CHAT FOOTBALL FORUM

SWANSEA City skipper Gary Monk is motivated by the recent media and industry view that the Swans' will struggle in the Championship because of their lack of experience, according to Wales Online.

Monk says these type of comments from ex-managers, players and journalists motivate him to perform well, but he doesn't believe the Swans will struggle.

The Swansea skipper is happy for the Swans to be considered as the underdogs and hopes that other Championship sides will underestimate them.


Gary Monk told Wales Online:

"Everyone has got their own point to prove and that is a good thing for us, Obviously, some people look at it as inexperience, but anyone with something to prove can be very dangerous."

"It depends how badly they want it and, having been around the boys throughout pre-season, I know we all really want to prove ourselves this season. Hopefully, we can start by setting out our stall at Charlton tomorrow."

"At the end of the day you have to respect people like John Toshack’s opinions. He has been in football a long time and his actual comments were right, we don’t have a lot of experience at Championship level."

"Whether or not that makes it a struggle for us remains to be seen. But I don’t personally think it will be."

"I have seen people’s predictions and, while I can’t speak for everyone, I just use the mood it puts me in as more motivation. And I hope teams do underestimate us; that would be ideal."

"We could go into games as the underdog and use that to our advantage, especially away from home."

"No-one in the Championship is going to care about what we did last season. It’s like when we had the League One trophy in our team photo, we all said what’s that doing here, we are in the Championship now."

"It’s a great piece of history for the club. But for the players, especially with the gaffer, we won’t be allowed to settle for living on past memories."

"We have to keep pushing and pushing. That’s what we have to do all of the time this season."

"This is the perfect opener for us, it’s a tough place to go, but it will be a good taste of things to come."

"They are a Premiership outfit with Premiership history and they have got a lot of quality players. But testing ourselves against a team like that is the best thing we could do."

"If we can get something out of this game, people will have to take us seriously. But, either way, we will be there to give them a test."

"They have to earn our respect and we have to make sure they come off that pitch thinking Swansea are a decent team."

"I know the boys here can handle themselves in this division. We will come against good teams and good players, but that is the reason we worked so hard to get into this league."

"We want to prove ourselves against those players. But, at the end of the day, we are good players ourselves and they will find it hard against us because we will be determined in every game."

"But it’s important that we get a couple of early wins just to prove to the boys that we can win in this league. That will show there’s nothing to fear and, after that, I think we will be OK."

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