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Daily Mail - Paulo Sousa unveiled as Roberto Martinez's replacement at Swansea
- New Swansea manager Paulo Sousa says he has unfinished business after being controversially sacked by Queens Park Rangers in April.
- The 38-year-old Portuguese wants to show QPR co-owner Flavio Briatore he made a mistake.
- He said: ‘I thought I did a great job at QPR, but it did not work out for me. I want to be a success in English football.’
- The Portuguese was officially unveiled as the Swans' new manager.
Swans song: Paulo Sousa is the new man in charge at the Liberty Stadium
Sousa, 38, who left Queens Park Rangers in controversial circumstances back in April after just five months in charge, finally put pen to paper today having spoken to - his family after verbally accepting a three-year deal last Thursday.
The former Portugal midfielder and assistant manager replaces Roberto Martinez after he left the Liberty Stadium to take charge of Barclays Premier League side Wigan.
Sousa becomes Swansea's 12th manager in the last 14 years and will bring a brand new backroom team to south Wales after Martinez took his managerial staff to the JJB Stadium with him.
- Sousa is expected to name a multi-national team to assist him with a Portuguese, a Spaniard and an Australian tipped to be by his side...
. " Dail y Mail


Wales Online/Chris Wathan
Paulo Sousa aims to put Swansea City on world map
- PAULO SOUSA swaggered into the Liberty Stadium yesterday and immediately set his sights on becoming Swansea City’s very own Special One.
- Having been officially unveiled as new Swans boss, the Portuguese breezed into his new home with all the confidence and charm you would expect from a close pal of Jose Mourinho.
- Just like when the ex-Chelsea chief first arrived at Stamford Bridge, two-time Champions League winner Sousa wasted no time in outlining his grand plans for his new club.
- And the Portugal playing legend insisted he’s ready to help put Swansea City’s name on the world map . . . despite conceding he knew little of the club not so long ago.
- The 38-year-old coyly chuckled when asked if he had the Swans in his thoughts back when he ran the midfield for a string of Europe’s top clubs including Inter Milan, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund.
- But in his first in-depth interview since accepting a three-year deal for the Swansea post, he stressed: “The history of any club builds with success, with achieving important targets. The recent past is very good and I want to keep that.
- “I want to put the club on the map. Not just England and Wales, but the world.
- “And not by just myself, but with the commitment of everyone here. I want to help the club become something special, something important and I don’t have doubts with the people here we will achieve that.
- “When? Step by step. I don’t care about how long it takes, what I care about is when we get it we keep it and we keep growing all the time.”
- Sousa accepted there are solid foundations on which to build following the work of Roberto Martinez, before his decision to join Wigan.
- Yet, although the spectre of the Spaniard will loom for a long while yet, Sousa’s tangible excitement about his Swansea challenge did much to draw something of a line under the summer saga.
- And, although those tanned shoes could prove big ones to fill, Sousa insisted he feels not an ounce of pressure as he prepares his attempt to do so.
- “I don’t feel it,” the multi-lingual manager said. “And the club, the chairman, hasn’t put me under any pressure. We are looking to continue a philosophy.
- “We know our project, we know the way we want to go, we know what kind of targets we want to achieve and I have the time to do it.
- “The club is bigger than any individual so it will take all of our commitment and will to make sure the club grows bigger than it is today, to be better and better every day, stronger and stronger and not just on the map in terms of Wales and England but everywhere.”
- Still, though his stature remains impressive, the stand-alone statistics from his first spell in management seem to suggest he will have his work cut out.
- At Queens Park Rangers, with some of richest owners in football, Sousa could not make his mark before leaving under a cloud just five months into the job.
- Yet. while not wishing to be drawn too much on the subject of his time in south London, he left little doubt what he values more in a club.
- “Swansea is a club with big foundations, stability and a lot of support for the manager, which are the right things to bring success,” said Sousa, silver-suited for his welcoming parade in front of the cameras yesterday.
- “And that support is more important than money. The most important things are the vision, the identity, the club.“And to know the way to achieve success is the key. Money does not buy you success – but ideas, vision and desire can. We have it and we want to become even stronger in that sense. And because of that I have no doubts we will achieve what we want.”
- Unlike his predecessor, the romanticism is tempered with the realism of a manager who knows last year’s push for the play-offs will be a tough ask to emulate at the first time of asking, especially for a new boss with just weeks to work with his new squad before the campaign kick-off in an increasingly difficult division.
- And while he encouraged fans to fantasise about top-flight football, it came with a plea for patience first.
- What Sousa would promise was a continuation of the continental style that saw Swansea capture the imagination on their first year back in the second tier.
- “The first week I arrived in Britain I spent as much time as I could watching Championship games and one of the first things I said here was that Swansea were one of the best footballing sides in the division,” he said.
- “That’s something I want to continue. It’s my philosophy. During my career I played at a lot of big, important clubs and every one of them we played good football and as a manager it’s the same because I believe it’s easier to win games when you do that.
- “So this is a restarting of things. We want to continue things that have been done well here, but we also want to improve, step by step, to be better and better as a club, as players and as staff.”
- When asked on what targets have been set for the season ahead, he stressed: “The second year is the most difficult year for a club after promotion.
- “This season, in my opinion, is the most difficult season in the last five or six years because we have a minimum of 10 teams who will be looking for automatic promotion. Teams are here can spend a lot of money and have started already spending.
- “But I believe in our squad, in my club, and the people here to keep us among them. And slowly we will understand where we can look further ahead.
- “The chairman has already told me about being in the top division and we want to get back there. And with time we will arrive there. I am ambitious, I want to go to the Premier League.
- “We need to dream, but we must dream with 90% of reality. Dreams are fantastic because they keep us alive trying to follow it. But we need to know the way to follow and we must be clever to recognise that.
- “The project is not about today, it’s about today, tomorrow, and the next three years and more when we can build something stronger. That excites me.”
- So does he see himself as Swansea’s own Special One?
- “I will just be the one who gives all my knowledge, all my commitment to help the club to be more recognised than they are today.” WalesonLine


