Tatey to leave this summer - Tate's Best Swansea Moments

Club stalwart is currently on loan at Crewe, and will not be getting a new contract when his current deal expires in the summer 

Alan Tate. As it says on the t-shirt - he'll always be a Jack.

Few players at Premier League clubs mean as much to the fans of that club as Alan Tate means to Swansea City fans. While Leon Britton is perhaps now in a league of one for his contribution on the pitch (in terms of longevity, and excusing his silly decision to go to Sheffield United), Alan Tate is very much up there with the diminutive midfielder in the hearts of the Jack Army, and along with Garry Monk, Lee Trundle and now Ashley Williams & Angel Rangel he can rest easy, knowing the level of affection he imbues from Swansea fans is completely warranted.

This is why, when I read quotes from Tatey today confirming he'd leave this summer, it made me very sad. I understand that he's too young to simply slip into a backroom role at the Swans (plus I don't know whether that's something he'd even be interested in), and that he's still clearly capable of playing football at a high level, but it still pains me to think that we're unlikely to ever see him pull on the white shirt of Swansea City again. 

"I've spoken to the manager (Steve Davis) briefly about it. He asked me what my plans were when the loan finishes and plans for next season. I'm open to offers. I'll be leaving Swansea in the summer, so it's down to me. But Crewe will be the front-runners because I'm here and I'm enjoying it. If I wasn't, then it would be different." Alan Tate

https://www.clubcall.com/swansea-city/tate-confirms-exit-1747828.html?

I remember when he first came to us as a fresh-faced youngster, full of the pomp you'd expect from a Manchester United loanee playing in the old Third Division (or was it League Two by then? My memory fails me...). For a good while Alan Tate was definitely one of our most technically gifted players, and his first touch and short passing was, compared to most of our other players, very good indeed. It's no wonder we wanted to retain him, and the rest - as they say - is history. 

I thought a fitting tribute to Alan Tate's Swansea City career would be to put together a collection of his finest (and possibly not-so-finest) moments. See if you agree, and if you've got any memories/favourite moments that slipped my mind get in touch in the comment section!

Scoring a wonder-volley against Tranmere

This needs no further explanation. Just a video:

What a finish! It's worth mentioning that at this point I'm realising that if you were to put together a "Top Three Memorable Alan Tate Moments" piece (as I've essentially done here), that the next two in the list of memorable moments aren't necessarily entirely positive. But, in the interest of fairness, I'll soldier on regardless.

"The Golf Buggy Incident"

After captaining the Swans in our first ever Premier League match (away at Man City), Tate dropped to the bench for the next two games, before suffering a serious leg break in an incident where a golf buggy crashed into a tree. No further details ever emerged, but here's an artist's impression of what the scene may or may not have looked like after the incident.

"The Flag Incident

Definitely the most infamous incident of recent times, Alan Tate & Lee Trundle were pictured holding up a Welsh flag with a naughty word on it in reference to our Championship cousins Cardiff. Should I post the photo? Well, I've always said I'd keep the site profanity-free, so here's a link to the image for those that haven't seen it (link). It's not safe for work! Well depending where you work I suppose...

Well, there you have it. My "top three memorable Alan Tate moments" - perhaps not the "best" moments of his career by any means, but three moments that fans will remember for a long time to come. 

Do you agree with the top 3 memorable moments? What would yours be? Get in touch in the comment section below!

