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So it all came good in the end, in the best Hollywood traditions. Not even Stephen Spielberg could have manipulated our emotions more effectively in a tale that kept twisting to the very last. Now the final credits are rolling, and if the story had been turned into a multiplex blockbuster, an emotive theme song […]
The Search for Players who can control a football – Part 3
It’s just before six in the morning, the gloaming skies are lightening by the minute as the sun comes up over the mountains, and we’ve just arrived at the Peruvian-Bolivian border. Despite lying under the towering Andes and next to the vast watery expanse of Lake Titicaca, this is a bleak and rather depressing place. […]
The Search for Players who can control a football – Part 2
We’re sitting on a plane flying high over the Peruvian Andes. As far as the eye can see the ridges of green and brown mountains push up into the sky in which we fly, testimony to the incredible forces of nature which caused the formation of this massive natural barrier along the west coast of […]
The Search for Players who can control a football – Part 1
You have to hand it to London Transport. It’s six o’clock on a Wednesday evening and we’re stuck at Victoria. The District, Piccadilly and Central Lines are out and we’re due to check in at Heathrow in a little over an hour. For weeks I’ve been reading of the need for calm and patience when […]
Brother can you spare a dime or a striker, a midfielder or even a defender?
A debate has sprouted on the Swanmail mailing list this evening (Sunday 6th April) regarding the potential longevity of Brian Flynn’s stay at the Vetch irrespective of the outcome to our season. Whether this is the time to be discussing such issues is almost irrelevant now, as the question has been asked, and no doubt […]
To die for
At one point of the “Golden Years” video, former coach Phil Boersma is interviewed telling viewers that there is no room at Swansea City for players who cannot play under pressure. The implication is clear that those who couldn’t stand the heat were not welcome in the kitchen at chez Toshack. Whilst it’s not easy […]
Time to be savage?
Somebody once said that the only two things certain in life are death and taxes. To that cheerful list might be added rain in a West Wales summer, and that at some stage in the football season there would be crowd trouble. If events during the recent Birmingham derby were not entirely unpredictable, the circumstances […]
Tribute to Brian Evans
Those of us who followed the Swans in the 1960s and early 1970s will have been saddened by the news of the death of Brian Evans. Rather like the death of a relative or friend, Brian’s passing signals just another little piece of the past disappearing for many of us. I was first taken to […]
Uncle Sam’s on Mars
I recall once seeing a fascinating television documentary which cast doubt on the American moon landings. The programme assembled a great deal of evidence which, if correct, suggested that man could never have landed on the moon. If this was correct it seems that all those grainy old films were nothing more than an elaborate […]
Surviving the Corrections
“The year has it’s rhythms – winter, spring, summer, fall. The whole thing is cyclical. You got your upswings in the spring, you got your downturns in the fall. It’s just like the market. Cyclical business, right? You can have a bull market for five, ten, even fifteen years. We’ve seen it in our lifetime. […]