Planet Swans Archives|
Fan’s Eye City By Gareth Phillips |
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In the summer of 1992 British football stood on the threshold of wholesale changes that were to radically alter the nature of the professional game. At the same time, Swansea City were a pale shadow of the club that had been a nursery of outstanding talent in the 1950s, and had charged spectacularly to the top of the old Football League under John Toshack in the early 1980s. The "Swans" had stagnated by the early 1990s, and successive ownership regimes in the years that followed saw the club decline, and eventually face oblivion. However, the fans were not prepared to let the club die, and by taking matters into their own hands have helped rejuvenate West Wales’ premier football club. This is the story of Swansea City in the age of the Premiership told by an ordinary fan of the club as seen from the stands and terraces – a fan’s eye City. The book features
The book’s release coincides with imminent departure of the Swans from their home of 93 years, the Vetch Field to their brand new state of the art home in the Lower Swansea Valley. This book will bring back memories for Swansea fans everywhere. The book is available in hardback and priced at £12.95. "Fans Eye City" is published as a joint venture between London based niche sports publishers London League Productions and a group of independent Swansea City fans. 75% of all profits received from the publishers will be re-invested into Swansea City AFC, either through donations to the Swansea city Supporters Trust Share Purchase Fund, or through sponsorship.Therefore, purchasing a copy of "Fans Eye City" results in a direct benefit to Swansea City AFC and its supporters. You Can Order The Book By Clicking Here Below is an exert from the book to whet your appetite HOW DID WE GET HERE?How do Swansea City fans view the club to whom they plead allegiance? Where do we see ourselves in the wider world of football? These may be far reaching questions, but have a bearing on much of what follows. In recent years it has been almost invariably the case that whenever a struggling lower division club is taken over by new ownership, the incoming chairman will make noises about ‘unfulfilled potential’ and wildly promise ‘the Premiership in five years’. If such claims have some credence in the case of some larger city teams, eyebrows are raised when they are made about the likes of Carlisle United or Darlington. Such populist statements were made when the Swans were taken over by Silver Shield Windscreens in 1997. Could they be taken in any way seriously, or should they have been dismissed as so much hot air? Certainly most Swansea City fans would deep down consider the club as being ‘too big’ for the Third if not the Second Divisions, despite that being where the club has languished for nearly 20 years. Indeed, during much of that period clubs such as Crewe and Walsall have enjoyed superior playing records despite being what most Swans followers would consider ‘smaller’ teams. Why do supporters of the white shirt view their team as underachievers? Is this perception based on more than the traditional inflated optimism and blinkered view of reality typical of the die-hard fan in relation to the team they love? Are Swans’ fans just a bunch of hopeless self-deluded dreamers? Would Walter Mitty have found a natural home on the North Bank? The feeling that the club was underachieving was not, however, limited to the talking shops of terrace and bar. Local lawyer, businessman and fan Malcolm Struel had been a long term critic of the conservative policies of the board, and finally succeeded in putting together a consortium to take over the club. The new regime quickly installed former England international Roy Bentley as manager, and made a limited amount of money available for transfers. Bentley was initially popular and successful as his collection of former internationals and local journeymen won promotion back to the Third Division in 1970 while playing attractive attacking football along the way. The club’s title had changed from ‘Town’ to ‘City’ and there were high hopes that this change would signal a brighter future. Having consolidated in the higher division, Bentley’s side made a positive start to the 1971-72 season and lay third in the league at Christmas. The Bentley era peaked on Boxing Day 1971 when over 24,000 packed the Vetch for a top of the table clash with Aston Villa. Even allowing for the sizeable away support, this was an impressive gate for a Third Division game, and illustrated the potential of the club. Sadly, the game was lost in the final minute, and the team appeared to lose momentum, drifting down the table in the New Year. Arguably, Bentley’s team had been over-reliant on older players, and when Mel Nurse and Len Allchurch retired, various young hopefuls had not proved adequate replacements. A record transfer fee was paid out for former Welsh international winger Ronnie Rees, but he did not make the desired impact, and the money might have been better utilised elsewhere in the team. A disappointing mid-table finish was followed by a poor start to the following season, and the axe fell on Bentley in November 1973. Bentley was replaced by Harry Gregg, who attempted to shore up the defence, and introduced a more abrasive ‘competitive’ approach. His innovation of playing wholehearted defender Wyndham Evans as a striker (who said the Dutch invented ‘total football’?) certainly surprised and frightened a few opposing goalkeepers, but ultimately failed. At the end of the season the club were relegated. The new board had tried to show ambition, but ultimately Swansea City found itself back at square one. What followed were some of the blackest days the club was to ever see. The Gregg era continued notwithstanding relegation, and he was allowed to build his own team. Signings such as Danny Bartley and Dave Bruton served the club well, but others proved disastrous, including Derek Bellotti, a goalkeeper whose antics possessed a black comedic value that raised many a hollow and mirthless laugh from the terraces. Gregg’s first full season in charge saw a mid table finish but as the 1974-75 season wore on it became apparent that the indignity of seeking re-election to the Football League was staring the club in the face. With the city situated on one of the westernmost geographical limbs of Britain, the