Programme Notes – Leicester City, Saturday October 21st 2023 – Adam Lewis writes:
Welcome back to the Swansea.com stadium for today’s game against Championship front-runners Leicester City. We return to our home ground after a positive international break where Wales saw an upturn in results, with a huge win against Croatia giving us hope of European qualification. I’m sure we’d all like to congratulate Liam Cullen on achieving his first cap for Wales, which comes as a nod to the excellent performances he has been putting in over the last 12-18 months for the Swans. Liam was one of six current or former Swans in the Wales squad, highlighting the quality of our academy and recruitment system over the past decade.
During the international break, the Trust was hard at work getting ready to launch our Matchday Experience project. This is something that we have been discussing with the club for several months, and we’re delighted to have launched our first survey this week, which is the first in a multi-stage process of building more enjoyable experiences for all supporters.
I’d like to encourage you all to take a few minutes to fill in the survey, which can be accessed HERE. This is the first survey we have run for all of our supporters since I’ve been working with the Trust Board and is one of the commitments Paul Meller (Supporter Director) and I made when we took up our positions. We promised to be evidence-led in the feedback we provided into the club, and that we would go out and actively collect your feedback more often. This is our commitment in action. I’m very hopeful that we can produce some great insights that will help create actual changes to the matchday experience for you as a supporter.
Of course, the one thing we can’t directly control is what happens on the pitch, but based on recent performances, I’m sure the boys will take care of that themselves now that we seem to have settled into a style of play with the intensity and attacking intent that Michael Duff is famous for.
Fans Forum
It was great to see the return of the Fans’ Forum this week, with a strong panel and a good turnout of fans who asked a broad range of questions. These types of events are crucial in building the connection between the supporters and the club, and we know that there is nothing better than getting your questions answered first-hand. The Trust is now in discussions with the club about future fan engagement events this season and we will provide more details of these in due course. Whilst these types of events usually happen a few times per year, the Trust is in very regular contact with members of Wednesday night’s panel, as well as key representatives of the management team within the club. This means that we can constantly ask questions, provide feedback, and challenge the thinking of the club based on the views of you, the supporters.
I will never stop advocating for you to Join the Trust as I truly believe we have the influence to make meaningful changes for supporters, as well as ensuring that you feel more connected to the club that we all love. And so, to that end, I’d like to encourage you all to join the Trust today, which you can do HERE, or in person at our Trust Pod before any home game.
A difficult day ahead
Today’s opponents, Leicester City, will be our toughest yet. They’ve won 10 of their 11 games this season, and with a squad full of Premier League talent, it’s hard to see how they don’t bounce straight back up to the Premier League next season. Their story is one of the most bizarre in recent memory, having miraculously won the Premier League eight years ago, and the FA Cup just two years ago, before dropping out of the top tier last year.
As well as talent, they also have the benefit of Premier League parachute payments, which are designed to help Premier League teams absorb the cost of relegation. Leicester are one of the teams who has truly needed these in the past few years given their annual wage bill in 2021-22 was the 7th highest in the Premier League (£192m), but far more work is needed to create parity in the league and enable teams without these payments to compete financially. There’s plenty more we could say about that, but I will keep that for further notes.
Enjoy the game today, and please take a few minutes to fill in the matchday survey
Adam
