Huw Jenkins has accepted his position as the Swansea City chairman will become untenable if the club are relegated and also revealed he will consider standing down even if they manage to retain their Premier League status.
In a wide-ranging interview conducted at his own request amid a backdrop of mounting unrest, personal criticism and growing fears Swansea are heading for the Championship, Jenkins acknowledged he has to take responsibility for the club’s malaise over the past few years.
He described his failure to reappoint Brendan Rodgers as manager 18 months ago as his “biggest regret” as chairman, said he thought Paul Clement should have been sacked sooner and admitted Swansea, who provided a blueprint for others to follow not so long ago, have lost their way to such an extent they have now “become like any other club”.
Speaking at the training ground only 24 hours after Carlos Carvalhal was named as Swansea’s fifth manager in little more than two years, Jenkins also addressed the controversial change of ownership last summer. He insisted Swansea would be in safe hands if the club are relegated but admitted Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien, the majority shareholders, had not put in any money to pay for signings and revealed the only funds available to Carvalhal in January would come from the profit made from player sales in the summer.
Jenkins, however, is the man many supporters blame for the club’s plight, primarily because of flawed managerial appointments and poor signings. This is the third successive season Swansea, who are five points adrift of safety, find themselves in a relegation battle and it was put to Jenkins that some fans believe his position is untenable.
“Well, I have to take responsibility,” said Jenkins, who has been chairman for 15 years. “There are reasons but I think probably a lot of people don’t want to listen to them because they want to see action and they want to see the team doing well. So, yes, I take responsibility for it. I don’t totally agree my position is how they say it. I think if we continue as we are, yes it will be. If we continue on this path of hardly winning games, yes, I have no doubt it is [untenable].”
Jenkins said he would “certainly consider” standing down if Swansea are relegated and claimed he was “not afraid” to quit, although he insisted personal abuse would not be a factor in his decision. Asked whether he had a decision to make irrespective of what division Swansea are in next season, Jenkins replied: “I think so, yes.”
Although Jenkins denied he had “taken his eye off the ball” during the takeover negotiations the summer before last, he conceded it was an error of judgment not to bring Rodgers back to the club he had left in 2012 to join Liverpool.
Rodgers was open to a return to Swansea at the time but went on to take the Celtic job. “My biggest regret is not getting Brendan back here at any cost. I’m not going to hide from that,” Jenkins said. “And I told [Brendan] as well a few times. That would have been the biggest thing that we, or I, should have done differently, and that is make sure that at all costs he came back.”
Joe Allen could also have been back on the payroll at the Liberty Stadium that summer but Swansea were slow to act and it is that sort of poor decision-making when it comes to player recruitment that leaves Jenkins open to criticism from supporters. “I couldn’t make strong financial decisions early in that window until I knew there were more players leaving. And I was stuck. That prevented Joe coming back. I had discussions with Liverpool to try to do a deal, probably around £10-£11m, I’d spoke to Joe and then he had the five-year offer from Stoke, which he had to make a decision on the following day. I’d talked to Joe but I couldn’t commit to it.”
Jenkins painted a picture of a club that was close to financial crisis at the start of that year and claimed Swansea had “no one shareholder who could cover our financial position if we got relegated”. Swansea ended up finishing 12th and Jenkins said the takeover, which went through a couple of months after that 2015-16 season ended, ensured the club was no longer faced with the same sort of monetary worries because Kaplan and Levien are able to “cover all of our financial guarantees”.
He went on to describe Kaplan and Levien as “solid and trustworthy business people who I firmly believe are good for this club”, yet found it hard to find a coherent argument when it was put to him that fans see no evidence the change in ownership has done anything positive when they watch the team on a Saturday.
The 54-year-old pointed out in response that Swansea are “financially far more secure than we ever were” but admitted there is no spare cash from the Americans to help with player funding. “No, there’s no money put in at this time to do that,” he said.
One of the biggest reasons why Swansea are in so much trouble is because the summer transfer window was such a mess. Swansea ended up selling Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente, two of their most influential players, failed to sign adequate replacements for either and finished that window in profit and with the lowest net spend in the Premier League. “I don’t think any of us were happy with it, how it panned out or the way it ended on deadline day,” said Jenkins, who defended the level of his involvement in recruitment. “With more time probably we would have made different decisions.”
In comments that suggest he was singing from a different hymn sheet to the club’s owners, Jenkins also believes Swansea should have handled the latest managerial change differently. “Timing-wise, I think we could have done it quicker,” he said. Asked whether he meant sacking Clement earlier or making an appointment sooner, Jenkins replied: “Both. Timing is critical in football.”
So much has gone wrong at Swansea over the last few years, not least the fact the club has lost its identity. “The Swansea Way” disappeared with Michael Laudrup’s departure as the manager in 2014, although Jenkins feels there is much more to it than just shining a light on the style of football the club were once synonymous with in the Premier League.
“Of course it [saddens me],” Jenkins said. “But it can be lost in just looking at how we play, because it was more about the mentality and the belief. That was No1. There were slight changes in how we played under Roberto [Martínez], Paulo [Sousa], Brendan or Michael. They all had their own way of thinking. But the belief to win is the major factor. We used to play football without fear and to win no matter who we were playing. Recently, we have touched on the fear factor of relegation [in this interview], but it is more about the mentality down from the new people coaching and playing at the club.
“Sometimes, when you look around, you may feel the challenge in front of you is too much and that filters through from top to bottom, and there is your fear factor going on the pitch because you are beaten before you start. To have clarity from the coach, which I believe we will have with Carlos, will be a major factor to try and restore belief. Collectively we used to have the attitude we could compete with anybody and we have lost that over the last two years.”
