I think something very special is starting to happen in Swansea and it’s bringing back memories of some wonderful days which in all honesty I thought might never return.
My love affair with Swansea City goes back to the days when we were still a town. I was a member of the Brynhyfryd Junior School football team who had been given free tickets to a day out at the Vetch Field. The game ended with a Swans win and with Northampton down to 10 men after their centre forward had been sent off for fighting with a fan…it’s a long story.
For years it became a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon or a weekday evening with my mates. During the game we would walk from one end of the North Bank to the other following the action. We never needed to ask anyone to move for us to pass because, well, there weren’t that many people there to get in the way.
Then it started to change with the arrival of John Toshack. At the time we were in the Fourth Division but we had a nucleus of a good team made up of kids that had been brought together by Harry Griffiths. Harry tragically passed away just days before Swansea won promotion to Division 3. I was there as the team he helped build developed and climbed to the very top of the Football Pyramid.
It wasn’t just that we were winning matches, it was the way we were winning games. Tosh brought a Liverpool swagger of ‘pass and move’ aided by the arrival of a number of Liverpool old boys. The ride to the top was truly meteoric…as was the fall.
They say never be sad that it’s over, rejoice that it happened. I mean, it could never happen again could it???
By the time I started taking my boys to the Vetch we were ‘yoyoing‘ between the bottom 2 leagues with the occasional great day out in the FA Cup. At that stage I thought the draw with West Ham at Upton Park in 1999 was going to be the pinnacle only for a Martin Thomas goal in the replay to send us through to the next round sent me and my boys into football heaven.
The arrival of manager Kenny Jackett and the move to the Liberty Stadium felt like a major step forward. Sadly and rather oddly, Kenny resigned with the Swans just outside the promotion places.
I think we were all surprised when the young board decided to invite Roberto Martinez to take over the reins. When Roberto used to play for the Swans I always used to think that he was too good for us. He was classy, he could pass and he never hoofed the ball up the field. When he became the manager that’s the mentality be brought to the club.
It wasn’t long before no one in this team hoofed the ball anywhere too. As Kev Johns said in the film “Jack To A King’, you would come home from a game that we might only have drawn and would say, that was a great game of football.
We were on our way to the Premier League, only for our hearts to be broken when Roberto left for a job with Wigan…who were already there.
If it wasn’t for a late Lee Trundle goal being ruled off side Paulo Sousa would have got us into the playoffs, but to be honest, it wasn’t a great watch. We had been spoilt with champagne football. We wanted to win yes, but we wanted to win playing football the ‘Swansea Way’.
Brendan Rodgers arrived with so many questions, the biggest one being, who is he? It wasn’t long before the champagne flowed again. We were back in the top flight and everyone was seeing that you could play the beautiful game in a beautiful way and win.
Brendan left for Liverpool and his surprise replacement was Michael Laudrup. Michael took us to even greater heights with the additional Spanish imports of Michu and Hernandez adding the gloss to a team that had we had grown up with, and grown to love.
Of course it didn’t last. Laudrup left and the magic started to fade. We finally succumbed to the inevitable on the last day of the 2018 season being relegated after losing to of all teams…Stoke. In truth we had already lost our identity a few years earlier. To go through this whole process twice in one lifetime was something for me to tell the grandchildren…I was disappointed but grateful.
Now, win or lose I am a Swansea City fan so I’ll always try to be optimistic. The past few years have had some great moments and some good managers. I thought that Graham Potter might have been the answer, but he left. Russell Martin divided the fan base but I always gave hm the benefit of the doubt. Did he play the Swansea Way or just overplay? Anyway he left followed by Michael Duff, Alan Sheehan and Luke Williams.
Then came Vitor Matos…who? As soon as he was announced I’m sure we all did the same thing and googled him. Ok, he had worked with Klopp but his latest job was in the Portuguese second division. Well, he’s our manager so he’s got my support.
At the same time something special was also happening off the pitch. In the 1970’s the people who owned the Swans were local businessmen who knew what the club meant to the region. In the 1990’s the group who bought the club from Tony Petty were again mostly local people who knew what the club meant to us.
I don’t think I’m being too harsh on the first group of American owners when I say I don’t think they quite understood what they were getting into!!!
There’s a saying, ‘Once bitten, twice shy’. When the new American investors came in I’m not surprised people were sceptical. Now you could say because I now work at the club on game day I have to say this, but I have to tell you, I believe the new owners are different.
Part of my job is to welcome guests to the stadium and answer their questions about the club and the region. Without exception I always come away from my conversations with the feeling they really want the best for the club and they want the best for the city.
I think this past transfer window has shown that they mean business. It’s often said that the only way to make a small fortune investing in a football club is to start with a big fortune. I’m sure none of these investors want to lose cash but you have to say they really have put their money where their mouths are.
As I left the stadium on Tuesday having watched one of the best Swansea performances since our Premier League days I realised I felt excited. Excited like I was back in the early Roberto Martinez days.
As we go into tonight’s game against Wrexham the whole world will be watching. This is a worldwide sporting event. I’ve had 2 very special rides to the top with Swansea City. It couldn’t happen 3 times in my lifetime…could it?