Richard Montague | We need to get Swansea City back at the cutting edge

New Swansea City director of football Richard Montague says his goal is to facilitate a football operations structure that allows the club to punch above its weight on and off the field.

Montague formally took up his position with the Swans on Tuesday, joining the club on the back of a highly-successful five-and-a-half year stint at Notts County, who he helped return to the EFL and challenge for promotion to League One as executive director.

He will be tasked with bringing football knowledge and expertise to the club’s senior management set-up, including responsibility for overseeing all football departments and supporting Swansea’s player recruitment strategy.

And Montague believes the key to ensuring a better future for the club lies in operating in a fashion that allows it to outperform and confound factors such as financial budgets; and that means pursuing a different path that remains true to the values that have brought the Swans success in previous decades.

“I think the director of football role is very much about bringing lots of different areas together,” said Montague. 

“It’s about trying to find cohesion and harmony across the different football departments in the club.  

“My job is to communicate really well with every department, and to make sure they’re getting all the help and resource they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability. 

“It’s a unifying figure, it’s somebody who brings all those elements together and tries to help the club perform to the best of its abilities. 

“I see the job as someone who sits in the middle, and takes a lot from all of those different areas and to bring it together and communicate that, and help the club move forward.

“We need to know with a good degree of certainty, how we are comparing with the rest of the teams in the division in terms of budget off the pitch and we need to be constantly exceeding where our budget suggests we should be.

“If we can do that, then success will follow. I am not going to put labels on it to say we need to be finishing in a particular position. But for me, we need to see that we are moving forward, that we are overperforming.

“Everything feeds into that, and the more efficient we can be in different areas around the club then the better we will be in terms of our player trading, the commercial revenue we bring in, the more goals we can score will hopefully bring more people into the stadium to watch us play.

“Everything that comes from that can then go into the playing staff, go into the team, to give us the best possible chance of finishing as high in the league as possible.

“I don’t want to put too many labels on it, but that’s the thing that is going to be in my mind. How are we going to overperform? How are we doing to set up in the best way? How are we going to attract the best coaches and sign the best players? That is all to help us overperform, and that is the mantra I want us to be thinking of with every decision we take.”

Montague joins with the Swans beginning the search for a new head coach following the departure of Luke Williams.

He confirmed he will be involved in the appointment process for the new Swans boss, but believes the club’s long-held commitment to playing attractive possession-based football will aid the search.

“It’s obviously a very difficult time, changing the manager, and it’s not a decision that would have been taken lightly,” he said.

“I think the important thing now is to find the best person to take us forward, to help us get to where we’re trying to be. I’m going to be very involved in that. 

“I’ve had some conversations already, but we’re going to make sure we’re going to run the most thorough process we can to put us in the best possible position for the rest of this season, and seasons going forward. 

“I’m going to be extremely involved in that. We’ve got a lot of people working with that. But the most important thing is that we get the process right to end up with the right result.

“I had a really successful period with Luke and loved working with him. He is a great man as well as a fantastic coach. 

“But I’ve had other good experiences of working with other head coaches at Notts County, and I know I’ll have a good experience with the next head coach here. 

“That relationship between the head coach and director of football is so important. That’s the first thing we’re going to try and build, is having that working relationship to make sure we’re on the same page, we’re harmonious and we can make decisions.

“It’s incredibly helpful that we have an established style of play here, it’s one of the huge factors that attracts me to the club and the game model at Notts County was based around the work that had been done in Swansea. 

“I was very much an admirer of those teams that we all remember so fondly, and the Notts County style of play sort of came about having watched those teams, and enjoying those teams so much. 

“Then there’s what the advantages of having a set style of play could lead to for player recruitment. Consistency over time, the ease between shifting from one head coach to another, it’s a huge plus point for me, and if we didn’t have that, It would be something I’d want to move towards.

“With the way football is, that evolves over time but we want to make sure it’s as effective as it can be at Championship level while staying true to our identity. 

“It’s really challenging, but that’s what we need to aim towards and we need to be at the cutting edge. I think this club has a proud history of being at the cutting edge and we need to get back to that point.” 

