Phil SumblerAlan Tate oozed class this afternoon when he said an official goodbye to the Swans fans who supported him for so long and he even found some time to mingle with the fans in the local pubs after the game.
There are not too many people who could walk into the likes of the Railway and the Globe in Nottingham Forest training gear but that was exactly what Tate did after being part of the coaching team that had seen them depart the Swansea.com stadium with all three points after a comprehensive 4-1 win.
Tate left the Swans earlier this season to join up with Steve Cooper at the City Ground and today was his first chance to come back to Swansea, a club with which he has a 19 year association as both a player and part of the coaching staff.
The phrase “Once a Jack, always a Jack” was coined for the likes of Tatey who first arrived in Swansea back in 2002 on loan from Manchester United and made Swansea as much of a home to him as his North Eastern roots.
Whilst the rest of the Forest coaching staff celebrated their emphatic win in front of their travelling support Tate took the class act to slowly walk around the stadium that he once called home to applaud and thank the fans that were still in the ground following the mass exit that came when Forest grabbed their fourth goal.
It was a simple gesture but one that clearly meant as much to Tate as it did to the Swansea fans and rightly so in amongst all the disappointment of the result the gesture was returned in kind.
After the game though Tate was not finished and spent time in local pubs with the fans and his friends in his coaching gear just to emphasis the title legend that we have long since bestowed on him and a reflection of the fact that we did indeed used to dream of a team of Alan Tates.
Sometimes football just throws out a class act and a legend and in Alan Tate you have someone who matches both of those words.
Thank you for the memories and thank you for appreciating us.
Read more about Tatey’s ‘pub tour’ here
