Swansea City: New manager will be a 'surprise' - George Graham

Swansea City will stick to their recent policy of appointing inexperienced yet ambitious managers as they search for Garry Monk's successor, says former Arsenal boss George Graham.

David Moyes and Brendan Rodgers have been strongly linked with the job.

But Graham said: "There are a lot of big managers available, but would they join Swansea?

"I think it'll be someone surprisingly without a lot of experience. That's what they've done and it's worked."

First team coach Alan Curtis is set to take charge of Saturday's game at Manchester City as chairman Huw Jenkins steps up the recruitment process.

Jenkins is understood to have a preferred target in mind, who could be another manager to be recruited from overseas.

Gus Poyet, Dennis Bergkamp and Frank de Boer are among some of the other leading contenders being tipped to take over the Liberty Stadium.

Moyes has become the bookmakers' favourite, but BBC Wales Sport has learned the former Manchester United manager is not interested and no approach has been made.

Monk was sacked on Wednesday after an alarming slump in form that had yielded just one win in 11 Premier League games.

Jenkins gave the 36-year-old his first taste of management 22 months ago when he succeed Michael Laudrup.

The former Denmark and Real Madrid star had been another surprise choice by Jenkins when he was appointed in 2012 with just five years' experience as a manager.

And Laudrup's predecessor was Rodgers, who was given the chance to rebuild his fledgling career after being sacked by Reading six months earlier.

Will Rodgers go back?

The Northern Irishman, sacked by Liverpool in October, is seen as a natural option by many for the Swans given his connection with the club.

He also adheres to the kind of passing style of play that Swansea have proudly adopted, but Graham feels he will wait for another option.

"He's been to a big club at Liverpool and is still very well thought of in the game so I don't see him going back to Swansea," said Graham, who led Arsenal to two First Division titles in 1989 and 1991.

"He's been there and made his name there and he's moved on. I can't see him going back.

"Swansea need to pick out someone young, but with a lot of ambition."

A change of philosophy?

The recent poor form has plummeted Swansea to 15th place in the Premier League, one point above the relegation places.

Former striker Ian Walsh says it would be a huge decision by Jenkins to discard the passing playing style in favour of a manager with a track record of rescuing clubs from relegation with a more direct approach.

He said: "The biggest concern for me is do Swansea get somebody in to play the same way, or do they bring somebody in who has experience of getting clubs out of trouble?

"No disrespect to the likes of Tony Pulis or managers like him, but that would change the whole philosophy of Swansea.

"There is so much to worry about and yet it's going to be a massive opportunity to for somebody."

Whoever Swansea chose, former midfielder Owain Tudur Jones fears them being manager-less, even for a short time, could be harmful,

"I assume they'll have at least of couple of names they can turn to because the nightmare situation for Swansea is they unsteady the ship by sacking Monk and don't have anyone in place for the next three or four weeks," said Jones, who played alongside Monk at Liberty Stadium.

"That could be trouble, but I'm sure they've thought that through."