New Swansea City manager Carlos Carvalhal insists he can keep the club in the Premier League – despite uncertainty over player recruitment and the future of Leon Britton.
The 52-year-old Portuguese national was appointed on Thursday morning, following an eight-day search to find a successor to sacked Paul Clement.
Carvalhal took his first training session with his new squad after driving through the night from his home in Sheffield. He has been without a club for only three days after being dismissed by Championship club Sheffield Wednesday on Christmas Eve, following their defeat to Middlesbrough.
Carvalhal has been given a contract until the end of the season at the Liberty Stadium, and revealed he will bring four of his former backroom team with him to the club – while Britton’s coaching position will be decided in the coming days.
Carvalhal said: “I am absolutely sure he [Britton] deserves a lot of respect at the club. We will consider the importance he has at the club. Let us see in which position he can help more.”
Swansea, bottom of the Premier League, will face Watford on Saturday in Carvalhal’s first game in charge, and the former Sporting Lisbon boss has promised to give his players a chance to prove themselves before he makes moves in the January transfer window.
“I did not talk money with the chairman, usually I don’t deal with the money, it is my romantic side talking,” said Carvalhal. “I deal with footballers, then if we need – try to say which players we need.
“I will try and choose them but the money is not what I want to talk about, I am allergic to money.”
Carvalhal confirmed any players brought in would be his own choices.
“I will see what players we have in mind, who we need and who the scouts of Swansea have seen,”” he added.
“I must analyse the team. You have surprises, sometimes negative, sometimes positive.
“First we want to give opportunities to these players to show they are better, individually and as a collective, than what they did so far.”
Carvalhal insisted he is not worried about his future at the club, when asked whether he needed to keep the club up to earn a new deal, and said he has always worked on a short-term contract basis.
“I prefer to stay one year, check if the chairman, fans, players are happy with me, and after see the next step,” said Carvalhal.” I don’t want to stay in a club that the people is not happy with me.
“I don’t have a problem with my future. It is not a contract that puts someone at a club. It’s the day by day, you prove to the fans, the media.
“If you sign a contract and the people are not happy with you, you will be out. I have a big self-confidence in me and my fans.”
Yet despite the uncertainty over the way ahead, Carvalhal insists he can revive the team sufficiently to avoid relegation, despite the current five-point gap between themselves and safety.
“A lot of people will say just a miracle will help Swansea stay in the Premier League. I don’t agree because miracles are not from our world.
“It will be very difficult. Everybody knows that, everybody understands that. If you ask 100 people who understand football, most of them will say Swansea this season don’t have any chance.
“This is the general idea, but it is not our idea. We will fight, try to move the things, I think we can move the things.
“It’s a hard job, hard work but we believe we can do that, that is why we are here, to move things, to try to give the team a new dynamic, to try to score more goals – also for our fans to enjoy what they are seeing.”
