Planet Swans ArchivesIt is a story that was highlighted time and time again when the Swans got promoted to the Premier League – an incredible viewpoint that a player who was to play for us in all four divisions ended up here because the fans dug deep in their pockets to get his signature after a successful loan spell.
And bar a very brief spell at Sheffield United Leon has been a permanent fixture at the club ever since having made more than 470 appearances in a 13 year association with the club
And that could be an association that ends this summer with Leon seemingly being well down the pecking order of midfielders at the club thanks to the acquisition in recent years of the likes of Jonjo Shelvey, Jack Cork and Ki Sung-Yeung.
Without a doubt the history of Leon Britton at Swansea earns him rightly the tag of a Swansea legend and it will be with a heavy heart for all of us if he does move on during the summer and it will end the last association between the playing side that took to the field against Hull in May 2003 following the release at the end of last season of Alan Tate another who earned the tag legend.
Leon Britton was signed by West Ham from Arsenal for a fee of £400,000 in 1998 which was the highest transfer fee ever for a 16 year old at the time. Despite this, Britton never made a senior appearance for the Hammers and he first arrived at Swansea on 13th December 2002, making his debut the following day in a 1-0 defeat at Exeter – a result that left the Swans sitting in 21st place in Division Three (as was.) The mould was cast and a glance back at the archives of this website shows a comment in the match report of his debut “Britton did show some intelligent thoughts” – something that we know we have seen much much more of over the years
It was the start of a love affair that would only ever have a brief interlude when Leon left for five months before returning to be part of the historic promotion winning squad of 2011 as well as one of the leading midfielders in Europe – at least according to the statistics – the season after.
And just thinking of all that makes you realise just why it is a remarkable story that started with the ‘Battle for Britton’ campaign that was launched with the words of Trust Supporter DIrector Leigh Dineen who said at the time “We had to have Leon here next season. He’s still only 20, had his only 1st team experience with us last season, and he’ll get even better as he gets more experience. West Ham clearly think highly of him as they insisted on a sell on clause as part of releasing his papers.
“For the new season, the League have introduced a wage cap which limits the total of players wages to 60% of income. Obviously this reduces Brian Flynn’s scope but if the fans can come up with the money to cover Leon’s wages it makes the job a lot easier.
“So let’s get on with it. We’ve got the whole season to do this. It may be a tall order to raise all the money but every pound will help. And every pound gets us an extra share in the club.”
The scheme – as we know – was a huge success and Britton has rightly earned the status and praise that is bestowed upon him and if this is to be the end of an era for him at Swansea (at least for now) then we should look back on his time here and be grateful that it was Swansea that recognised his talent back in 2002 and for that we thank Brian Flynn and his scouting team.
And let’s finally remember that, whatever happens, Leon will always be a JB!
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