview..

Mandaric: "So Paulo, we are an ambitious club looking to get into the Premiership straight away. Do you think you can do it?"

Does Sousa say: "Milan, I'm sure we can build a team this year and achieve promotion in the next two years" or "I'll see what I can do but I'm not promising anything"

My point here is what else would you really expect him to say. I'm sure he would've assured Mandaric that he could achieve the clubs goals in the short term otherwise he would not have got the job. Having given those assurances, well then why wouldn't he repeat it to the press? He either achieves or he fails and gets sacked - nothing to lose.

After 4 competitive games it is simply way too early to judge the manager or the team in my opinion, particularly one that has seen such a number of changes. Give it time and let's see what the team looks like after he has the faces he wants, playing the game the way he wants it.

[STUHILL]

I think it is way too early to have these kind of concerns. I'm not saying I am without some doubts but I think the reason Sousa said he could get us promoted within 2 years is because he knew this would not be the easiest transition and would take time.The problem we have is that we were very successful last season and so change wasn't really needed, however, this has been forced upon us due to the departure of Pearson. Unfortunately, fans don't give Managers any time these days, and after 3 games?? Really?

Whether Sousa is the "right" man to take us forward, I still think is far too early to judge. He has a good squad of players, but it Isn't his squad, and even the pre-season was set-up by Pearson before he left. Sousa has had a very little time and we can't judge him after 3 League games, but I know people will. He is going about it the right way. He has given every player a chance, even the young ones, to prove themselves. He hasn't rushed in to any rash decisions on selling or buying players (Allen comes to mind). Unfortunately, all this has taken time and we were undoubtedly not ready for the start of the season.

After the Middlesbrough game, people, myself included, seemed very excited, and then a 3-0 thrashing by Burnley has brought us down to earth with a bang. We were clearly outplayed but Burnley are a quality side that are one of the favourites to go up for a reason. It just demonstrated to me, that we are still a few weeks off playing to our potential. I personally won't be "judging" Sousa on his results until 8-10 games in. We have to give him time!! Plz not another Manager merry-go-round...

Am I concerned about being 2nd bottom? Yes. Am I concerned about rumours of unfit players? Yes. However, am I excited at the prospect of playing passing, attacking football like we saw against Middlesbrough? Absolutely!

For me, the future still looks positive! I think we are taking time to gel, not the players, but the Manager and the players. As long, as the players embrace these new ideas and Sousa, then I think we will start to see some great football and the results will soon follow.

We still need 2-3 first team players to give us a shot at promotion this year. I think Sousa knows this and hopefully we get some luck and add a quality striker, winger and dead ball specialist!!

Hang in there guys! Bit more patience and hopefully Sousa can get us playing great football and storming up the league once again!!

[Babylon]

I think it is way too early to have these kind of concerns. I'm not saying I am without some doubts but I think the reason Sousa said he could get us promoted within 2 years is because he knew this would not be the easiest transition and would take time.The problem we have is that we were very successful last season and so change wasn't really needed, however, this has been forced upon us due to the departure of Pearson. Unfortunately, fans don't give Managers any time these days, and after 3 games?? Really?

Whether Sousa is the "right" man to take us forward, I still think is far too early to judge. He has a good squad of players, but it Isn't his squad, and even the pre-season was set-up by Pearson before he left. Sousa has had a very little time and we can't judge him after 3 League games, but I know people will. He is going about it the right way. He has given every player a chance, even the young ones, to prove themselves. He hasn't rushed in to any rash decisions on selling or buying players (Allen comes to mind). Unfortunately, all this has taken time and we were undoubtedly not ready for the start of the season.

After the Middlesbrough game, people, myself included, seemed very excited, and then a 3-0 thrashing by Burnley has brought us down to earth with a bang. We were clearly outplayed but Burnley are a quality side that are one of the favourites to go up for a reason. It just demonstrated to me, that we are still a few weeks off playing to our potential. I personally won't be "judging" Sousa on his results until 8-10 games in. We have to give him time!! Plz not another Manager merry-go-round...

Am I concerned about being 2nd bottom? Yes. Am I concerned about rumours of unfit players? Yes. However, am I excited at the prospect of playing passing, attacking football like we saw against Middlesbrough? Absolutely!

