didn't think I'd see the day

that I would be reading such an honest article, makes you proud...


Watching Swansea effortlessly outplay and beat Newcastle 2-0 on Saturday, one question came to mind: "Where do they get these players?"

Of all the available options on the transfer and free agent market, of all the countless possible combinations of players, how is it that Swansea's acquisitions seem born to play for the club?

Much is made of new signings at this time in the season; watching how each team's new players fare is one of the most fascinating aspects of early season play. Too often, the same patterns emerge.

The biggest teams try take the guesswork out of it by stumping up extraordinary sums of money to secure proven talent, although not always with successful results. The smaller sides take what they can get from what's left -- typically a mixture of U21 stars, top-scorers from inferior leagues, cast-offs from Europe's elite academies, journeymen utility players and guys with unrealised potential who are pushing 30.

Looking at Newcastle on Saturday -- a team trying to turn a new leaf after appointing a new manager and even spending a little money for a change -- there was still the feeling that for a lot of sides, the strategy is simply to field 11 reasonably good players and hope for the best.

Swansea do things a little differently. The team has an established philosophy which is upheld no matter who the manager is or squad. This enforced doctrine has given the club a formidable sense of continuity, and that is key to its success more than anything else -- not to take anything away from Garry Monk, who has certainly evolved and refined that philosophy under his stewardship.

By having a blueprint to follow, Swansea have been able to recruit more intelligently than many of their peers. The club sometimes scouts players for as long as two years; considering most managers don't even last two years and each successive boss will have his own ideas about players, is it any wonder most other sides' recruitment seems so scattershot in comparison?

Wilfried Bony was a calculated risk, a £12 million investment on which the Swans doubled their money. His successor, Bafetimbi Gomis, cost nothing, having joined as a free agent available to any other club. Gomis scored again on Saturday to make seven in his last eight games. Would he be so prolific in any other side?

Andre Ayew was this summer's big signing and like Gomis, he joined as a free agent. He did command a £5.5m signing fee but when you pay the player that fee instead of his old club, you're buying loyalty as well as quality.

Andre Ayew netted in the win over Newcastle as Swansea's strong start to the season continued.
Contrast with Aston Villa's £10m signing of Ayew's brother, Jordan, who might develop into a top-level talent but costs Villa twice what Swansea paid for his elder sibling. In the past two World Cups it was Andre, not Jordan, asserting himself as Ghana's best player. Andre scored his second goal in his second competitive start for Swansea on Saturday.

The brilliant Jefferson Montero and a sharp Jonjo Shelvey provided assists for Gomis and Ayew against Newcastle. They were brought to the club for £5m apiece. They are fine individual talents but it is the way they fit in with Swansea which makes the difference.

Shelvey's tenure at Liverpool proves that football really is a team game. As an individual, the midfielder struggled at Anfield but has developed into a rare and valuable beast -- an old-school box-to-box midfielder -- in the Swansea system. Even in defeat, you'll seldom hear an analyst berate Swansea for "not knowing what they're doing," or looking haphazard or uncertain. This club always knows what it is doing.

Talent alone is not enough. When a team has a philosophy which outlives the tenure of managers and individual players, the game changes. Swansea identify players who can fit into their system. They know they can find overlooked talent, plug those pieces in and produce elite-level performances. The mixed fortunes of players who have left the Swans mostly to slip into anonymity provides proof of the theory.

The system is football synergy at its best. With each passing season the side fine-tunes its squad, improving a little each time while those around them seem only to recycle without purpose, chopping and changing managers, players and tactics in the hope something will stick for half a season or so at a time.

It won't be long before this club is legitimately banging on the door of the top six. If the squad stays intact through both transfer windows, it could even happen this season.

Wrong forum

Wrong forum

Did you read it?

Wrong forum

Did you read it?

Read an article posted by a smug up his own arse troll? No stopped after 2nd paragraph!

Wrong forum

Did you read it?

Only need to read the first two lines to realise it's a Jack crying out for some attention from us

f**k off

Wrong forum f**k the jacks

You have to laugh. If Cardiff won the Champions League, the last thing I'd ever think of doing is posting on a jack forum. Just plain odd. And they wonder why we call them the Obsessed. Weapons-Grade Wanker.

Obsession at its finest.

You have to laugh. If Cardiff won the Champions League, the last thing I'd ever think of doing is posting on a jack forum. Just plain odd. And they wonder why we call them the Obsessed. Weapons-Grade Wanker.

You may not, but there has been many Cardiff fans on the Swans forums in the past, when Cardiff had the upper hand. These days just one or two, the rest must of gone into hiding. It's called banter.

You have to laugh. If Cardiff won the Champions League, the last thing I'd ever think of doing is posting on a jack forum. Just plain odd. And they wonder why we call them the Obsessed. Weapons-Grade Wanker.

You may not, but there has been many Cardiff fans on the Swans forums in the past, when Cardiff had the upper hand. These days just one or two, the rest must of gone into hiding. It's called banter.

Christ, yet another one. Banter eh? Pish. Its called Obsession. I wonder what ever happened to Swansealad? He was as thick as shit but I do miss the feckless- fuckers nonsense.

Newcastle have been poor for the past couple of seasons, but playing them for majority of the match when they are down to 10 men - nothing to brag about really is it.

I used to write on the Swansea forum and I got called scum about 20 times within a day.

I wrote literally nothing offensive, I didn't gloat or wind people up.

Defensive beyond belief.

Success is temporary and they know it.

Not wishing to offend but......................

feck off u jack b'stard

When is this wanker guna get banned? It's obvious he's here to wind people up I thought the mods finally starting dealing with these sad acts