FEBRUARY 10, 2017 – Swansea City boss Paul Clement has won the Barclays Premier League manager of the month award after a winning three of his five games in charge in January.
Clement, 44, replaced Bob Bradley after joining from Bayern Munich, where he was Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant.
The Swans beat Liverpool at Anfield in addition to wins against Crystal Palace and Southampton to move off the foot of the Premier League table.
“January was a good month. Now we need February to be good as well,” he said.
Clement told BBC Wales Sport: “It’s a great honour for me personally but it’s a big recognition for all the work that’s been done by the players, the backroom staff and also the support the fans have given us both home and away.
“It’s not easy, but everybody is working hard towards our objective which is to remain playing at this level of football.”
Ignoring the curse
Despite a supposed curse over managers who win the award, Clement is relaxed and focussed on their showdown with relegation rivals Leicester City on Sunday.
“We’ve got 14 games to go, very hard games, and we have to approach each game with 100% focus and concentration to continue getting good results.
“I don’t know the folklore but we’re working everyday to improve and we’ve got a very important game against Leicester at home.
“We’re glad that last time we played at home we got a positive result against Southampton where the fans were brilliant.
“Hopefully we can give them something else to cheer about this weekend.”
A turn of fortunes
The Swans were bottom of the league when Clement was appointed and were on the back of a poor run of form, having won just three of their last 19 games.
“It’s certainly a more positive situation than we were in four or five games ago when we were bottom of the table,” he continued.
“We’ve picked up some good results. There are also a lot of teams around us that have picked up good results.
“It’s very tight at the bottom with six teams in it at the moment which could go to seven or eight, who knows.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re doing the best we can to put in positive performances and get more wins and where we can’t get three points, get one on the board as well.”
