Rodgers: Swansea won´t change style

Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers said his side will not abandon the principles which got them promoted to the English Premier League.

The Swans open their first ever Premier League campaign away to Manchester City, and while their manager is under no illusions that this season will be tough, they have nothing to fear.

Rodgers told The Guardian: “Our shirts were still wet from sweating at Wembley when the bookmakers installed us as favourites to go down.”

“We are under no illusions, life is going to be hard and we are bound to lose a few games.”

“We will probably be unsure of ourselves until we win our first match.”

“There are three distinct levels within the Premier League and, in terms of money, we constitute a fourth, a bit like Blackpool last season.”

“We’ve come a long way in a short time. It is only a few years since we couldn’t afford to pay the electricity bill here.”

“Financially we are a million miles behind some of the clubs in this league, but that won’t stop us fighting. We know where we are at and we are comfortable with it.”

Rodgers was optimistic his side could avoid the drop in their first top flight campaign in 30 years, and said they were not concerned about being underdogs.

“We will have a passionate crowd rooting for us at home and, if we produce our A game, we have a chance against any opponents,” he said.

“Of course, if all of our opponents bring along their A game too we might struggle, but we can cope with being underdogs.”

“People seem to forget that we were underdogs in a lot of the games we played last season.”

“When I came here, we were among the clubs being tipped to be relegated.”

“We ended up keeping more than 20 clean sheets and you don’t do that without strength of character.”

Rodgers also mentioned the optimism surrounding Swansea as a city with the rise of the football club, and he can sense the excitement around the area as they build towards the new season.

He added: “This is a great time to be in Swansea. We are about to step into the unknown.”

“Nobody knows what will happen, but, now the new season is here, we are all going to find out.”