For me, the future still looks positive! I think we are taking time to gel, not the players, but the Manager and the players. As long, as the players embrace these new ideas and Sousa, then I think we will start to see some great football and the results will soon follow.

We still need 2-3 first team players to give us a shot at promotion this year. I think Sousa knows this and hopefully we get some luck and add a quality striker, winger and dead ball specialist!!

Hang in there guys! Bit more patience and hopefully Sousa can get us playing great football and storming up the league once again!!

Well said.

[themotivator]

i understand you are worried. i think everyone is really, but i dont buy the whole english manager thing. look at arsene wenger and fergie. neither of them are english and you cant question their dedicaiton to the club. i think we need to give sousa a chance, some of the football we have been playing is encouraging and there is a whole season left to win the league. if he ****s it up totally then im sorry but untill he does i'm behind the lot of them.

[Tommy G]

Fvck me....it makes you ill coming on here and reading tripe sometimes.

I too have concers, but blimey lets try and look on the brightside surely. If we win 3 nothing on saturday and put Leeds out the cup tonight then it will all be rosey again (not saying that will happen)

Typical fickle city fans, relax and judge after 10 league games at least?

Remember Keano's start for Ipswich last season? Their Chairman had balls and stuck with him, look where they are now.

Get a foking grip, some people must wonder around scraping their chin along the ground with how depressed they get.

[cambridgefox]

Im more confused than anything else.we had one of the best defences last year and rarely leaked goals.the players will come good,its very early days yet.if we manage to win tonight and sat,the confidence will be back and we will all be saying we can get promoted(yes i know its the cup tonight)keep the faith and stay off the drink at lunchtime ,if you are prone to depression!

[Bettsj2]

i understand you are worried. i think everyone is really, but i dont buy the whole english manager thing. look at arsene wenger and fergie. neither of them are english and you cant question their dedicaiton to the club. i think we need to give sousa a chance, some of the football we have been playing is encouraging and there is a whole season left to win the league. if he ****s it up totally then im sorry but untill he does i'm behind the lot of them.

It's really disapointing that anyone is bringing the fact that Sousa is Portugese into the argument.

[Joe.]

Everybody can understand concerns after the start we've had, but I've got to admit it's getting a bit ridiculous already.

It's not been great at all, I'm not going to defend that. I've seen every match so far this season and we really have not had our share of good fortune like we did last season. Just briefly on that point, we did have a hell of a lot of luck last season which all successful sides tend to have - but the rub of the green certainly isn't falling our way so far.

A dreadful first half performance at Crystal Palace seems to have been the catalyst for something totally out of sorts at the back, but since then it really hasn't been that bad. The second half there was immensely encouraging, and it was only because we left ourself with so much to do that we didn't get anything. There's only a certain amount that a manager can be blamed for a team's failures, and the amount of individual errors should not lend itself to Sousa for that.

Same story against Macclesfield. Bright going forward but a shambles at the back thanks to, yet again, individual cock-ups. A manager cannot go from one club to another with a completely different menatlity, especially arriving from a club who did well in the same division last year. It really was (and still is) all set up for Sousa to simply carry on the solid work of Pearson at this club.

Middlesbrough, a match we dominated. It was only because of our ineptitude up front that did not lead us to the three points, and for that I will not blame our manager. Burnley was a little different, but had N'Guessan not had a complete nightmare the first half could have been a different story. It's not like we were hammered, and several reports from neutral sources will suggest this. Once again, unfortunate events and some silly individual mistakes are costing us. Until we eradicate them we will continue to make life difficult for ourselves.

I'm not trying to cover up for what has been a poor start to the campaign, but I've seen enough so far to suggest that we'll be fine. The fitness issue does concern me significantly at the moment, but until we've seen more from this side I'm not sure we can gauge its effects. Sousa has been making the right noises for me so far, but our rotten share of misfortune and normally-reliable players making damaging errors is destroying anything good me might be doing.

Things will get better.

[Salieri]

Swansea's first 8 league results of last season : LLDWDLDD

Swansea's following 9 results of last season : WDWDWDWWW

Perhaps the guy just needs time to get his ideas and style of play across to the players before reaping the rewards. Starting badly is not an ideal scenario but if the long term benefits are there (i.e winning matches playing attractive football) then let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

For now at least.