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'Losing Michael Laudrup would be no big deal for Swansea'

Danish manager could become latest to move on but players confident of steady foundations

Jack Pitt-Brooke
Tuesday 26 February 2013 00:02 GMT
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Garry Monk said continuity was vital for Swansea’s future success
Garry Monk said continuity was vital for Swansea’s future success

Nathan Dyer and Garry Monk insisted after Swansea City's Capital One Cup triumph that if manager Michael Laudrup left, it would not be the end of their club's impressive progress.

Sunday's cup win was the culmination of years of progress under chairman Huw Jenkins, and Dyer, who scored twice in the 5-0 victory at Wembley, said that he had complete confidence in the club to keep moving in the right direction.

Last summer Brendan Rodgers, who brought Swansea into the Premier League, left to join Liverpool but the club have done even better under Laudrup, who is already being linked with jobs at Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid despite being out of work for almost a year before his move to South Wales.

"Since I've been here the chairman has had four different managers," Dyer said afterwards, referring to Laudrup, Rodgers, Paulo Sousa and Roberto Martinez. "He's brought in the right guy every time. We've never taken a step backwards. He knows what he's doing."

Dyer was not concerned last summer and would not worry if Laudrup were to go at the end of this season either. He said: "It's not going to completely change. No matter who comes in, the chairman has a philosophy about how he wants to play football. He will find the right man to take it forward. At the end of the day we still have the players who can play football. It's not like just because we lose a manager we are going to be fighting relegation. That makes no sense."

Club captain Monk has been at Swansea for nine years and said that the team is able to recover from losing managers, although he is understandably keen for Laudrup to stay.

"We've done it for a number of years now, where we have lost our manager after a successful period and we have managed to bounce back," Monk said. "Hopefully that doesn't happen again, it's important to the club that we get some longevity and continuity would be nice for the club."

Jonathan de Guzman is on loan from Spanish side Villarreal but he acknowledged that Laudrup was building on the achievements of previous managers.

"He's just a guy that came knowing Swansea plays football already and they had that philosophy before he came," De Guzman said. "He just put a bit of accent on it."

So De Guzman is confident Swansea can continue next year with or without Laudrup. "If that [Laudrup leaving] is the case, then that is what happens. Of course it is going to be sad for the team, but not really because there are a lot of other coaches who are capable of filling his shoes."

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