West Brom, Luke Williams factor blamed for Swansea City issues | OneFootball

FLW's Swansea City fan pundit has had his say Luke Williams' form and blames West Brom as one factor for dip.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Swansea City and Luke Williams are struggling for form and momentum at the moment in the Championship.

It has been a largely miserable start to 2025 for Swansea, who have lost their last five matches in a row, one of which being a notable 3-0 thrashing at the hands of bitter rivals Cardiff City in January's south Wales derby showdown.

Although they made some additions to their squad, January was an undoubted disaster and Swansea have started the new month in less-than-ideal fashion by losing 2-0 to Coventry City on Saturday afternoon, but they have amplified that result amid the departure of long-serving captain Matt Grimes to Coventry.

It means that there is growing scrutiny surrounding head coach Luke Williams. However, he was backed with fresh faces and some much-needed green shoots of positivity, with the likes of Lewis O'Brien and Hannes Delcroix providing something to cling to in the market.

The verdict on Luke Williams and Swansea amid West Brom factor

At one stage, West Brom's search for a new manager after Carlos Corberan departed for Spanish giants Valencia brought Williams' name into discussions as a potential replacement, with journalist Chris Lepkowski stating that the Swansea boss has some support from the club.

They appointed Tony Mowbray in the end but FLW asked our Swansea City fan pundit Will Hughes whether he believes the Williams to West Brom link has been one of the key reasons behind his sides' woeful form of late. He said: "Absolutely, I do, unfortunately.

"When you look at our form at the end of 2024, two games from the Christmas break we played QPR at home and we put in an absolutely brilliant performance. 3-0 and tore them apart and I didn't actually realise how well they were doing at the time and still are.

"I think that was a bigger result than I initially thought it was. Then, we managed to grind out a 2-1 win with a 90th minute winner against Luton Town. In a game where we could have easily won by more.

"It just wasn't one of those games when it was pretty much attack versus defence for the whole game. Then, after that, he gets asked the question about the West Brom job. He fails to rule himself out of it, really.

"He doesn't play it down and it seemed like he was open to that discussion. From that point there, we have just gone downhill. New Year's Day, that was just a disaster. I had a friend that went to that game and he said it was pretty terrible.

"After that, it was just loss after loss. We managed to get a draw against West Brom, funnily enough. But, I must say, that game we looked pretty hopeless as well.

"So I think, definitely, it goes without saying that if those West Brom links hadn't come out, then we maybe we could have put it down to another factor, potentially.

"But I definitely think that Luke Williams failing to not rule himself out of that West Brom job has certainly cost him a lot of credibility at the club.

"Which is a shame now, because I do think we need to get behind him after the window that we had. But yes, I definitely think it is the key reason behind the woeful form.

"You look at us before Christmas and we were pretty good. We were getting tipped to maybe sneak into the play-offs. And now, we're one of the teams struggling, we haven't won in 2025, and we're potentially hurtling to a relegation battle."

Swansea City's worrying form

Swansea lost five of the six games they played across the last month, including heavy defeats to Norwich City, bitter rivals Cardiff City, Southampton, and Portsmouth.

The mood is in desperate need of uplift, amid growing pressure on Williams, with the club needing to arrest the slide down the table immediately, with relegation a distinct possibility if they aren't careful.

Swansea don't possess the financial muscle that some clubs in the Championship do, meaning they have to operate differently. Swansea tend to target young players with potential that they can improve and sell for more money.

This month has been more about finding oven-ready Championship standard players, and they will hope to be looking up the table, rather than down it, in the near future.