Swansea City's seven days of managerial madness in 1996 will never be forgotten | OneFootball

Kevin Cullis' time as Swansea City manager will be remembered for all the wrong reasons

Swansea City have become a household name in the top two tiers of English football in the last 17 years but it's easy to forget that the club endured some tumultuous years prior to reaching the Championship in 2008.

A win on the final day of the 2002/03 campaign against Hull City ensured Swansea narrowly avoided relegation to non-league, and that was perhaps the tip of the iceberg of what they'd been through over the previous decade.

However, while the 2002/03 campaign is seen as Swansea's nadir, there were plenty of embarrassing moments before that which led to them finding themselves in such a perilous position come May 2003.

Perhaps the most embarrassing moment came in 1996 when Swansea made the decision to hire unknown manager Kevin Cullis from non-league side Cradley Town, an appointment which the club immediately came to regret and lasted just seven days.

Kevin Cullis' time at Swansea City was a complete disaster

Swansea were in the third tier of English football during the 1995/96 season, and after finishing tenth the previous campaign under Frank Burrows, there was no reason to suggest that the Swans would struggle the following year.

However, Burrows departed in the summer and was replaced by Bobby Smith, who was in charge for just a couple of months before resigning in December 1995.

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer replaced Smith as interim boss while the club looked for a permanent replacement, and they found their man in February 1996 when Cullis was appointed.

To say it was a strange move was an understatement. Cullis had never been involved in professional football as a player or a coach, and his only previous coaching experience was at Cradley Town, where his role as U16's coach also doubled up with being club chairman.

It's fair to say that it was a move that raised eyebrows, and his time at Swansea was over within seven days, taking charge of two games, the second of which was a 4-0 defeat to Blackpool, where players ignored his half-time team talk and instead took instructions from defender Christian Edwards.

What made matters worse for Swansea is that Liverpool and Wales legend Ian Rush was one of the favourites for the job prior to Cullis' arrival, and the appointment of Cradley Town's youth coach made them a laughing stock, with players and supporters bemused by his arrival.

The fact that the players took over in Cullis' second game in charge shows that he was out of depth, and after just two games, Rimmer was back in the dugout as interim boss to try and steady the ship.

Cullis' time as Swansea boss remains one of the most puzzling appointments the English game has perhaps ever seen, and his brief spell at the Vetch Field won't be forgotten in a hurry by supporters.

The 1995/96 season was a miserable one for Swansea City

While Cullis was in charge for just two games, the constant chopping and changing of managers during the 95/96 season meant that Swansea struggled throughout and were ultimately relegated to the fourth tier.

Swansea had four managers in total that season, with Smith, Rimmer, Cullis and Jan Molby all taking the reins, and while ex-Liverpool man Molby was a popular figure at the club, he wasn't able to steer them away from the relegation zone, despite his obvious qualities on the pitch in his player-coach role.

Swansea's form did pick up under Molby, and while he wasn't able to steer them to survival, he did at least lead them off the foot of the table, eventually finishing in 22nd place, five points from safety.

Molby's appointment was a coup for Swansea given his pedigree as a player at Liverpool, a stark contrast to Cullis' arrival, a man out of his depth and with no experience of managing in professional football.

Appointing Cullis, who was later sentenced to nine months in prison for fraud in 2003, remains one of the strangest decisions a professional football club has ever made, and while Swansea may be struggling on the pitch currently, it's safe to say they've come a long way in the 29 years that have followed.