West Brom vs Swansea: Carlos Carvalhal concentrating only on survival
Carlos Carvalhal has turned around the fortunes of Swansea and looks destined to keep them in the top flight – sparking reports that he is in talks to extend his stay on the South Wales coast.
However, the former Sheffield Wednesday boss says Premier League survival is his sole focus – not debate about his future.
The Swans are currently 15th in the table – three points clear of the drop zone after overseeing five league victories during his brief reign so far.
That is a far cry from when Carvalhal took over from Paul Clement just before Christmas with the club propping up the Premier League having won only three games.
However, with the Baggies now adrift and seemingly certain of the drop, Carvalhal is eager to make hay and heap more misery on Albion while taking a big leap towards securing Swansea’s Premier League status.
On the subject of talks with the club’s top brass, Carvalhal would only volunteer: “I talk with the chairman every week, we talk often about the past, present and future. These are normal things about how we are progressing.”
Carvalhal continued: “We cannot talk about the future when trying to save the team. There are a lot of things on the table if you stay up or do not.
“It is our focus to stay up. After we achieve that, we will talk, no problem.
“I am happy here, there is no problem. I like the players, the chairman, the owners, the fans. I like the fans, I think they like me, so it is no problem.”
On the playing front, Carvalhal has also been given a boost with the news that Sam Clucas has been passed fit for the trip to The Hawthorns.
The midfielder had hobbled out of Swansea’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford with a knee injury last weekend and had been a doubt for tomorrow’s clash. However, Carvalhal revealed: “Clucas is ready and 100 per cent... He did a good recovery, our medical department did very good work with him.
“I was very concerned as it was about the external ligaments and it was very painful on the day, but the next day when we came back to training he was much, much better with little pain. The pain disappeared and the scan showed nothing special.”
Carvalhal added: “I’m very happy because he is an important player in our dynamic. He is half midfielder, half attacker and half defender– he is one guy and a half!
“We are very happy that he can recover and that he can be involved in the next game.”
Angel Rangel has also returned to training this week but tomorrow’s game looks too early for the defender while injured Portuguese midfielder Renato Sanches will remain at his parent club Bayern Munich for another week.
