Britton schooled to deliver a lesson from Swansea’s history
Club stalwart has seen tougher times than now, he tells Jim White, and is ready for relegation fight
As the sign outside Pontybrenin Primary in Gorseinon, nine miles west of Swansea, points out, there has been a change of name. To mark the diminutive midfielder’s visit, the place has become Leon Britton School for the afternoon. If he manages to inspire Swansea City to escape from relegation, do not rule out the alteration becoming permanent.
“It’s not often you get a school named after you,” Britton says, as he poses for pictures with a group of pupils under the sign. “Well, never, actually.” He is visiting to promote the Premier League’s Primary Stars campaign, helping the children engage in football-based mathematical challenges, before enjoying a playground kickaround and staying on to sign an autograph for every single pupil (plus many of their parents).
“Let’s have a look at your graph,” he says to one boy as he tours a classroom. “Right, so if Swansea get three points, how is that going to change things?”
It is the question of the moment hereabouts: with Swansea three adrift of safety with four Premier League games left, a victory could change everything. City won their first game in six attempts last weekend when they beat Stoke. And, for many fans, the fact the win was recorded on the day Britton made his first appearance since Dec 31 was no coincidence. Because this is a player who understands Swansea, who shares a love of the club with the locals, who has been on the books – with a brief break for a season at Sheffield United – since 2002.
“Fifteen years,” he smiles, when he takes a moment from his new role as maths tutor. “What a journey.”
Britton is the only player still on the books who was involved the day Swansea faced a crisis even more substantial than their current predicament. In May 2003, he played in the last game of the season: City needed to win in order to preserve their league status.
“If we were to drop out of the Premier League, it wouldn’t have the same consequence as falling out of the league altogether, which was the threat we faced,” he suggests. “If we’d dropped out of the league back then, there was a real threat we’d have disappeared altogether.” To reinforce the message of how far the club have travelled, ahead of his return against Stoke, Britton handed teammates DVDs of a documentary, Jack to a King, which charts Swansea’s rise since facing down that traumatic possibility. “It was just to remind them of the hard work that has gone to getting us to where we are, how much it means to the fans, the city,” he explains. “I just wanted them to be aware of our history.” Because history, he says, can be a most potent weapon.
“It’s not that long ago that we were trying to find somewhere to train, washing our own kit, no food, that sort of thing. Whereas people come to the club now, see the facilities we’ve got – that have come from six seasons in the Premier League – and they may not realise what went into it.”
And there was one important message he wanted his colleagues to draw from his impromptu history lesson: “I think you need the same qualities to escape the situation we are in now that we needed back then.”
What has cheered him up – after he admits spending much of the season in an emotional trough, injured then ignored – was that he saw those qualities returning in the Stoke match.
“Togetherness, confidence, belief,” he says. That, in turn, led to an upsurge in the Liberty Stadium stands.
“Expectations have changed,” he says. “I’m not saying the fans get on your back, but they expect a certain performance. Maybe as you grow used to being in the Premier League, it’s not that never-say-die attitude of before. But I’ve really felt that come back.” The game that Swansea needed to win in 2003 was against Hull. Now, it is Hull who are in the club’s sights again.
“We need to focus on doing our job, but you’d be a liar if you said the first question you ask when coming off the pitch was anything other than: how did Hull get on? Look at the remaining fixtures and they’re very similar.”
For Swansea, the first of those is today at Old Trafford. Again, Britton says, there is a lesson from history. This is a place where they have a good record: he played in a league win there in 2014. “We also won there in the FA Cup. If you’re turning up at Old Trafford thinking we haven’t got a chance, then you might as well stay at home, have a nice Sunday off. You have to believe you can win there. And it helps that you have.” Leon Britton was visiting Pontybrenin Primary School as part of Premier League Primary Stars, a new national education programme to inspire children. Find out more at www. PLPrimaryStars.com.