Sheffield Wednesday cannot have seen this situation developing.
Having guided Wednesday to the Championship playoff final last season, a penalty shoot-out defeat to Huddersfield Town left them looking nonetheless primed for promotion at the second time of asking.
With things looking a little less impressive at the mid-point of this season, it was decided that Carvalhal needed to go.
Four days later, Carvalhal took over from Paul Clement at Swansea City; Sheffield Wednesday are sitting 17th a division below.
Having overseen a remarkable turnaround in Swansea's form, the Welsh club are now sitting relatively comfortably in 13th. Although things are incredibly tight amongst those trying to avoid the Premier League drop, two defeats since Carvalhal took over in late December points to how far they have traveled.
After leading his side to a 4-1 win against David Moyes' West Ham United today, the Portuguese was in typically fun form. The "best performance since I took charge" according to Carvalhal, the only likeness he could draw to this performance was rooted in music:
Sometimes we must listen to our music, sometimes the music of our opponents, this is life. We made West Ham dance to our music and it was rock and roll this afternoon in the Liberty.
It was difficult for West Ham to follow us. I am giving all the credit to my players.
Not too different perhaps from Jurgen Klopp's now regretted comment about Dortmund's "heavy-metal" style under his management, Carvalhal kept the conversation going beyond the realm of metaphor:
If you are asking me what music I like, because I was in Yorkshire and my friend is John from Reverend and the Makers, I like Reverend and the Makers.
Other Sheffield music I also like is Arctic Monkeys and (The Last) Shadow Puppets.
Even at this early stage, we should expect such unexpected outliers from the Swansea boss. You can watch his full, entertaining post-match interview below.
