Blades Reject Swans Approach For Speed

Sheffield United have rejected an approach from Swansea City to speak to Gary Speed about their vacant manager's job.

Speed is amongst the club's top candidates for the job and BBC Sport believe that he too is interested in making his Management debut at the Liberty Stadium.

A Sheffield United source told BBC Sport:

'There was an approach, but it has been turned down because we feel Gary has a future at the Blades.'

Swans chairman Huw Jenkins is hoping to replace former boss Paulo Sousa by the weekend, with an announcement to be made on Monday if he does.

Speed has been favourite amongst the bookies this week, but his odds have dropped slightly to 11/11 (SkyBet) and 4/7 (Victor Chandler).

After employing two European managers previously, Jenkins seems interested in bringing in a British manager.

'Most of the young managers doing well happen to be British because they start off at those clubs,'

'Most of the experienced foreign managers come in and take a lot of the jobs further up the ladder.

'The younger British manager in my own view has a lot to offer.

Paul Trollope at Bristol Rovers, Terry Skiverton at Yeovil, Keith Hill at Rochdale and Eddie Howe at Bournemouth have all worked miracles on small budgets.

'Nigel Adkins has also worked miracles at Scunthorpe and has done a very good job and is very loyal to the club.'

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