WITHOUT hesitation, Paul Clement confirmed our game’s worst fears.
“English coaches do not have a good reputation abroad — they see us as old-fashioned, direct and back to front.”
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It was a brutal, candid assessment of our top-flight football.
The new Swansea boss heard the bitching that goes on behind the scenes about the Premier League during spells as first team coach at Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.
Hull’s decision to bullet Mike Phelan and replace him with Portuguese coach Marco Silva is another sign of our failing game.
But Clement — now one of only three English managers in the Premier League — has returned to change all that.
He lived it, breathed it and sucked it all in during a successful spell as assistant manager to Carlo Ancelotti at some of European football’s super powers.
The players at Chelsea, PSG, Real and Bayern all benefited from Clement’s coaching acumen.
He has swapped life at the sharp end, the chance to win the Champions League with Bayern, to rescue these fading Swans.
The set up at the Liberty Stadium suits him.
He oversaw their win at Crystal Palace, hugging Alan Curtis at Selhurst Park when substitute Angel Rangel scored their dramatic late winner.
What happened next is a little bit uncomfortable.
Curtis, who picked the team and tactics at Palace with first team coach Paul Williams, is no longer to be involved at senior level. It is a ruthless and risky approach.
In the corridor leading to the room where Clement was officially presented to the media yesterday, pictures of Curtis in Swansea colours jump off the walls.
There has been such a fuss about it in south Wales that Clement must be starting to feel like the guy who shot Bambi.
He will have to stand on his own two feet now.
There is still so much for him to prove, with the doubters pointing to his 33-game stint in charge of Derby last season.
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He added: “I’ve heard it called ‘an absolute disaster’, but I see it as a positive experience.
“We were only five points off the top of the Championship when I left. I don’t think it could be judged as a success or failure — I didn’t get to complete the season.”
On their day, Swansea are still a special club.
This has been a troubled season, but Clement has admired the football played at the Liberty Stadium in recent years.
He referenced the flexible playing styles of Roberto Martinez, Paulo Sousa and Brendan Rodgers and vowed to do something similar.
There was a hint of their dreamy past in the 2-1 win at Palace on Tuesday, with the silky touches of Fernando Llorente and the clever feet of Wayne Routledge giving the Swans hope.
They face Hull in the FA Cup on Saturday before a tricky test of six league fixtures including Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Leicester and Chelsea.
Clement’s reputation grew at Chelsea, promoted to first team coaching duties under Guus Hiddink, before he really got going under Ancelotti.
He loved that dressing room, with the mentality of John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole and others driving him on every day. They wanted and expected the best. Clement had to be at his best.
Yesterday he gave a nod and a wink to suggest he has spoken to Lampard about finishing his playing career with the Swans.
“I would love to have Lampard,” he admitted, but it seems the former England midfielder is taking a time out from the game following his spell at New York City.
Clement has been privileged to watch the work of the game’s superstars during his career abroad.
Inevitably he was taken with the attitude, desire and dedication of Cristiano Ronaldo more than any other player.
He added: “He did everything extra — diet, nutrition, coaching — to make himself better.
“If we won 5-0 and he didn’t score he would be upset because he expected to score, he saw that as his job.
“When he got a hat-trick everybody would sign the ball and it would go to his museum.”
The days of working with Ronaldo are behind him now.
He has traded life at the top, working with the very best in the business, to make a name for himself as a manager in his own right. Swansea seems to suit him,
He added: “I’m here to make a difference and I believe I am the man to do that.”
Undoubtedly, English coaches are counting on it.
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