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The Blades kick off the 2018-19 campaign with a home match against Swansea City at Bramall Lane on Saturday 4th August (17:30 KO) in a match to be shown live on Sky. (The return fixture is currently scheduled for Saturday 19th January 2019).
Having finished their first season back in The Championship in a creditable tenth place (twelve points above Wednesday), the Blades face Swansea who were relegated from the Premier League last season.
There has been just one Swans win in 18 previous league visits to Bramall Lane. That was all the way back in 1939, when they triumphed 2-1 in the old Second Division. Since then, there have been 13 fruitless league trips to the red, white and black half of Sheffield. The most recent of those games was back in December 2010, when a Ched Evans goal was enough to give the home side – who included a certain Leon Britton – all three points.
The Swans were also beaten at United in the two previous seasons, but it was a different story when they travelled north in the 2006-07 FA Cup Third Round on 6th January 2007. Kenny Jackett’s Swans were a League One team and United, under Neil Warnock, were a Premier League club. Yet it was the Swans who romped to a memorable 3-0 victory thanks to two goals from Tom Butler and a Britton penalty.
Swansea (Town) were formed in 1912 and changed their name to Swansea City in 1969 to reflect Swansea's new status as a city. Since their inception, The Swans played all their home games at Vetch Field before moving to their current home – The Liberty Stadium – in 2005. Before Swansea Town was established, children would play football on waste ground in which a plant, called "vetch" (a type of legume) was grown.
Our last meeting was the final match of the 2010-11 season when United lost 0-4 at The Liberty Stadium in The Championship.
This was a pivotal season in both teams’ histories. The Blades would be relegated to the third tier having finished second-bottom in The Championship, and would spend the next six years at that level. Swansea finished third and would be promoted to the Premier League via the play-offs. The Swans became the first Welsh team to play in the PL since it was formed in 1992, and would play in the top-flight until their relegation last season.
On 24 February 2013, Swansea beat Bradford City 5–0 in the League Cup final at Wembley Stadium - the biggest win in the final of this competition. This triumph, in a record victory, was Swansea's first major piece of silverware and qualified them for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League. In this competition, The Swans beat Malmö FF (Sweden) in the Third Qualifying Round over two legs and Petrolul Ploiești (Romania) in the Play-Off Round over two legs.
In the Group stage, Swansea would progress to the knockout phase (when the competition was down to 32 teams). This run included a stunning away win over Spanish side Valencia 3–0 at the Mestalla Stadium on 19th September 2013. (The previous Saturday - 14th September - David Weir’s Blades lost at Carlisle 0-1 in Division One. The following Saturday -21st – we lost a home to Preston 0-1 meaning we had won four points in the first eight games). Meanwhile, Swansea’s fine run in the UEFA European League was finally ended by Napoli over two legs.
It’s fair to say that both teams have been on quite a journey in the last few years!
Recent history of Sheffield United v Swansea:
Full history
To date, our League results against Swansea City read:
Home: P: 18 W: 11 D: 6 L: 1 F: 48 A: 16
Away: P: 18 W: 7 D: 3 L: 8 F: 26 A: 31
Significant others.
Current Swans winger Nathan Dyer had a brief loan spell at Bramall Lane in 2009, scoring once in 7 league appearances. He was deemed surplus to requirements by then-manager Kevin Blackwell. Nathan would move to The Swans for a £400,000 fee from parent club Southampton. He has gone on to play (to date) 103 Championship games and 163 games in The Premier League…
Recently-retired Swans midfielder Leon Britton had a brief spell with United after being signed from Swansea in June 2010. He was handed a regular rôle in the centre of the Blades midfield but failed to really show the form he had displayed at Swansea. In a difficult period for The Blades, Britton played under four managers within the space of five months (Blackwell, Speed, Carver and Adams) and eventually asked to return to his former employer, stating that his previous transfer had been a "mistake" and that he "should never have left Swansea". Britton re-signed for Swansea City for what the Blades described as an "undisclosed fee" during the 2011 January transfer window despite The Swans insisting no fee was involved. He played 24 league games for United without scoring. During his career, Britton played 461 games for The Swans in all four divisions.
David Cotterill played 54 league games for The Blades between 2008-10, scoring six goals before moving to Swansea City.
Kyle Bartley played 35 games in two loan spells for the Blades in 2010-11. On 16th August, 2012, he was bought by Swansea City from parent club Arsenal for £1m. On 16th July, 2018, he signed for West Brom thought to be for a deal worth up to £7m.
Ex-Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal was in charge for the Owls in 131 league games and had a win% of 42.7. Narrowly missing out to Huddersfield Town in the Championship play-offs, the following season (2017-18) Carvalhal reverted to type and the Owls form plummeted. On Christmas Eve 2017, as the side sat in the lower half of the table, Carvalhal left ‘by mutual consent’. Four days later, he moved to the Premier League with Swansea City following the sacking of Paul Clement the previous week. His first game in charge took place late in the month, and he led his team to a 2–1 away win over Watford and after two consecutive league home wins against Liverpool (1–0) and Arsenal (3–1), he was nominated for his first Premier League Manager of the Month award for the month of January.
After briefly looking like steering The Swans away from the relegation zone, this was a classic Carvalhal ‘dead cat bounce’, Swansea’s form slumped and, on 18 May 2018 after the club's relegation, Carvalhal left Swansea (his seventeenth managerial job in 20 years).
In June 2018, current manager Graham Potter was recruited from Swedish side Östersund.
Men to watch?
Difficult to say. Stats. are based on last season in the PL and some of these players may be leaving/have left*:
*As I write (29th July), there is still the possibility of several changes to the Swansea squad which was relegated last season. Goalkeeper Łukasz Fabiański signed for West Ham last month for £7m. Sam Clucas will miss the start of this season with a knee injury but is being tracked by Burnley in a possible £12m move. Another Burnley target is Alfie Mawson. The big stumbling block over any deal for Mawson, however, remains the fitness of the centre-half. Mawson sustained a knee injury at the end of last season which required surgery and the Burnley target is yet to recover.
Any club looking to sign Mawson will have to do so at a gamble, with AM expected to be out beyond the transfer deadline. If Mawson does reach full fitness before then, he will join a squad battling the Europa League qualification rounds, without a pre-season behind him.
Andre Ayew has agreed a loan deal to Turkish giants Fenerbahçe. The loan is supposedly in anticipation of a Premier League return, as well as the club desperate to recuperate some of £20m they spent in January and shift the 28 year olds £60k p.w. wages off the books. His brother – and Swans top scorer last season – Jordan Ayew – is being closely linked to either Fulham or Leicester.
Wilfried Bony has not appeared for The Swans since last February due to an ankle injury and Turkish club Besiktas are monitoring his progress.
Meanwhile Kevin Oghenetega Tamaraebi Bakumo-Abraham (Tammy Abraham to me and you
) has been on pre-season tour with his parent club Chelsea. He has dropped further down the pecking-order at the Blues and is desperate to join a Premiership club. So far, both Newcastle and Crystal Palace have denied interest, and the latest rumour is that he may be joining Frank Dullard at Derby County.Latest updates to Swansea’s squad.
Finally, Swansea’s Martin Olsson: Played in the England v Sweden World Cup Quarter Final at Samara on 7th July.
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