Monk’s Merry Men Are Making Waves

The Swansea Way's London Correspondent Andrew McGlashan on the season thus far

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Lukasz Fabianski has been making waves for Swansea this season

With almost a third of the season in the books, I thought it would be useful to have a mini review of our performance to date and what our expectations can be for the remainder of the season. To kick this off, I thought a little summary of this season’s highs and lows so far would be just the ticket:

Highs

• Wins against United (at Old Trafford – again!), Arsenal and Everton (finally!)
• Monk winning Manager of the Month 
• THAT free kick from Siggy against Arsenal followed by THAT celebration from Gomis 
• Having the second best defensive record in the Premier League
• Gylfi Sigurdsson – enough said
• We have a team spirit again! 
• 5th in the table

Lows

• An incredible amount of terrible decisions (Moses penalty, Fernandez and Rangel red cards and that Alcaraz “save” to name only a few)
• Conceding late against Newcastle when three points seemed in the bag
• Losing to Southampton having battered them before the Bony red card
• Bowing out to Liverpool in the League Cup when another trip to Wembley seemed possible

As you can see the highs are outnumbering the lows and I had far more highlights I could have included. Therefore, upon review, I think the Jack Army can be very pleased with the season so far. 

So what are our expectations now for Monk’s Merry Men? Well pre-season I wrote an article that pretty boldly predicted we finish 8th this season. I think it’s fair to say I took a little bit of stick for this and the majority of comments I received were along the lines of “don’t be stupid, I’ll bite your hand off for 12th position again”. Now I can see where people were coming from as it was Monk’s first full season, we’d had quite a bit of squad rotation and it is the Premier League we are playing in after all. 

However, we are now four months on and I am going to stick to my guns - although I must admit I did not see Southampton having the start they have had (who did?!). Everton, Liverpool and Tottenham currently sit below us but I’m not sure it is a guarantee that all three of them will overtake us - European football is clearly taking its toll on these sides, as it did with us last season having to play mid-week across various parts of Europe. In particular, Spurs are looking very poor and you have to wonder what Ben and Vorm are thinking at this point in time as neither of them are playing in the league. 

Elsewhere, West Ham, Stoke and Newcastle are in good form but I just believe we have a better team than them. I say this because I don’t think these teams, along with the rest of the bottom half of the table:

• have the firepower that we do in Bony, Gomis and Siggy;
• possess the pace to unlock defences that we do with Dyer, Routledge and Montero (just ask Callum Chambers about the latter – I mean seriously, he mugged him right off); 
• can retain possession like we can once we have Britton back playing with Ki (oh Leon how we love you); or
• are as good defensively.

Out of these four points I want to quickly highlight our defence this season. We have conceded only 11 goals in the league, four or which came against Chelsea at the Bridge. That means we have conceded 7 goals in the 10 other league games we have played. That is incredible. Ash and Fernandez are forming quite the partnership and Fabianski has been as good as we all hoped he might be [and considering Ash has already had three different partners at centre-back this season it makes it even more remarkable - Ed]. In particular, Fabianski's ability to claim crosses has been a difference maker and something which we unfortunately were not used to with the smaller Vorm in between the sticks. 

As the season goes on I can only see our defence getting better as they continue to get used to playing with each other. Of course luck with injuries will be key here, especially given our lack of depth at full back - that back four looks very different if Rangel or Taylor were to get injured. Further, I think we can expect more goals from Bony, who is still yet to hit the heights of the second half of last season, and Gomis who has now registered his first league goal. I’m also excited to see how Montero progresses as he’s been very up and down. If he can find some consistency, and the back of the net a few times, then we could have a very special winger on our hands.

Taking all of this into account, my ever optimistic self thinks we can reasonably expect a top ten position at least, which would still be yet another successful season. Combine this with a good run in the FA Cup (although don’t expect a home draw for us as usual) and we’ll all be as happy as that chap Larry from Skewen going into the summer. A summer which may well be spent looking at prices of travelling to France for Euro 2016 – c’mon Wales!!

Hopefully after reading this you are excited about the rest of the season as I am - although having Man City away on Saturday is a test of my optimism and we have lost all three of our previous games following an international break. However, a Man City team without Kompany and Silva are a different beast so I’m going for a score draw and the sound of Hymns and Arias filling the Etihad at full time. 

Finally, as with any review, the all-important grade. I’m going for an A and a request for "more of the same please, Garry!"

