Swansea has appointed Francesco Guidolin as its new head coach, working alongside interim manager Alan Curtis at the struggling Premier League club.
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The Swans had slid into the relegation zone over the weekend, but the win was enough to haul them back above Newcastle and into 17th place – and relative safety, for now.
“You can’t have a joint managership – it’s got to be one or other and I’m quite happy for Francesco to have that”, Curtis said.
Watford boss Quique Sanchez Flores said beforehand that he wanted his side to improve on their “worst display” of the season at Southampton, but they were second best in the first half and rarely threatened.
“But I am not a coach who comes to press conferences talking about players that I want to sign”. You can see the concerns of the supporters but that’s the situation we find ourselves in.
“Certainly with him, I am sure there was some interest (from Swansea) in the past, but then we have been interested in lots of players before and it’s the same right now”. But we came up just short at Manchester City and United and I still feel that had it have been 11 v 11 for the whole game against Sunderland, we would have won.
Swansea say Guidolin will have the final say on team selection and the 60-year-old Italian will have a watching brief for the Watford game before taking on a hands-on role for the first time at Everton on Sunday. “He is a real leader and that was what we need”, added Curtis.
But Curtis, who has spent over 40 years at Swansea as player, coach and manager, sayd the club’s future is more important than that of any one individual.
“We need the win”, he acknowledges.
The newly-promoted side have faced the Swans just once since 2011, with Watford winning 1-0 at Vicarage Road back in September thanks to Odion Ighalo’s second-half strike. We’ve too well matched teams here and I am going to take the team with the better strikeforce.
Watford were more purposeful after the break but failed to create a single clear-cut chance at the Liberty Stadium and were lucky not to concede a second when substitute Bafetimbi Gomis rattled the post in stoppage time.
Watford come within a whisker of an equaliser, as Miguel Britos heads on to the roof of the net from Ben Watson’s superb free-kick.
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“But we are professionals, we just go out and do our job for the club that pays our wages, regardless of who the manager is”.
