Swansea caretaker Alan Curtis has switched into manager mode

On Thursday, Curtis was promoted from the caretaker position he has held since Garry Monk's departure on December 9 to a full-time role until the end of the season.

It is a huge responsibility for the 61-year-old who has spent four decades at Swansea as player and coach, with the club hovering two points above the Barclays Premier League relegation zone.

Swansea take a breather from their league battle with an FA Cup trip to Oxford on Sunday, but Curtis readily accepts that he has had to get used to the sharp end of management.

"I've never really seen myself as a manager but you can quickly change that mindset," Curtis said ahead of the third round tie at the Kassam Stadium.

"When you get given an opportunity to make sure the club stays in the Premier League you quite quickly switch into manager mode.

"I've never really aspired to be a manager, especially in the Premier League, but we'll see how this period goes.

"The most important thing is that we retain our Premier League status.

"That's all my concentration is on at the moment, these last 18 games."

Curtis has overseen an improvement in performances in his five games in charge and landed the job for the rest of the season after first-choice Brendan Rodgers, the former Swansea manager, chose to continue his break from football following his October exit from Liverpool.

Chairman Huw Jenkins' mission to South America to speak to former Argentina and Chile coach Marcelo Bielsa also came to nothing, as did overtures to the likes of Gus Poyet, Dennis Bergkamp, Roberto Di Matteo and Jose Mourinho's former Chelsea assistant Jose Morais

Jenkins revealed in a statement on Thursday evening "a lot of potential managers" did not want the job now for one reason or another, prompting the Swansea board to hand Curtis the task of keeping the club in the Premier League for a sixth successive season.

"It's a huge responsibility, but I could never have turned it down," Curtis said.

"With the quality we've got, I'm really confident we'll be OK.

"There'll be a fine if they call me boss! It's banned from the training ground.

"I'm determined not to change my nature, and I will do it as I see fit.

"A lot if it is just finding your feet and just running with it.

"It's a new experience for me and for the players to have me as their manager, but there's certainly been a great response in training as well as in games."

After an Oxford tie, in which Curtis is expected to rest several first-team players, fellow strugglers Sunderland and Watford visit the Liberty Stadium in the space of five days.

Those two games might go a long way to determining how Swansea will fare in the next few months, but Curtis remains in a positive frame of mind.

"We've got good players, I think we're capable and we've shown our capabilities in the last few games," Curtis said.

"The two defeats have been to teams (Manchester City and Manchester United) chasing Champions League football.

"We know what we have to do, it's going to be a slog from now till the end of the season."

Source : PA

Source: PA