It must have been an uncomfortable weekend for Alan Sheehan and by Monday he would have sensed his time was up.
The pressure that had been mounting on the Swansea City head coach finally came to a head on Tuesday when the club confirmed his dismissal in the wake of last Saturday’s 4-1 defeat to Ipswich Town.
That loss left the Swans with just one victory in their last eight matches across all competitions — a run that has dragged them worryingly close to the Championship’s relegation zone.
Ironically, their sole triumph in that spell came against a Norwich City side who themselves reacted to poor form by sacking Liam Manning.
The writing had been on the wall. While Swansea could perhaps feel unfortunate to have lost at Preston North End earlier in the week — Thierry Small’s wonder strike proving decisive — there was no such hard-luck story against Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich.
The Swans were second-best throughout, delivering a dismal first-half performance that saw them booed off both at half-time and full-time at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Despite a consolation goal from Gonçalo Franco, the defeat left fans chanting “we want Sheehan out” — an ominous soundtrack that foreshadowed what was to come.
After the match, Sheehan had insisted he remained confident he was the right man for the job.
But results ultimately told a different story. With 15 league games played, Swansea sat only seven points clear of the bottom three — and eight adrift of the play-off positions.
The club’s points tally at this stage is the lowest in any of their eight consecutive Championship seasons since relegation from the Premier League in 2018.
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Four wins from those 15 matches marks Swansea’s poorest start since the ill-fated 2017–18 top-flight campaign, which ended in relegation after seven years in the Premier League.
The Swans’ total of just 15 goals is also among their worst attacking returns since their Championship return — and their goal difference of -4 is the lowest after 15 games since that same relegation year.
For a side that invested heavily over the summer, the numbers were damning.
Swansea’s new ownership group had backed Sheehan significantly in the transfer market, but the attacking fluidity promised in pre-season never materialised.
Instead, the team became overly reliant on striker Zan Vipotnik’s sharp finishing and goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux’s heroics to keep games alive.
When both players’ form dipped, the cracks widened — and the Swans’ fragile structure was brutally exposed against Ipswich.
Sheehan’s sacking makes him the fifth Championship manager to lose his job already this season, joining Rubén Sellés, Paulo Pezzolano, Will Still, and Liam Manning on the division’s growing managerial casualty list.
The club’s decision brings an end to Sheehan’s brief tenure as permanent head coach, which began just over six months ago.
It follows two impressive spells as interim boss last season, when he guided the team to mid-table safety after inheriting a side flirting with relegation.
That early success earned him a three-year contract and the belief that he could build a long-term project in South Wales.
However, that optimism has evaporated as Swansea’s performances regressed in recent weeks.
The attacking deficiencies that have plagued them all season remain the biggest concern, despite the talent available in the squad.
Swansea confirmed that the process to appoint a new head coach is already under way, with the club hoping the upcoming international break will provide crucial breathing space to reset before returning to action against Bristol City on Saturday, 22 November.
For Sheehan, it brings to an end what had become his most difficult spell in management to date.
An honest, hard-working coach, he discovered, like countless others before him, that when frustration and fan unrest follow poor results, no amount of personal attributes can cover the failings for long.
Only winning can extend a coach’s lifespan in troubled times and although Swansea have extended little patience, Sheehan’s one win in eight games was too weak a record to offer up in self-defence.
