Swans owner Hew Jenkins goes into tomorrow’s board meeting with the future of the club’s management very much on the agenda.
After The Daily Star claimed that fan favourite Brendan Rodgers had accepted a £90,000 per week deal, it begs the question, does Francesco Guidolin actually have any chance of hanging on to his position as Swansea City’s man in charge?
Just weeks ago emphatic defeats to Leicester and Newcastle meant the Italian’s tenure at the club looked to be doomed, with the familiar grin of Rodgers hovering over. However, superb recent wins over Liverpool and West Ham have slowly started to turn the tides for the former Udinese manager.
While his influence so far has been anything but spellbinding, if Jenkins’ decision was judged on CVs alone then perhaps it would be Guidolin, and not ‘the Brodge’, benefiting from a nifty £90,000 per week pay packet.
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Guidolin began his management career all of 28 years ago. Although the 60-year-old’s resume only reads a 1997 Coppa Italia as a major honour, he is a respected name in his home country and in fact only six other managers have managed more Serie A games than him (555 games over 21 years).
He was even was touted a potential national coach before Antonio Conte threw his hat into the ring, and is still one of the names banded around to replace the soon-to-be Chelsea boss after Euro 2016.
“Two years ago, before Conte became available, I believe that I was very close to the Azzurri bench,” Guidolin commented when speaking to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“I like it when people speak highly of me, because I think I’ve done very well in my career. I feel like one of those directors who don’t get the awards in Hollywood, but are loved by a niche audience. I find that gratifying.”
While Guidolin initially grabbed the limelight on home shores after turning Vicenza from obscurity to Serie A heavyweights in the 1990s, it was with Udinese at the second time of asking that the Italian truly made people stand up and take notice of his management abilities.
His first period in charge at the Bianconeri led to an impressive fourth place finish during the 1998–99 season. A mid table finish the following year led to stints with Bologna, Palermo (Twice), Monaco and Parma (for which he gained promotion), all before returning to a struggling ‘Zebrette’ side who had previously finished a disappointing 15th in Serie A.
Guidolin, with the help of such talent as Alexis Sánchez, Kwadwo Asamoah , Antonio Di Natale and Medhi Benatia, guided a team of unpolished diamonds to another fourth placed finish, their highest points tally in their history, with 2011–12 UEFA Champions League placed sealed on the final day of the season.
With the stresses that being a top level manager brings, not to mention a self-confessed obsessive dedication to his job, Guidolin ended his stint as as manager to begin work for infamous club owners ‘the Pozzo family’ as an advisor, before truly hibernating from the game.
“I wanted to stay for life at Udinese and at times we talked about me doing something different, becoming a sort of ambassador for the Pozzo family, but it did not happen,” he said.
“I have now recharged the batteries, have watched games on my own and I have studied the game…at Udinese perhaps I gave more than I received.”
Funnily enough, the owners passed at the opportunity to install him at their ‘other club’ Watford, instead choosing to gamble on Quique Flores. His next port of call would be Swansea.
Not that his management appointment would be greeted by fanfare. In many people’s eyes the man for the job had just been given the ‘old heave-ho’.
Look out for part two of our look at Swansea’s current management situation later today on Outside90.
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