The interlull often gives Premier League fans the opportunity to pause and reflect on their teams fortunes thus far this season. As such, Arsenal fans will be vacillating between fury and tears, whilst Manchester United fans will be overjoyed with their start to the new season. Another team whose fans have every reason to be pleased with the way they’ve kicked off this year’s proceedings is Brendan Rodger’s Swansea City.
The Swans are currently sitting pretty at 10th place in the Premier League – a position I’m sure they’d like to hold on to until the end of the season. There are a number of reasons for their success thus far this season.
Firstly Brendan Rodgers seems to be doing a great job of getting the most out of his players. Secondly, his players are actually pretty darn good.
The Swans’ best players all demonstrate a knowledge of the tactical side of the game that often benefits their technical ability. And with Rodger’s setting the team up with a disciplined attacking philosophy, they’ve already put in a number of good performances.
Of course Rodgers was Youth Team manager at Chelseaback in 2004 when Jose Mourinho was head coach. When asked whether he has continued correspondence with Mourinho, Rodgers admitted: “Yes, I do stay in touch with him.”
In fact, Rodgers was extremely forthcoming with praise for Mou:
“When you get the chance to work with such managers it gives you a chance to learn from the best and develop, and Jose was a fantastic influence for me. When you move into management, you’re working alone – you can’t look to imitate or be anyone else, and you have to carry your own ideas with you. But the more experience you have the better, and I have been very fortunate to be able to work with lots of very good managers, world-class managers. I have then hopefully been intelligent enough to take on board the good and the bad, and work it into my own identity.”
It’s important that young managers who are learning the ropes are given the best possible mentors. There’s a good case to be had that Rodger’s has had the best possible role-model and mentor in this regard. Mourinho’s record more or less speaks for itself.
It would be churlish not to admit that both managers are very different people with different managerial styles. It’d be equally remiss however, not to confess that a presence such as Mourinho’s wouldn’t have a huge influence on the outlook and development of a young manager.
Despite this, any success that the Swans enjoy this season should be fully accredited to Brendan Rodgers and the players. They are the ones putting in hard work, week-in and week-out. There’s an extremely steep learning curve in the Premier League, yet you can’t help but feel that Swansea can compete and will manage to stay up this season. And when they do, the fans will know who to thank.
For more insight from Brendan Rodgers and other leading managers plus exclusive Barclays Premier League highlights go to www.yahoo.co.uk/sport