Tate arrived at Swansea at pretty much the same time as the now Swansea manager and fought with him as the Swans battled to remain in the football league.\u00a0\u00a0 They then both shared a promotion experience from League Two as well as the heartache of a play off final defeat just twelve months later.\u00a0\u00a0 And while this hasn’t been the best season of Tate’s career, the defender is enjoying life at the top of League One as much as anyone.<\/p>\n
It now seems to be a case of when rather than if the Swans seal promotion and there are already rumours surfacing that Tate has signed an extension to his deal to stay at the Liberty Stadium.\u00a0 Rumours that are unconfirmed at the moment.<\/p>\n
However, he has nothing but praise for his manager and told the Wales on Sunday that he always knew he would be a success but few could have envisaged just how much and so soon.\u00a0\u00a0 44 league games have passed since the appointment and with 94 points achieved in that period, Roberto is on target to do 100 points within his first 46 games – a record that not too many of his peers can manage.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the lads knew he was destined to get into management,\u201d said Tate in today’s paper<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it didn\u2019t surprise us when his name started cropping up when people talked about who would be coming in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the only thing that made some of us think it might not happen was that he was still playing at Chester at the time and we all knew how much he loved to pull his boots on.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he must have felt it was the right time and the right club to give all that up because he hasn\u2019t looked back.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you can\u2019t argue that he didn\u2019t make the right choice because his record just speaks for itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could all see he had what it took to be involved but even saying that, I don\u2019t know if anyone could have predicted he would have done so well so early. It wasn\u2019t in anyone\u2019s wildest dreams for us to make the play-offs last year the way we were going but we came one game from doing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you look at us and we\u2019re clear at the top and a game away from a Wembley final. You can\u2019t really argue with those stats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always been a lot of talent in the squads here and Roberto\u2019s added to that,\u201d insisted Tate. \u201cBut I think he\u2019s helped that along with his training.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always big on training when he was a player, taking a big interest in what we were doing or weren\u2019t doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter sessions he\u2019d be taking notes when we\u2019d be off doing something else and that\u2019s paying dividends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure people outside the club would have necessarily known that; hence the surprise when he arrived here to take over from Kenny.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now you can sense the excitement of what he\u2019s brought on board and he has a good couple of coaches behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cGraeme Jones and Colin Pascoe have big roles and Bonner (Jones) is probably the more outspoken one and can really rip into people when it\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Roberto has gone mad a few times too; you wouldn\u2019t want to be on the wrong end of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard the things of him being too nice but there\u2019s a public persona of everyone which is usually wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t have had a playing career as long as he did if he didn\u2019t have a nasty streak in him. What comes out on the pitch or on the training field is one thing, but the real person is inside. We wouldn\u2019t be where we are if Roberto couldn\u2019t tell us when we are going wrong in no uncertain times and if you\u2019re not cutting it then, rest assured, he lets us know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tate arrived at Swansea at pretty much the same time as the now Swansea manager and fought with him as the Swans battled to remain in the football league.\u00a0\u00a0 They then both shared a promotion experience from League Two as well as the heartache of a play off final defeat just twelve months later.\u00a0\u00a0 And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}