Swansea City vs. Cardiff City: Monk-ey Business

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

The owner of a Welsh club in the English Premier League decided to sack a highly-successful manager in an undignified fashion.

Sounds familiar, no?  

I'm not talking about former Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay.  This time around it was Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup who got the axe.  

For those of you keeping score at home, that is now seven managers gone this season (six fired, one allegedly left by "mutual consent").

Official statements given by Swansea City say Laudrup was fired because the board weren't happy with the direction the club was going (apparently 12th place wasn't the direction they wanted to go) and they also weren't happy with the attitude of players in the locker room.  

In a recent statement, issued via the League Managers Association, Laudrup stated "I am deeply disappointed to have been dismissed as manager of Swansea City.  In particular, the manner in which it happened and the actions the club has taken since notifying me in the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary".

At least Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan had the courtesy to issue an explicitly-detailed breakdown of why he thought Mackay sucked at his job.

I bring this up not to gloat about the plight of the Jacks, but because it created an interesting storyline leading into the second edition of the Premier League South Wales Derby.

When Malky Mackay was sacked by Vincent Tan, his temporary replacement was then Assistant Manager David Kerslake.  Swansea City took a different approach after Laudrup's firing.  They chose to name Garry monk, the current Swansea City captain, as club manager for an indefinite period of time.

When my wife and I sat down to watch the game on Saturday morning, I told her about the bizarre case of picking an active player to lead the club for such a historic event.  She mentioned that the Boston Celtics did something similar when they chose Bill Russell as coach in the mid-to-late Sixties.

Since sports trivia isn't my strong suit (see also my recent collapse on the Built on Sloper Rd. podcast's trivia segment), I decided to do a little digging to see how common player-managers are in Premier League and in US major league sports.  Here's a list of the most recent example in each sport:

• Premier League - Stuart McCall (Bradford City, 2000/01 season)
• MLB - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds, 1986 season)
• NBA - Lenny Wilkens (Portland Trailblazers, 1974/75 season)
• NFL - Tom Landry (New York Giants, 1954 season)
• NHL - Charlie Burns (Minnesota North Stars, 1969/70 season)

So the Premier League has had this same situation arise relatively recently in its history, but a similar situation has not occurred in an American major league sport in almost thirty years.  It's apparently possible that it could happen again in MLB, NFL, or NHL though; only the NBA has explicitly banned the practice.

Garry Monk took over Swansea with just days to prepare for their match against Cardiff City.  How did he do in his managerial debut?  Regretably, pretty darn well...

Excerpt from "Garry Monk" Wikipedia entry on 02/09/14 

Swansea City 3 - Cardiff City 0

• Routledge (SWA) 47' 
• Dyer (SWA) 79'
• Bony (SWA) 85'

Truly a performance so flaccid that it deserves a Viagra commercial.

Normally, I would give you some commentary on this match that would highlight the positives of the Bluebirds' performance.  But honestly, there's really nothing good to say.  

I thought that Cardiff City appeared to have reverted to the "park the bus and try not to lose" mentality from earlier this season.  Everything good I saw in the match against Norwich City last week appeared to have evaporated.

Also, some of the player selections for this week were confusing to me.  If I had been appointed as manager of the Bluebirds prior to this match (I have no idea what dire situation would have lead to this), I would have started Theophile-Catherine, McNaughton, Noone, and Mutch in place of Turner, Fabio, Kim, and Whittingham respectively.

To make matters even worse Craig Bellamy, who has had a resurgence in the past two weeks, apparently punched Swansea City player Jonathan de Guzman during the match and now faces a potential three-match ban.

(Image Credit:  SkySports1)

I didn't see the incident live and neither did referee Andre Marriner.  The issue was raised post-match and the Football Association had a panel review the footage.  They came to the conclusion that the punch was in fact intentional and charged Bellamy with violent conduct.

Bellamy has until Tuesday evening to respond to the charge.  As of the writing of this post, I'm not sure what options are available to Cardiff City in terms of appealing the decision.  Stay tuned.

With this loss, the Bluebirds are in 19th place with 5 wins, 6 draws, and 14 losses.  The table below captures the full Premier League standings as of 02/11/14.  The table columns are:  Current Position (POS), Last Position (LP), Club Name (CLUB), Matches Played (P), Wins (W), Draws (D), Losses (L), Goals Fielded (GF), Goals Allowed (GA), Goal Differential (GD), and Rankings Points (PTS).

I don't want this blog to dwell on bad results and negativity.  One thing that I've found helps me to deal with Premier League-driven grief is to connect with other Bluebirds fans via Twitter.  I've been fortunate enough to bump into several of these who like me live in the United States.    

Please enjoy this new (hopefully weekly) segment of "Meet a US Bluebird"!

Meet Ian Paterson-Jones (@IanPJ1927, 02/08/14)

Where do you live and where are you from originally?:  Lake Mary, FL (near Orlando).  Originally from Cardiff.

How long have you been following the Bluebirds and how did you become a fan?:  Since the early 70s.  Grandfather and father were fans.

What is your most favorite Cardiff City memory and why?:  Winning 2nd division playoff final against QPR.  One of the last times I went with my dad.

Who is your most favorite current Cardiff City player?  If you could add any one player to the roster right now who would it be?:  Gary Medel.  I think Ole has everything covered at the moment.

What makes Cardiff City important to you?:  Part of my life.

What is your favorite US sport and team?  Do you follow any MLS clubs?:  Football, Florida Gators.  No just like to watch MLS games and learn about the teams and players.  But with Orlando City joining MLS in 2016.

Do you think Premier League is growing in popularity in the US?  What can NBC or the League itself do to grow its popularity in the US?:  Yes I do.  More teams coming to US for pre-season games.

Thank you for the interview, Ian.  Even though we lost to the Jacks this past week, I do believe you're correct that Ole has everything covered.  We have all the players we need to survive this season, they just need to step up and perform to their potential.

You know who is stepping up to their potential?  My fantasy team, the Cardiff'rent Strokes.  They are continuing their climb to the top 1,000,000 of the Fantasy Premier League slowly but surely...  

• Rank (Last Week):  1,305,836
• Rank (This Week):  1,299,164
• Total Players:  3,174,038

Well that's it for this week, readers.  Cardiff City's next Premier League match is on February 11th at home against Aston Villa.

Thank you as always for reading.  You can follow me on Twitter @dragon_bluebird.  And feel free to leave some comments on my posts via Blogger or Twitter.  Would love to hear your thoughts on the season so far and I'm always open to suggestions for features or topics you'd like to see on this blog.