Plenty to be proud about despite Swans’ struggles so far
IN the build-up to Swansea City’s biggest match of the season, last weekend’s 1-0 win against Everton, one can imagine the tension around the camp at Fairwood would have been tangiable.
Head coach Paul Clement, an eloquent speaker who deals with the press with a calmness and ease of a seasoned pro with decades of experience, addressed the media on Thursday afternoon to preview the Toffees’ visit to the Liberty.
He spoke in positive tones of attitude and belief, and, as ever, did so with conviction.
Still, with so much at stake, apprehension must have been in the air.
Do players and managers experience nerves? Of course they do – you can see it in performances (and results) up and down the country on a weekly basis.
In the days approaching the pivotal clash with Ronald Koeman’s men the players’ focus will have been purely on the tactics and mentality drilled into them by Clement, Nigel Gibbs and Claude Makelele on the training ground and in the new auditorium at Fairwood.
But one player’s mind was elsewhere.
Leon Britton’s thoughts were with the fans with whom he has formed a close bond over the past decade and a half.
For it was his idea to get the players to pay for 3,000 fans’ tickets for this weekend’s game against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
On Friday morning, barely 24 hours before the game in SA1, Britton put the wheels in motion to give something back to the supporters.
His team-mates agreed and the club did its not-so-insignificant part to facilitate the gesture.
It will cost the players around £75,000 – around £3,000 per head.
A drop in the ocean, one might think, for people with the deepest of pockets.
They didn’t need to do it. But they did.
Britton said: “It was the players who suggested the idea.
“Not only that, it is also a way for the players to show how much the support of the Jack Army has meant to us all during a difficult campaign.
“The support we’ve had at home and away has been amazing considering how tough it’s been at times. That support has been there not just over the course of this season, but for a number of years.
“If there was ever a time that we need one another more than ever, it’s now, over these last few games of the campaign.’’
Britton has not played not as much as he – or the fans – would have liked this season.
But in many ways he embodies the club he represents. He has shown a touch of class here. And so has the club.
He handed out copies of A Jack to a King to the whole squad, a DVD also watched by Clement and his staff. It shows they care.
Britton has spoken of a difficult campaign, and one can’t disagree with the midfielder.
On and off the field, things have not gone according to plan for the club – and that is putting it mildly.
Chopping and changing in the dugout, major upheaval in the boardroom which, after a period of tension, looks to be settling down and a working relationships looks to be forming.
Chairman Huw Jenkins and majority owners Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien have all admitted at points this season that mistakes have been made.
The beauty of errors is that you can – and must – learn from them.
But at the heart of the club has always been the community and the comprehension that the Swans belong to the city.
Any day of the week you see club ambassador Lee Trundle at a schools event or a charity function.
The Give a Jack a Jacket campaign is a wonderful initiative.
The dad of a disabled boy who was a Chelsea fan said the Swans gave him the best welcome in the league.
Kev Johns is the booming voice of the Jacks, and of the city.
Season-ticket prices have remained the same during the six years in the top flight.
The Supporters’ Trust have done a good job over the years to promote fan involvement.
Jenkins and Co rescued the club from the point of oblivion all those years ago, and although there are new sheriffs in town (who recognised immediately their need to build bridges with the Trust), there is still a local feel to the Liberty-based side.