| This summer has seen Neil McClure slither away under a big dark stone, hopefully never to be seen on Swansea’s shores again. Mike ‘Rattler’ Lewis has come out of the shadows, his fangs gleaming as he eyes up the Swans. |
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| A bit harsh you may think? I don’t! For the first time since I have followed the Swans I am not looking forward to the season. I hate this time of year, I am champing at the bit for some football. I scour the back pages of my paper in the morning only to be greeted by pages of golf, tennis, formula 1, cricket etc! All sports that I have no time for and can never replace football. I cannot wait for the season to start, Sunday mornings in my house are spent reading the reams of football news in the Sunday Times. I know this is sad but I even check all the team listings to see if there are any ex Swans scoring, playing etc for other teams. |
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| Summer Saturdays for me are spent doing a bit of fishing, enjoyable though that is, its nothing compared to strolling on to the North Bank ready for a game. We don’t get much of a summer as it is, I get fed up of ‘poncey’ cricket (Sorry Phil!) and golf on the box. I am football starved! |
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| Then the Charity Shield arrives. These games are bit of a non-entity but it does herald the arrival of the football season. The first day of the football season is often the best. Wake up, listen to the football on the radio, shower, shave and into town. You see the other Jacks on the bus or milling around town and the buzz is starting. First pint (or whisky of the day), you see mates who you may have not seen since early May. Everyone is talking about the season ahead, making predictions, giving rundowns on the new signings, swapping jokes etc. Then onto the North Bank, the sun is shining, its hot, the grass is crisp, the markings are bright white, the teams are warming up and there is a football! At last! Its even good to hear the awful Vetch Field announcer crackling over the tannoy. Then the teams run out, the North Bank faithful cheer and we are off! The roller coaster has started. |
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| Things will be a different for me this year. The Snakes have certainly been busy. They were hissing that we would keep Gio and the French boys, that money was available, the players would be offered better contracts. |
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| What did we get? |
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| The clubs faithful servant Steve Jones being treated with absolute disdain, JJ goes, Robbo offered a poor contract, no progress on Morfa, Gio gone. Even the new kids on the block are arguing over their contracts! |
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| Then the club is sold to Lewis for a quid, McClure leaves blaming the Council for the lack of progress on Morfa, then there is the clause that says Neil can take ownership again in a few months if there is no progress with new owners, Rog nearly sold by Liability. The doom goes on. I am not depressed because we are in Division 3, I have been a Swans fan long enough to accept the knock backs of lower league football. The stark reality is that the club has not moved on in the last few years. We are left flapping in the wind, like a ship with no rudder, the players are rumoured to be in mutiny and the ship is creaking with age. New blood is needed. |
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| I just hope that next year is not ‘the Year of the Rat!’ |
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