And Montague revealed how one Swansea City side in particular, made a real impression on him when he was starting out in the football industry.

“It was the play-off semi-final at Forest in 2011. It was the most incredible performance, and the Swans were down to 10 men very early on,” he said. 

“I remember that very vividly. The demonstration of what a team playing at the peak of its tactical powers could achieve and that was a real defining moment for me in watching football. 

“I have a lot of incredibly happy memories of watching those teams and hope to have some more in the future.” 

Montague, who began his career with Football Radar and progressed to become their head of football analysis, managing a team of over 100.

Under his leadership, Notts County consistently outperformed their playing budget, scoring a significant number of goals, developing and selling players for substantial fees, and establishing a reputation for possession-based attacking football. They currently sit second in League Two.

Notably, Notts County secured a return to the EFL in 2023, with an exciting style of play that saw them score a remarkable 117 goals in a season. 

They have since challenged for promotion to League One, currently sitting fourth in League Two.

With his expertise and background, Montague outlined how data analytics will be a key element in Swansea’s approach, but was keen to allay some scepticism surrounding how and why that information is utilised.

“I think one thing to remember is that everybody uses data. That bridge has been crossed,” he said.

“I think every football club at our level will have subscriptions to various data packages and they’ll be looking at players that are flagged up on those systems. 

“We’re not going to be unique there, but where I hope we can be different is the quality of our decision making. In how we weight the different inputs that we have in order to make a final decision. 

“What we need to be is really consistent about how we make decisions going forward. Data is going to be a crucial part of that, but all those other inputs - such as traditional scouting, video analysis - come into the equation as well.

“We need to be the people who are using data, but it’s about how we fit that data into the other parameters and make final decisions to have the best possible impact on our chances of overperforming. 

“If we’re looking on the recruitment side; where’s the data? Is it strong or is it weak? How much weight do we want to give a particular piece of data for our overall decision making?

“In terms of our daily practices, it’s about how we prepare for games and how we analyse our own performance, and how we use to data to look critically at how we stand in relation to the other teams in our league. 

“We will also know how we stand compared to other teams in the league in terms of our spending, that’s the key area for us. We know we are not going to be the biggest spenders in our division.

“Based on what we’re spending, we will know where we are in the table in terms of budgets and we need to finish above that position.  

“We need to be aiming to overperform all the time and that’s going to be a boring buzzword I repeat a lot, but that’s how I think that we can punch above our weight and return some positive feeling around the club.” 

Notts became renowned for identifying players the club could develop to help them enjoy success on the pitch, and become saleable assets to help reinvest in the first-team squad, with such players including the likes of Macaulay Langstaff and Ruben Rodrigues, who are now plying their trade in the Championship.

And Montague hinted the Swans will look to a similar model.

“It was difficult, but what we were able to do at Notts was focus on what was the best opportunity that could win us games of football,” added Montague, whose team at the Swans will include Ben Greenwood who, after over a decade with the club, is promoted to the role of head of football operations and administration and will assist in the day-to-day management of the football department.

“If you’re able to sign players and move them on for a profit, then that money you’re able to reinvest back into your playing budget 

“We weren't rigid on signing players below a certain age, we were always looking for our best opportunities to make us win within a tactical framework we thought would showcase players at their best.  

“If selling players came as a byproduct of success which it does, that was a bonus. That again is how we’ll operate here. 

“We’re going to sign younger players who have the potential to grow with us and develop. That’s the market we’ll likely be able to shop in because we don’t have the resources of the clubs at the top of the league.

“I’m going to be heavily involved in that process as well. I'll be working very closely with the recruitment team we have here, and the head coach and staff, and I am also looking forward to working closely with Ben, who will be helping us and taking a leading role in making sure we are extracting maximum value from our playing contracts and transactions.”

“My role here is going to be bringing all of those elements together and making sure they’re functioning properly. It’ll be about building consensus, making sure all the different pieces and constituencies are happy with the decisions that we’re making. 

“It’ll be due diligence, agent liaisons or be negotiations. I’m going to be very hands on in terms of making sure we get the right players and right characters into the club that meet the identity of Swansea City.”