Jack Cork says Francesco Guidolin was a "great manager" for Swansea and believes the club have the players to start climbing the table.
American Bob Bradley has been appointed at the Liberty Stadium, with Guidolin becoming the first Premier League manager to lose his job this season on Monday, which also happened to be his 61st birthday.
However, midfielder Cork says he had great respect for Guidolin after he led the club to safety last season but admits the team have struggled for form in a tough start to the new campaign.
"Things like this happen at __football clubs. It is obviously going to be strange in the next week to see what happens at the __football club, it is going to be tough. Different people are going to come in and obviously there is a new man coming in," he said.
"Francesco was a great manager for us, he really helped us towards the end of last season and got us to where we wanted to be and, unfortunately, we've had a tough run of games this season and it has not happened.
"We did try to find some form in the last few games and unfortunately it wasn't enough but this sort of thing happens in football. It is unfortunate because I really had a lot of respect for Francesco and his staff. We'll see what the new challenge brings."
Swansea have not won in the Premier League since the opening day of the season but Cork is adamant the team have the players to turn their poor early form around.
"We've got the same squad we had towards the end of last year with a few different additions and we did have a few good results last year, we had a good bit of form but we've had a tough start, like a few teams have in this league," he said.
"I'm sure if everyone can play like we know we can with a good tempo and style then I'm sure we can start pushing back up the league."
Guidolin guided Swansea to safety last season after he replaced Garry Monk and Cork is hoping that former United States national team manager Bradley, who will leave Le Havre to take over the Swans, can have a similar impact.
"It happened with us last year with Francesco coming in and it did help us push up the table but we will see what happens. Hopefully we can react in a similar way and get going again," he said.