Carlos Carvalhal could stay on as Swansea manager despite relegation to Championship

The decision by majority shareholders Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan to inquire about Carvalhal’s availability for next season suggests there is a possibility he will stay

Carlos Carvalhal shows his frustration during the defeat by Stoke (Getty Images)

Swansea’s owners have asked Carlos Carvalhal if he is prepared to manage them in the Championship next season. The club’s 2-1 defeat at home to Stoke confirmed their relegation from the Premier League after seven seasons, and Carvalhal – who admitted he was “completely exhausted” after failing to secure survival – said he would take a few days to consider his future.

But the decision by majority shareholders Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan to inquire about Carvalhal’s availability for next season suggests there is a possibility he will still be in charge as Swansea face up to their first season in the second tier since 2010-11. It is understood that no conclusive decision has been made, however, and even if Carvalhal does decide he wants to stay, the owners will still consider alternative candidates before making the final call.

Indeed, Carvalhal’s fierce defence of his record at Swansea since taking over in December with the club bottom of the table was likely as much of a pitch to prospective new clubs as to his own. Ultimately, he blamed Swansea’s relegation on the club’s poor early-season form and the failure to sign reinforcements during the January transfer window, as he had requested.

“I spoke with the owners, and they asked me about my availability to work next season,” Carvalhal said. “They asked me if I was available to stay, and I just replied that I need two or three days to think. Talk with my family, talk with my friends, and after I will take a decision. Possibly Monday or Tuesday.

“I will take the best decision for me, and Swansea must take the best decision, because it is a massive club, a fantastic club. The city is amazing, and I want to say thank you for how the people at the club received me and my staff. They must come back as soon as possible, if it will be with me or not.”

If Carvalhal’s use of the word “they” to describe the club suggested this was more of an adieu than an au revoir, then his assessment of the season felt like an early attempt at negotiating his own legacy. Producing a piece of paper outlining his record since taking over, he said: “We did 18 games, achieved 20 points, since I arrived.

“We achieved more points in this period than Stoke City, than Huddersfield, than Southampton, than West Brom, than Watford, than Brighton, and the same as Leicester. I don’t want to criticise nobody, but it’s a fact that the first 20 games, with just 13 points, made things very difficult to recover.

“We improved the team. We did the maximum. But it was not enough to stay up. We did our best, me and the players. I’m completely exhausted. Really, I need a holiday, because we pushed a lot. You will say to me that in the last games, we are not winning. I will reply that we surprised opponents. After a while, the effect of surprise disappeared. Teams played at their top [level] against us.”

​Carvalhal also explained why his attempts to reinforce the squad in January ultimately failed. “Nobody wanted to come,” he said. “We requested four or five players, because we had gaps in some positions – for example, we didn’t have competition at left-back [for Martin Olsson]. But the reality was nobody wanted to come to Swansea, because we were at the bottom, and they didn’t believe we would stay in the competition.”

The track record of Carvalhal’s managerial career – 17 jobs in 19 years in four countries – suggests he rarely stays put for long. The two-and-a-half years he spent at Sheffield Wednesday were the longest he had ever spent in any job. And even if no minds have yet been made up, the likeliest outcome remains that the former Sporting Lisbon and Besiktas manager will be on the move again before long.