Graham Potter and Frank de Boer are the leading candidates to take over at Swansea as the Welsh club look to appoint their fifth permanent manager in two years following confirmation that Carlos Carvalhal has departed in the wake of relegation.
De Boer has been under consideration in the past at the Liberty Stadium and the 48-year-old is back in the frame as Swansea finalise a list of contenders with a view to appointing a manager to rebuild the club in the Championship and implement a more attractive playing style. It is believed that De Boer, who has been out of work since being sacked as Crystal Palace manager at the start of last season, would be interested in the post.
Potter, who has enjoyed incredible success with the Swedish club Östersund, is also highly regarded and could be viewed as exactly the sort of manager Swansea need to re-energise the club after three miserable seasons. The 42-year-old has worked in Sweden since 2011, winning three promotions with Östersund and, remarkably, taking the club to the last 32 of the Europa League in March, where they defeated Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium but lost 4-2 on aggregate.
Other names that have come under consideration include Brentford’s Dean Smith, who this week missed out on the West Bromwich Albion job, and Lee Johnson, the Bristol City manager. However, at this stage it appears as though Potter and De Boer are the frontrunners for a role that will require the manager to assemble a new team, with Swansea prepared for an exodus of players.
Carvalhal was appointed in December on a short-term contract and with a view to potentially remaining in charge in the Championship, yet the way Swansea’s season imploded in the last two months convinced the club that the Portuguese, who had such a positive impact initially, was not the solution. Swansea failed to win any of their last nine league games, with Carvalhal’s increasingly cautious tactics doing nothing to help their cause during an awful run of results that culminated in relegation on the final day.
Huw Jenkins, the Swansea chairman, said: “Naturally, we are all disappointed with the club’s relegation from the Premier League, and following discussions with Carlos, we felt it was in the best interests of both parties that we move in a new direction.”