Another key factor in survival will be the managers. Paul Lambert of Norwich and Brendan Rogers of Swansea stuck with their clubs following promotion to the Premier League. Unsurprisingly Reading’s manager Brian McDermott and Southampton’s Nigel Adkins are being courted by bigger clubs after they delivered promotion. It will be crucial for the clubs to keep hold of their managers to ease the players and staff into the battle of the Premier League. Tactical consistency, inter-squad familiarity and camaraderie are essential in the motivation and performance of any team of sportsmen. Swansea’s fluid passing style whilst praised by many in the 2010/11 season was tipped to fail in the top division. However, once again they proved the critics wrong. Grant Holt was not expected to score more than a few goals for Norwich and yet ended up netting 15, which even led to calls for him to be named in the England Euro 2012 summer squad. Rogers and Lambert had faith that the players that had served them so well in the Championship would do so again in the top tier.
One final contribution that helped Swansea and Norwich battle to survival actually fell out of the two clubs’ control. This was the weakness and mistakes made by some of the other more established Premier League sides, most notably the relegated trio of Blackburn, Bolton and Wolves. Following the take-over of Blackburn by the Venky’s group the club has apparently been run poorly from top to bottom, with an unfruitful manager appointment, poor signings and little financial investment they succumbed to the ultimate price, relegation. Wolves similarly suffered from stagnation within the club and fell away dramatically following the departure of manager Mick McCarthy. Like Blackburn an inexperienced manager was appointed and they slumped to bottom spot in the league. Bolton meanwhile lacked the squad depth to replace the departed Johann Elmander, and the injured duo of Fabrice Muamba & Chung-Yong Lee. Meanwhile the aging Kevin Davies struggled to perform in front of goal.
Reading, Southampton & West Ham will hope for further failings from established Premier League sides. Wigan could be about to lose Roberto Martinez and West Brom have already lost Roy Hodgson, whilst Aston Villa have sacked Alex McLeish and have been in free fall for over a year now. All will be candidates for relegation next season and could boost the newly promoted sides’ chances of survival.
Swansea and Norwich have certainly set a precedent to show that the model of tactical consistency, financial prudency and faith in the players they have can lead to a very successful maiden Premier League season. Whether the newly promoted sides choose to follow this path or use their own alternative methods will be interesting to see come the dawn of the new season.
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