![SWANS' DATE WITH DESTINY](https://cdn.magzter.com/1351005634/1697724290/articles/02r4lEn5i1697784274804/SWANS-DATE-WITH-DESTINY.jpg)
IN MAY 2011, Swansea City became a Premier League club, an unfashionable team from South Wales but a side that played modern, attractive football under their young manager Brendan Rodgers.
This achievement prompted wider interest as, curiously, the club was owned by a consortium of local fans with supporter representation on the board guaranteed through the fans' trust.
Having spent the previous 30 years or so in the lower divisions, Swansea's Premier League promotion felt like the gate-crashing of a party, but by interlopers who improbably had all the right wristbands and lanyards, despite the extreme suspicion of the bouncers.
Beating Reading at Wembley in the Championship play-off final was the unanticipated culmination of a project with very humble origins, initially centred around the modest but critical ambition of simply keeping the club in existence. Promotion to English football's top table came just eight years after the Swans found themselves 90 minutes from losing their Football League status, an ascent that at times caused heads to shake in disbelief.
Played at Swansea's beloved old ground The Vetch Field, and in circumstances so different to the rarefied air of the modern-day Championship, the desperate final game of the 2002-03 season now seems to belong to a completely different era, a sepia photograph that's found itself on Instagram.
It's proof, however, that football clubs can only bounce from one debacle to another for so long before finding themselves on the edge of a precipice.
Swansea had in fact won the Third Division in 1999-2000, but that seemed like a distant memory by 2003.
In 2001, the club was sold for £1 to Tony Petty, a businessman based in Australia, who then announced that almost the entire first team squad were to be sacked or forced to take enormous pay cuts.
この記事は Late Tackle Football Magazine の November - December 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Late Tackle Football Magazine の November - December 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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EURO 96 AN ALMOST PERFECT SUMMER
TOM GREEN RECALLS A TOURNAMENT WHICH CAPTURED THE ENTIRE COUNTRY'S IMAGINATION
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GROUP GAMES
SAM SHEPPEY LOOKS AT HOW ENGLAND HAVE FARED AGAINST THEIR UPCOMING EURO 2024 FOES IN THE PAST
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CALLUM HUMPHREY HOW THE YOUNG MIDFIELDER HAS BLOSSOMED AT MANCHESTER UNITED AND COULD DO THE SAME FOR ENGLAND THIS SUMMER
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GERMANY EYE FRESH SUMMER FAIRYTALE
KIT HOLDEN TAKES A LOOK AT THE PROSPECTS OF THE EURO 2024 HOSTS
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PROGRAMME PERIL
JAKE GUNTON ON THE BATTLE FOR A FOOTBALL INSTITUTION TO STAY RELEVANT IN THE MODERN AGE
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ENGLAND EXPECTS
ROBERT J WILSON ON THE THREE LIONS' BID FOR GLORY AFTER PREVIOUS EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP DISAPPOINTMENTS
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PASSING THE BATON
NOTTS COUNTY FAN IAN KIRKE REFLECTS ON AN UNFORGETTABLE DAY AT MEADOW LANE...
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CHEEKY CHARLIE
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JAMES RODRIGUEZ TEN YEARS ON
DANIEL MOFFAT LOOKS AT THE CAREER OF THE COLOMBIA STAR