New Swansea City left back Martin Olsson has revealed he hesitated over joining the Premier League strugglers, but felt reassured when the first training session left him unable to walk.
The former Norwich City defender was one of the key performers for the Swans in their stunning 3-2 victory at Liverpool on Saturday.
The Swede added energy and organisation to a previously brittle Swansea defence, but confessed he had to think long and hard about joining a club who were at the foot of the table.
“When you are joining club in this position of course you have to look to see if there are positive signs – and I saw them here, especially from the manager,” said Olsson.
“After his (manager Paul Clement) first training session I couldn’t walk properly for the next two days but that hard work will pay off, like it did here. We had to do a lot of running here, so it was just as well we prepared well.
“I knew it was not over, that there was good potential to stay up — and we showed what we can do when we work as a close unit. We will never give up easy, especially with this manager.”
Midfielder Jack Cork has compared the motivation of being written off this season to the last campaign, when many felt they would not survive under the Italian Francesco Guidolin.
Cork said: “We had a similar situation last season [facing relegation] and we managed to get out of it and, while people outside the club have been saying it’s hopeless, we don’t think that way. We quite like being the underdogs and hopefully we can do the same as last season and push up the table.
“This is a big achievement and it gives us confidence for the next few games and hopefully this win can be a great springboard [for us]. The other results also mean we’ve clawed a couple more teams back into it.”
The win lifted Swansea off the foot of the table and out of the relegation zone. But it was a shock result that rarely happens abroad, according to Clement who has worked as assistant manager at Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Paris St-Germain.
“It’s a question I would get asked when I was in France, Spain and Germany – you don’t tend to get so many shock or surprise results,” said Clement.
“That is what makes this league so exciting and special. For the neutrals, players, the coach everyone involved there is not an easy game.
“Anyone can go anywhere and win lose or draw, but I am a coach who believes you have a better chance of getting a result if you have good players and you have to work at it on the training field.”
