Swansea City AFC

[USA_Loyal_Royal]

in my opinion swansea city is the club that we need to start modeling ourselves after for establishing ourselves in the premier league. their model has worked and their style of play is a forward thinking way of playing football, that will always make them competitive in the premier league. when they got promoted instead of us in 2011, we were about the same size club as they were, but look what they have done in the premier league. some of the signings they have made have been remarkable. to me the key to establishing ourselves too lies with swansea city. in the short run we have looked good with hiring NA to be our manager, his style of play is good for long term effective football. NA seems to be able to attract big names as well with the signings of drenthe, bridge, and williams. the final piece is our owner AZ being willing to splash some cash for the right players which is something in our history we have never ever done. AZ needs to look at players as part of the investment and be willing to break our transfer record if the right player comes available. im not saying it needs to be done this window, but it needs to happen and we need to break this small club mentality.


i know this thread has seemed to be made hundreds of times by now but i still think we need to be more like swansea. also i know you lot hold high hopes for english talent, but we do need to start looking abroad a bit more. id like to see some spanish players come in. pesonally i have high hopes for our future and i know that seems to be the prevailing opinion on here as well but lets hope we can continue in the right direction and make reading fc an established premier league club in 5 years time!

[yuuichi]

I hope not. I was bored to tears when they came to the madejski. Awful football. I think they just bore the opposition and they attack when the opposition starts daydreaming.

They also just got lucky with the transfers, if it wasn't for Michu and the other spanish players that were brought last minute, they would be in the relegation fight

[maffff]

West Brom would be the one I'd go with.

Even if their chairman thinks they are a over-achieving 'mid-table Championship club'.

[winchester_royal]

Tbh, I think our infrastructure is superior to Swansea's, especially once the new training ground is built. They will regress to their natural mean at some point. We have more going for us in the long run.

[One8Seven1]

West Brom would be the one I'd go with.

Even if their chairman thinks they are a over-achieving 'mid-table Championship club'.

Couldn't agree more.

[sandman]

in my opinion swansea city is the club that we need to start modeling ourselves after for establishing ourselves in the premier league. their model has worked and their style of play is a forward thinking way of playing football, that will always make them competitive in the premier league. when they got promoted instead of us in 2011, we were about the same size club as they were, but look what they have done in the premier league. some of the signings they have made have been remarkable. to me the key to establishing ourselves too lies with swansea city. in the short run we have looked good with hiring NA to be our manager, his style of play is good for long term effective football. NA seems to be able to attract big names as well with the signings of drenthe, bridge, and williams. the final piece is our owner AZ being willing to splash some cash for the right players which is something in our history we have never ever done. AZ needs to look at players as part of the investment and be willing to break our transfer record if the right player comes available. im not saying it needs to be done this window, but it needs to happen and we need to break this small club mentality.


i know this thread has seemed to be made hundreds of times by now but i still think we need to be more like swansea. also i know you lot hold high hopes for english talent, but we do need to start looking abroad a bit more. id like to see some spanish players come in. pesonally i have high hopes for our future and i know that seems to be the prevailing opinion on here as well but lets hope we can continue in the right direction and make reading fc an established premier league club in 5 years time!

As Marlon Brando once said to Sir Michael Gambon after he was invited to watch a play Gambon was starring in "I'd rather have my head cut off".

[loyalroyal4life]

Based on the signings they have made this summer, Swansea look a good bet to stay in the prem, both them and west brom are good models to follow

[No Fixed Abode]

Manchester United should be the club to model yourself on. But each to their own.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Well said Kes, Chelsea are poison


However, I have to "lol" at Swansea being the team to clone

It wasn't that long ago, that the "pundits/experts" were saying the same about Reading

[Mike Hunt]

I would want to emulate the Pompey model. They did win the FA cup after all.

Didn't do too bad for Stoke either...
http://www.portsmouth.vitalfootball.co. ... p?a=111537

[Ian Royal]

I think we should take the positives from Swansea, Stoke, West Brom, Norwich and Saints etc and try to combine them into our own style and approach to success.

If you ape someone else, all you do is follow in footsteps they've already forged which are clogged with others are trying to follow as well. Then there's still others who have already started trying to counter or improve on what you're trying to follow.

We should be innovating ourselves, not trying to "be the next Swansea". Aspire to lead the pack.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Aspire...........mmmmm I like that word

[PistolPete]

Swansea have done well, yes. But identity is something a club should aspire to maintain and while most teams only have 2 or 3 Englishmen and often only one in a match day squad from the surrounding area, Swansea have just signed their 7th Spanish player. I would find it difficult therefore to identify with the team if I had grown up in Port Talbot for example.

Maybe those days are gone, and I'm not suggesting players any longer drink in their local after a game with the fans that they grew up with, but I do think that by investing so heavily in the clubs academy AZ is going the right way to build a club that does not sell out to another culture.

[blythspartan]

I believe our model is pretty good.

We went to the well too many times to try an unearth another unpolished gem but now we have a bit more money to spend things are looking on the up.

German football looks the right way to go but it's like everything there are different horses for different courses.

[Royalee]

There's a lot to be said about Swansea's success and they're a very well-run club. However, I think we've got much more potential and think we'll achieve it in the next 5 years, can't wait for this season and the future's looking very bright for us now we've got a proper manager to go with our owner.

[AthleticoSpizz]

quoted for the record

[bobby1413]

West Brom would be the one I'd go with.

This.

I went to the away game last season. Great club, good support. I liked the whole set up (well, the tiny tiny bit I experienced anyway!)

[Royalee]

Quote away

[AthleticoSpizz]

at least you have been consistant

[grey_squirrel]

I hope not. I was bored to tears when they came to the madejski. Awful football. I think they just bore the opposition........

....... and fans!

Watching Swansea is like watching wood warp.

No thanks