success of such an application could not be taken for granted. Crowds hit several all-time lows, and the financial crisis grew, culminating in the controversial sale of the Vetch to the local Council. Eventually Gregg resigned with less than half the season left, and was replaced by coach Harry Griffiths, an appointment that was to prove inspired in the longer term, but which at the time was probably partly dictated by economics. In the short term, with no money available to strengthen the team, Harry was unable to turn the ship around, and a re-election application had to be placed in the post. League survival rested in the hands of other club chairmen. Happily, Malcolm Struel lobbied hard and sufficient votes were gained to ensure survival as a professional club. At this stage supporting the Swans had become a trial of personal strength which might have broken many lesser mortals. Not even being a trainspotter or maker of matchstick models could have been less trendy or exposed you to more ridicule than to admit to supporting the team. Not that many were making such admissions as gates dived below the 1,500 mark. The advantage of such meagre attendances was that you could actually sit on the North Bank throughout the game. The down side, for the most part, was to have to watch it. Many players sported facial hair that would not have been out of place in the popular television show Planet of the Apes. Some supporters grumbled that Harry Gregg might have done better to employ the PG Tips chimps. At least we might have got a decent cup of tea at half time. The consolation was that matters couldn’t get much worse, and exciting young forwards Alan Curtis and Robbie James gave some hope that things could improve. Little did we know how. By astutely augmenting the better players of Gregg’s team with shrewd bargain signings Harry Griffiths gradually built a side that epitomised attacking football, narrowly missing out on promotion in 1977. With the emergence of Mel Charles’s son Jeremy to complete a youthful attacking trio, Griffith’s side toyed cruelly with fourth division defences, as a cat with a half dead mouse. Sadly, Harry wasn’t to see his team achieve promotion. Malcolm Struel appeared to sense a moment of destiny, and true to his ambition of augmenting rather than selling local talent, secured the services of John Toshack as player-manager. Harry was to die on the morning of the 1977-78 season’s penultimate match with the team on the home straight to promotion. The team were distraught, but won the final two matches to ensure that Harry was given a fitting memorial. Whatever the racier version of the story presented by certain sections of the press, true Swans’ fans knew it was Harry’s team that won that promotion. Suddenly, we were supporting a different club. After years of signing other team’s anonymous cast-offs, the club was now signing players we had actually heard of. Instead of being the butt of local comedians humour, the Swans were the club that everybody in South West Wales claimed to support. When we drew Tottenham in the League Cup supporters thought of it as a winnable tie, rather than as a good payday with damage limitation as the height of our ambition. Schoolchildren chose to support the Swans ahead of Manchester United or Liverpool. If the political skies over late 1970’s Britain were changing and the prospects for South Wales were looking questionable, the Vetch Field represented a little island where all seemed set fair, where the world seemed a paradise of pride and growth. Players had started to arrive over the summer of 1978, and were to continue to be signed as the season progressed. Instead of bargain-bin purchases to replace a superior departed player, the club was buying to strengthen, and each new arrival signified an attempt to upgrade the team. The Swans grabbed national headlines in September with back-to-back wins over Tottenham at White Hart Lane and Elton John’s Watford at Vicarage Road. At the end of Toshack’s first full season, promotion to the Second Division was clinched in the final game. In a story that would have been rejected by the editor of Roy of the Rovers as being too far fetched, the young player-manager came off the bench to head the crucial winning goal with eight minutes remaining of the season. The city celebrated – the Swans were back where their fans believed they belonged. It was soon obvious that the ‘natural levels’ envisaged by most Swans fans and by John Benjamin Toshack were very different things. Suddenly, consolidation was a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Tosh saw the club going to the very top. In an era when Nottingham Forest could be double European Champions and Ipswich Town win the UEFA Cup, who was to say that the name of Swansea City couldn’t become respected throughout Europe? Even the most cynical observers were hedging their bets. After a season of acclimatisation, passage to the big time was confirmed at Preston in May 1981. Nobody who was there will ever forget it. Excitement and expectancy hit feverish levels over the close season. New signings arrived as usual, including all-time club record signing Colin Irwin for £350,000. One suspects that figure may never be bettered. Plans had been unveiled for the re-building of the ground involving the extension of the recently completed East Stand to replace the ageing Centre Stand and Double Decker. When Leeds arrived on the opening day of the season and were sent packing by five goals to one, it seemed nothing could stop the inevitable rise of the Swansea empire. Our time had arrived, or so it seemed. The old elite such as Arsenal and Manchester United, who surely would soon only be making up the numbers in the queue behind the Swans in the league table, were each given sharp reminders of the new order. Liverpool eventually won the league, but at the end of that first season in the First Division the feeling was abroad that they should be looking over their shoulders. Might the incumbent rulers live to regret allowing the young pretender to leave and set up an alternative regime? That the coup was coming we were certain. It seemed just a matter of when. Tomorrow belonged to Swansea. Then just as the ruling elite was about to pack the silverware and run, it all went wrong.
Images courtesy of Getty Images, Athena Picture Agency and Swansea City Football Club.
 
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