Carlos Carvalhal has clarified comments he made upon taking the Swansea City manager’s job, in which he admitted contact with the then-Premier League side before he left Sheffield Wednesday.
Carvalhal left Wednesday by mutual consent on Christmas Eve 2017, after a disappointing start to a campaign which followed back-to-back play-off finishes.
And after his arrival at Swansea the following week, the Portuguese suggested that the move was a long time in the making.
Those comments failed to go down well with many of a Sheffield Wednesday persuasion.
And Carvalhal used an interview with the Totally Football Show to explain himself.
“I like Sheffield Wednesday. I’m an Owl in this moment,” he said. “When I arrived at Swansea, I mentioned that they had contact with me in the past, and the people said that I was talking with them [while still at Wednesday] and was preparing to go. It is a complete lie.
“I just want to inform all the Sheffield Wednesday fans that after the first season I was a free manager, because I sign all the time for just one season. I had invitations to go to the Championship to good clubs, and one invitation to go to the Premier League. But I preferred to stay in Sheffield, and I said to the chairman I will only leave the club when you decide, it’s not about my decision.
“So I absolutely had conversations with the other clubs because I was a free manager, but I prefer to stay [at Wednesday]. Thank you for giving me opportunity to clarify this.”
Carvalhal recently returned to work with Rio Ave, a year after he lost his job upon Swansea’s relegation to the Championship.
But he is already eyeing a return to English football when his contract there expires next summer.
“You have the best country in football of the world. Absolutely. Absolutely sure,” he said.
“In Portugal it is very hard to be a manager. Because the clubs fire the managers very easily. Turkey [where Carvalhal managed Besiktas and İstanbul Başakşehir] is very, very, very hard for the managers. Vicente Del Bosque was there five months. I think Bernd Schuster was like seven or eight months. A lot of big managers don’t complete one season. Greece is worse than Turkey. So when you work in these kind of countries and you come to England, it’s like you’re in paradise.”
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