The media are reporting that manager Carlos Carvalhal will not have his contract renewed and will leave the club at the end of the season will this be beneficial to Saints on Sunday.

Swansea City have seemingly decided that manager Carlos Carvalhal will leave the club at the end of the season, although seemingly he will be in charge for the visit of Stoke City on Sunday.

In what is a massive vote of no confidence in the manager whatever the result either at the Liberty Stadium or at St Mary's it is surely demotivating for Carvalhal himself who had been in talks to remain at the club next season, what incentive has he now got to try and get a miracle performance out of his players and perhaps come up with a shock result that will keep the Swans up.

Surely it would have been better to delay making this decision till after Sunday when the Swans fate is sure either way or to relieve him from his duties with immediate effect.

As of yet Swansea have made no official statement, although someone either the club itself of Carvalhal have chosen to leak this to the media.

This has to be some good news for Saints supporters with the football media seeing this as Swansea throwing in the towel before a ball is kicked.

Certainly it is one that is easy to make based on results, initially Carvalhal did well and dragged the Swans up the table, his first 9 League games saw 5 wins, 2 draws and only 2 defeats and he looked a good fit for the Swans.

But since that last win against West Ham back in March things have taken a distinct turn for the worse, Swansea have lost their last 4 games, and of the other 4 have drawn 3 and lost another 1 making it only 3 points from 24.

Indeed in the last four straight defeats they did not register a single goal and conceded 8, although 5 of those were against Manchester City the last 3 games ending in single goal defeats.

That has led to the Swansea board reassessing the job Carvalhal has done and deciding that he is not their man.

Add to that the fact that the Swansea City Supporters Trust who own 20% of the club have issued a vote of no confidence in Chairman Huw Jenkins, it seems that The Liberty Stadium on Sunday will be a toxic atmosphere and one of protest rather than the supporters trying to create one that could see their team have a go at retrieving a difficult position.

Photo: Action Images

StEdmund added 15:50 - May 10 It may be worth remembering that Stoke have a financial incentive of beating Swansea by 4 goals as it would put them up the table,and get additional merit money, especially if WBA lose. Unlikely maybe, but perhaps Stoke won't just roll over.
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halftimeorange added 16:36 - May 10 I'm not so sure, St Edmund. Stoke fans are willing their team to roll over and make Sparky sweat if City get a couple of early goals here. I'd like to think that professionalism will rule and Stoke will deny Swansea too many chances - after all, their better players will be looking for other clubs to rescue them. In this most bizarre season, however, I can't take anything for granted. Carvalhal's dismissal is not likely to have any effect on the mindset of the Swansea team and I'm sure they'll give it a go. Saints need to be at their most resolute and keep McCarthy fit.

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