John Toshack: Swansea City can stay up, says former manager

Former Swansea City manager John Toshack believes the club will avoid relegation from the Premier League this season.

The ex-Wales and Liverpool striker played for and managed the Swans, guiding them to English football's top flight in 1981.

Swansea now find themselves one place and one point above the Premier League relegation zone.

Asked if he thinks they will survive, Toshack said: "Yes I do."

The 68-year-old added: "I think it will go right to the wire. Usually one of the teams which look comfortable drops into it in the last fortnight or so.

"They think they're safe and all of a sudden a couple of bad results come and they find with a few games to go they're in trouble.

"There's maybe a team five or six points above Swansea who could also dip into it. We just need to be confident and keep our fingers crossed."

Swansea are one place and one point above the relegation zone after the 0-0 draw against Middlesbrough

Swansea were held to a goalless draw by Middlesbrough on Sunday, having been beaten by Bournemouth and Hull in their previous two encounters, and they host Tottenham on Wednesday.

As well as overseeing Swansea's remarkable rise from the old Fourth Division to the First Division, Toshack was also responsible for the club's relegation from the top flight in 1983.

The former Real Madrid manager has been impressed with the impact of Swans head coach Paul Clement, who was appointed in January.

Clement also has experience at Real, having been assistant manager to Carlo Ancelotti at the Bernabeu, and Toshack hopes the former Derby boss can steer Swansea to safety.

"Being at these top clubs and working under Ancelotti will have helped him but this is completely different for him," Toshack added.

"He's at the other end of the table now, he's taken on the decision to be here and be his own man. Apart from Derby, he hasn't had that experience before and I would imagine he's got a difficult couple of months in front of him.

"The last couple of away results have not gone as well as they would've liked. But I can see his enthusiasm is high, he's enjoying the job and we're all hopeful Swansea will be able to dig in and survive."