Read KENNY SWAIN
I had a bit of a sour taste which lingered for a year or two. I left under a cloud, there wasn’t too much of an explanation.
PROMOTION-WINNING Pompey skipper Kenny Swain has revealed how he left Fratton Park under a cloud and didn’t speak to boss Alan Ball for 15 years.
Yet he is grateful he finally made peace with the England World Cup winner before his premature death in 2007.
Swain was recruited by Ball from Nottingham Forest in May 1985 and went on to make 134 appearances for the Blues.
The full-back was an integral part of the side which returned to the top flight in May 1987, as captain keeping ‘The Gremlins’ under control.
According to an interview in Played Up Pompey Three, Swain’s subsequent departure 12 months later left a ‘sour taste’ in his mouth.
However, the former European Cup winner would eventually initiate a touching reunion with Ball and banish their differences.
‘By the turn of the year in that 1987-88 campaign, Bally had made up his mind about me,’ he told Played Up Pompey Three.
‘I was dropped against Arsenal and remained out of the side for the 2-0 victory at Southampton, with Clive Whitehead instead coming in at right-back. We were in the top flight and struggling.
‘There had been a bad start to the season, the middle part was iffy and the final part was back to struggling again. And Bally wanted to make changes.
‘In February 1988, I was told West Brom boss Ron Atkinson was keen to take me on loan. I was handed his phone number and told to give him a call if I fancied it, so I did.
‘The Baggies were in the Division Two relegation zone, but at least I’d be playing. To me, the Pompey situation looked terminal, so I decided to take the opportunity.
‘With my contract expiring that summer, a loan move until the season’s end could put me in the shop window, as opposed to hanging around the reserves or as a substitute.
‘Unfortunately Pompey went down, while I knew there would be no fresh contract. I was released along with Noel Blake, Paul Mariner, Liam Daish and Simon Stapleton.
‘Reflecting on the circumstances of my Fratton Park departure, there was no contract offer and, because Bally had set out his stall with the players he selected, I knew that was it.
‘When I departed, I don’t think I even spoke to him. I had a bit of a sour taste which lingered for a year or two.
I left under a cloud, there wasn’t too much of an explanation, a sit down or whatever. Still, I got on with my life, as everybody gets on with theirs.
‘Then, many years later, I was at Villa Park one evening and bumped into Jimmy Case, the former Liverpool and Southampton player who lived in Chandler’s Ford.
‘The conversation turned to Lesley Ball, my former manager’s wife, who had been the subject of newspaper stories about her battle with ovarian cancer.
‘I hadn’t spoken to Bally since the day I left Pompey, around 15 years earlier, but Jimmy handed me his phone number and I rang.
‘Lesley answered and I said “Hi Les, it’s Kenny, Kenny Swain”. Her reply was “Hi Kenny, how are you? I haven’t spoken to you for ages, is your family all right?”. She was smashing, everything was hunky dory. Then she went to get Bally.
‘He came to the phone: “Hi boss, I’m just ringing to ask about Lesley, sorry to hear about it”. I heard him close the door, before saying: “It’s okay, I can speak to you now, she’s not in the room. She puts on a brave face and might say she’s well and sounds well, but she’s not”.
‘We had a good chat and it developed. For the first time since leaving Fratton Park, we talked – and it lasted for an hour.
‘I never had cause to bump into him since going our separate ways. I was at
Crewe, he later joined Stoke, Manchester City, Southampton and Pompey again. I didn’t see him, never came across him in football. That can happen, you don’t see someone for donkey’s years because they’re no longer involved in the game – or at a different level.
‘That phone call was cathartic, a cleansing conversation. I thought he didn’t have any time for me, so I never had time for him. However, we put all that behind us, it was water under the bridge.
‘We were talking, having a laugh, discussing modern football, the problem with big-name players these days and reminiscing. I was pouring Scotch and dry, chatting to my former manager on the phone.
‘After that, we kept in touch as much as we could.
The next time I saw him was at the NEC in Birmingham and the England 1966 squad were signing autographs at a collectors event.
‘I sneaked around the back and Bally got up from his table and we had a hug. “Listen,” I said. “I’m not joining that huge queue there for your autograph, will you just sign that and put something on it?”.
‘It was a black and white photograph given to me by The News’ Pompey reporter Mike Neasom. The picture was of me and Bally with a bottle of champagne popped open on the morning after the Sheffield United game at the end of that promotion season. ‘Bally wrote “The best captain I ever had”. I still have it, I treasure it because it’s signed by a World Cup winner, once the costliest signing for my club Everton.
‘Sadly, Lesley died in May 2004, with Bally passing away almost three years later.
‘I don’t know what happened between us when I departed Pompey, but it didn’t leave a nice taste in my mouth.
‘Having said that, I wanted to carry on playing and had my eye on an opportunity somewhere else so I could enter coaching. Crewe turned out to be the best foundation I ever had.
‘Alan Ball was my hero as a kid – and I had the pleasure of playing under him for three years at Pompey.’
Played Up Pompey Three
is priced £18.99 and available from Amazon, Waterstones, the Pompey Store and The Petersfield Bookshop.
For player-autographed copies, with the signatures of Richard Hughes, Sammy Igoe, Martin Kuhl, Lee Bradbury or Dave Munks, email neil.allen@ thenews.co.uk
Played Up Pompey Too
remains on sale from Amazon.