Just seen on match of the day fans with a banner bemoaning lack of ambition by clubs owners. I wonder where half of them were when they were scratching about in the lower leagues. http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/swac.htm
Absolutely daft. If you're not one of the top seven or so clubs then you're at risk of going down. Stoke managed a couple of eigth-placed finishes and now they're relegated, other perennials like Villa, Newcastle and West Ham have been relegated, it's crazy to think the club could just spend its way to safety.
When we were in the Premier League, Swansea finished 20th in Division 3 as it was then (League 2 now). Below them were Cardiff, Hull and Brighton. The only team in the bottom 5 that year to not play in the Premier League since are Doncaster Rovers, who were relegated.
But look at Bournemouth.. next season will be their forth in the prem... Wi 12k fans... So owt can be done with good management...
I agree, but that's not really the point I was making. I was posting about their 'new" fans and their expectations and not being mindful of where they'd come from. Contrary to the banner they were waving, they have showed loads of ambition for a club that's not really a big one. New stadium, premier league football for a few seasons, they've had it good for a decade and now their chucking their teddies out.
Good management and huge cash injection from the owners - but thats not the point 3 sides are relegated from the Prem every season. There are sides that currenly wont go down - Arsenal Man U Man C, Spurs, etc so realistically there are 3 sides to go down from around 13. Sooner or later it will happen most of the rest Stoke and WBA and Swansea all had decent runs in the Prem and all for various reasons have run out of time. Sooner or later Bournmouth Burnley Huddersfield Palace etc will go down again. Its the way football works. There can only be 20 clubs in the top flight - when even sides like Newcastle and Villa are not guaranteed to be there its hard for clubs like Swansea (or us ) to expect any right to be there and just enjoy it when you can