Thanks to Andrew as ever for his latest piece - give him a follow on Twitter @AJMcGlashan. I'd have to agree with his assessment for our season thus far, and that it warrants an "A" grade! If you had to grade the Swans so far, what would you give them?

The rebirth of Gylfi Sigurdsson

Icelandic playmaker has reveled in the tactical consistency afforded him this season. Which should be no surprise...

#458693204 / gettyimages.com

Gylfi Sigurdsson celebrates his equaliser against Arsenal with Jefferson Montero

Once upon a time the Swans had just been promoted to the Premiership, and after a sticky start Danny Graham had started firing goals in on a regular basis. He was always unlikely to be considered a long-term option though, and in January once the transfer window had opened Gylfi Sigurdsson was signed on loan from Hoffenheim for the remainder of the season, to assist Graham in the aim of firing the Swans to safety. 

He went on to impress massively for the Swans - his range of passing and eye for goal were (and still probably are) markedly better than anyone else in our midfield, but that was the Gylfi of then. What of the Gylfi of now? After an ill-fated spell at Spurs - one of a growing number of footballing horror stories which show that you are, in terms of your career at least, not necessarily best served by going to a "big club" for a massive paycheque - he's once again blossoming at the Swans, but this time around he's a much, much more complete player.

When I think back to Gylfi under Brendan Rodgers I think of a player either pinging a longish pass into space, or striding onto the ball on the edge of the area before dispatching a cultured finish goalwards. While that hasn't entirely changed when you compare this with his performances so far this season, his game is so, so different, and the main change is just how good he now is at pressing the opposition defence.

Anyone who's seen the Swans play with Gylfi at attacking midfield this season will surely have noticed the Icelander's work-rate. He covers so much ground I'm amazed he can find the energy to do anything else - never mind find the time to score twice and lay on another seven goals - and the way the team shape shifts as we defend really is testament to his tactical prowess. 

Traditionally you have someone at the back organising team shape and keeping everyone in line, and we do indeed have that player in Ashley Williams. What we also have now though is someone doing that further up the pitch, so that when we're attempting to retrieve the ball it's done with the same cohesion and purpose as when we're trying to stifle an opposition attack. If you're playing a pressing game and one person doesn't press the right space the whole system can be undone in one fell swoop, but with Gylfi leading the charge we've looked seriously good in terms of regaining the ball. With the second best defence in the league, the stats back that up. 

Jon Trew pointed out a while ago (link) that depending on where we are defending the team could either be described as a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1, and over the course of the season we're seeing this system being refined week on week. Key to it's success is Sigurdsson, as with him leading the defensive press it becomes obvious to the other players a) where they need to be pressing for maximum effect and b) that if they don't press as hard as Gylfi they're going to look like they're not working hard enough. Both of which aren't bad things.

This is all without really talking about his prowess in attack. As mentioned he's got two goals and seven assists, and would you bet against him getting more? The free-kick against Arsenal was just further evidence of his quality, and a really pleasing aspect to the goal was that you had the feeling it was coming. Gylfi's performances have been of such a high quality that it was only a matter of time before he stuffed one in from twenty-five yards, and I for one am glad he chose to do it against the Gunners. I'll bet Tom Carroll was too.

With over half the season still to play the sky is the limit for Sigurdsson. On top of his amazing domestic form he's also in scintillating form for Iceland - he really can do no wrong at the moment - and what's refreshing to see is that it's clearly a success borne of hard work and belief in a system. With the Bony/Sigurdsson partnership still finding it's feet I think it's reasonable to expect their goal returns to improve, and if that happens then who knows what we could achieve this season.

COMPETITION: Win new book "Swansea City's Greatest Games"!

Thanks to our buddies over at www.ForzaSwansea.com you can get your hands on a copy of "Swansea City's Greatest Games"

Swansea is a nice place. And a small one! Chris Carra - owner/founder of ForzaSwansea.com - who I have known for a few years and whom I played football with for the mighty FC Clydach (before my premature retirement through injury), is a man of many talents. Blogger, journalist, winger, right-back, and now he can add another string to his bow - author. 