Wales online - Paulo Sousa: 'I am the right man for Swansea'
- PAULO SOUSA has insisted he is the right man to bring continued success to Swansea City after agreeing a three-year deal to take over the Liberty Stadium hot seat.
- Sousa, who was unveiled as the Swans new manager on Tuesday, believes the club can still challenge for the Championship play-offs next season. And, while determined to lay down his own marker at the club, he claimed it could be achieved by continuing to produce the stylish football that made Swansea such a success under Roberto Martinez.
-The Portuguese legend will meet his new players for the first time when they return from pre-season on Thursday. And, as he prepared for the new campaign, he was already looking forward to working with the talented squad Martinez left behind.
- “I’ve no doubt I can make this work and get the right success for Swansea," he said. "I believe in my knowledge and ability and I know how to apply it for this club.
- “Swansea has the same football philosophy as me and we agreed from the start about how we can get success in the Championship.
- “I already know how much quality the players have. Now I need to see if they have the same will to succeed as last year.”
- Swansea Chairman Huw Jenkins added: “We are very pleased and excited that Paulo has agreed to join us. We are really looking forward to developing the team and pushing on over the next few years.” Walesonline


This is South Wales - Bruno Oliviera and John Harbin
- Sousa's former assistant manager at QPR, Bruno Oliviera, is to join him at the Liberty. The 31-year-old has been involved in coaching for a decade after seeing his playing career ended by a cruciate ligament injury.
- John Harbin, a 68-year-old Australian performance coach who worked for a long time alongside Iain Dowie, is also expected to join the Swansea staff as well as a Europe-based scout. This is South Wales

Also: Swansea Official Site Profile/Comments


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