Turbulent season and three manager changes eventually saw Swansea surviving after the January appointment of Paul Clement proved to be the best decision made by the Board this campaign.
Even before the season started coach Francesco Guidolin was under pressure for reasons outside the football pitch and despite winning their opening match away vs. Burnley the Swans were playing poorly and collected just one point from the next six rounds. The fact that Guidolin’s club-record summer signing Borja Baston got injured even before making his debut and never got going after that also didn’t help the Italian and at the beginning of October he was sacked and replaced by Bob Bradley.
The American hardly convinced with his selection choices and tactics though and his reign lasted just 11 rounds, in 8 of which the dreadful tactics used saw Swansea conceding three goals or more. Come Christmas the Swans looked doomed, sitting bottom of the table and playing some really poor football, but everything changed when Bayern Munchen’s assistant coach Paul Clement agreed to take charge of the club for round 20.
All campaign Sigurdsson’s playmaking abilities were the one thing standing out in Swansea’s displays and as he was given even more freedom by the new manager this benefited the entire squad. Llorente also proved to be instrumental with his goals after the turn of the year and five wins from his first eight games in charge quickly convinced everyone that if someone could save Swansea it would be Clement.
This belief diminished a bit in late March and April when Swansea earned a single point in five rounds to collapse again in the relegation zone, but the players trusted their third boss and with four wins and a draw in the final five games they not only just survived, but actually finished well above the drop zone.
Clement’s winter signings also proved successful and with an ambitious and vastly experienced in Europe manager and a decent squad that look stronger after four very good winter additions were made the future looks much brighter for the Swans.
