Why Michael Appleton will be a great replacement for Steve Cooper.

So, the rumors have been flying around all summer long that Steve Cooper is soon to leave his post as Swansea city manager, as sad as this is for a Swansea fan, it's also an exciting time with the potential of bringing in a new manager whose style of play is more in line with what the Swans are known for.

The best name (in my opinion) to be linked with Swansea so far is Michael Appleton.

The current Lincoln city boss, who led Lincoln to the play-off final last term, where they, unfortunately, lost to a very solid Blackpool team.

West Brom have been interested in his services but decided not to make an official approach as they didn't want to pay the compensation needed to relieve him from his contract, this wouldn't be an issue for the Swans as once Cooper goes, the team who poach him will have to pay the club around £4.3 million in compensation, making the compensation easy to cover.

They managed this feat without having a single leading goal scorer, the majority of goals coming from Jorge Grant (13), Tony Scully (11), and Brennan Johnson (10).

He focuses heavily on youth development which you can see with the team he put together at Lincoln, lowering the average age of the squad from 30, to 23 years old during his time there.

Last season they had the third-youngest team in the league and still managed to get into the play-off final.

At Lincoln, he has played a 4-3-3 system in 41 out of 49 games last season (This system would suit Swansea to the ground and would allow Jamal Lowe to play and shine in his naturally wide position).

Matty Grimes would be allowed to play that deep-holding role at the base of the midfield with Jay Fulton and Korey Smith on either side of him being allowed to push forward.

Another bonus would be the same bonus that Cooper offered us, his connections to premier league teams so we can get good quality loan signings, like Marc Guehi and Freddie Woodman, with it being rumored that Appleton has links to premier league and championship teams who offer players to them before putting the player on the transfer market because of Appletons focus on using youth players.

As much as I will personally miss Cooper, the style of play can be a nightmare to watch at times and he rarely changes from his regular tactics, leaves substitutions way too late into the game, and so on.

I will miss Cooper and thank him for bringing some stability back to Swansea, and of course wish him the best of luck in the future, wherever he may end up.

Thanks for reading,

Dan.