Blues down the Swan(s)ea

Blues go down 3-1 to Swansea as Pep Clotet resigns and Andy Munro reflects.

Things are going from bad to worse, as first of all Blues looked a team devoid of energy, direction or cohesion in this comprehensive home defeat.

Yes, things seemed promising in the first ten minutes with a trademark Lukas Jutkiewicz header, but that’s as good as it got with subsequently both the Juke and Scott Hogan huffing and puffing but never in danger of blowing the Swans house down. In truth they got little quality service from a lightweight midfield with Bela heavily marked and Dan Crowley playing too narrow to be effective, causing his own defence problems out wide. Sunjic buzzed around but unfortunately without a sting.

However, all that pales into insignificance with a defence that looked shaky in the face of every slick Swansea attack. Brewster made Marc Roberts look like the uncertain player that Harry Redknapp signed, Kristian Pedersen lost his man too often and Maxime Colin was exposed time and time again.

The only players to come out with any credit were a battling Gary Gardner, Jakes Clarke-Salter and Lee Camp. Blues probably only need four points to avoid relegation, but the way we are playing I can’t see us getting them anytime soon and this could herald a much unwanted last day nail-biter.

In the circumstances the early departure of Pepe Clotet was inevitable but this should have happened the moment he announced he was leaving. At that stage he could have left with some dignity and not on the back of a couple of heavy, morale-sapping defeats. We could probably do with a new manager bounce but no doubt the board will install Craig Gardner to do things on the cheap. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they do a Wigan to lose the debts and slink away.

As regards Pep, he was a thoroughly decent bloke and, on the plus side, pre-Covid he got us playing a quality of football we had not seen for some time. His signings (if they were his) were a definite improvement on those made by the likes of Redknapp. The plusses of Bela, Sunjic, Crowley and Clarke-Salter, plus the intro of Jude Bellingham can be weighed against the minuses, namely Alvarez, Montero and Villablanca.

In the final analysis, I think most of us will remember him with fondness but as a man probably too nice to give the sort of tough love that today’s spoilt footballers usually need.