Taylor - Rodgers deserves gong

Taylor - Rodgers deserves gong

Neil Taylor believes Brendan Rodgers should be named Manager of the Year for helping to turn Swansea 'from Blackpool to Barcelona'.

Comparisons between the Swans and Seasiders were drawn last summer following the Welsh side's promotion into the Premier League via the Championship play-offs.

Few disagreed that their style of play was pleasing on the eye, but they were tipped to struggle at the very highest level.

Rodgers has made those cynics eat their words, with Swansea currently sat 11th in the table and able to look back on a campaign that has seen them more then hold their own against the top flight heavyweights.

Taylor hopes their achievements will be recognised, with the man who has overseen their remarkable journey most deserving of the plaudits.

Brilliant

"People compared us to Bl ackpool at the start of the season and now they are comparing us to Barcelona."
Neil TaylorQuotes of the week

"Yes, definitely," the Wales international said when asked if Rodgers deserved to be named Manager of the Year.

"I don't think you have ever seen a team come and try to play the way we have done in the Premier League for years. People compared us to Blackpool at the start of the season and now they are comparing us to Barcelona.

"He is a brilliant man manager. People talk about how good Harry Redknapp is at getting the best out of players, and he (Rodgers) has done the same with our boys, and he has done it on a minimal budget.

"If you speak to any of the Chelsea boys who had him when he was there - people like John Terry - they speak really highly of him."

Rodgers has already started to be linked with top jobs on the back of his success at Swansea and Taylor concedes it is only a matter of time before he is lured awa y from the Liberty Stadium.

"I think he is destined for a top-four job," the 23-year-old said following Swansea's brave 3-1 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday.

"People talk about how good Harry Redknapp is at getting the best out of players, and he (Rodgers) has done the same with our boys, and he has done it on a minimal budget."
Neil TaylorQuotes of the week

"But hopefully we can hold on to him but he has done really, really well. That's why he gets linked with clubs like (Tottenham)."

Battling

Swansea were undone late on at White Hart Lane, but Taylor insists there is no chance of the players getting complacent now that they are all but assured of their Premier League standing for another season.

"The season will not peter out," he said.

"We are not that type of squad. Last time we lost two games we went on and won the three after it and that's what we will look to do again.

"On another day if things had gone our way we could have beaten Tottenham."

• Premier League Top 10 Finish 11/12 Win Outright: Swansea 6/4