His debut effort looks at the greatest games in our history, going back to the formation of the club and taking in games in each decade up to the present day. It's well worth a read, and thanks to his generosity I have a copy to give away! We have a good relationship - I like to think of us as the Beano & Dandy of the Swansea football blog world - and it's mighty nice of him to give us a copy of what is undoubtedly a must-read for Swansea fans.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning it is to make sure you're following @TheSwanseaWay on Twitter, and comment on this article explaining which game you think is the greatest in our history - and why. The winner will be chosen a week from today just before the Man City game. 

Here's the press release from the launch of the book:

From the thousands of matches ever played by Swansea City, stretching from their early days at the Vetch to their wonderful Premier League era, here are 50 of the club's most intense, emotional and thrilling games of all!  

Expertly presented in evocative historical context, and described incident-by-incident in atmospheric detail, Swansea City's Greatest Games offers a terrace ticket back in time, taking in everything from their first ever game against Cardiff and Toshack's rampant rise to their glorious Premier League days, and beyond.  

An irresistible cast list of club legends - Alan Curtis and Ivor Allchurch, Leon Britton, Roger Freestone and Lee Trundle - springs to life at breathtaking moments including epic cup finals and Premier League giant-killings, European nights and unforgettable South Wales derby triumphs.  

In all, a journey through the highlights of Swansea's 102-year history which is guaranteed to make any fan's heart swell with pride.

You can also enter the competition via Twitter by following & tweeting your answer. Make sure to check out ForzaSwansea.com & give Chris a follow too @ForzaSwansea!

Modou Barrow: Who is he?

He's an extra-ordinary talent that took the Liberty crowd by storm on Sunday, but who is Modou Barrow? Josh Kilmister takes a look...

#458695894 / gettyimages.com

Modou Barrow was born in Gambia in October 1992 and spent his formative years there before moving to Sweeden aged eleven. There he joined up with the youth system at Östers IF, before earning his first senior appearances with Mjölby AI. After spells at various Sweedish clubs, Barrow made a permanent move to Sweedish second tier side Östersunds FK.

It was whilst at Östersunds that Barrow - standing at just over 5'9" - was scouted by The Swans. After spending time on trial at Bolton being linked with Celtic, Barrow excited Swans fans sending out this tweet mid-August regarding his proposed move to South Wales:

Off to swansea city am back soon peace and love!!:) pic.twitter.com/ComQM6Tjk2

— Modou Barrow (@modoubarrow14) August 18, 2014

It wasn't long before Barrow was announced as a Swansea City player, and on a busy transfer deadline day for the Gambian forward he appeared and scored in a game for the Under-21 side in a 3-2 win over Birmingham. In a pre-season interview Garry Monk claimed that he knew little about Barrow, but it didn't take him long to recognise his talent, calling him up to train with the first team in September.

Despite his presence in the first-team squad Barrow continued to show that he was worthy of his £1.5 million pound price tag by impressing for Chris Llewelyn's Under-21 side. On the bench for cup games against Everton and Liverpool and away at Stoke in the league, injuries to Nathan Dyer & Wayne Routledge meant Barrow got his chance off the bench against Arsenal. Replacing Marvin Emnes whilst a goal down, Barrow set the Liberty alight with his confidence and energy, drawing the foul that led to Gylfi Sigurdsson's equalising free-kick. The rest is history.

It's refreshing to know that as well as bringing in quality at a first-team level we have a burgeoning youth system which should, in theory, produce youngsters for years to come. Barrow isn't the only young Swan to make his mark in the first team either - Josh Sheehan and Alex Bray both featured heavily in pre-season, whilst Jay Fulton seems closer to breaking into the first-team than most. Also, I couldn't write a piece on our youngsters without mentioning winger Kenji Gorre, who I'm certain will break into the first team at some point this season. I'm a big fan, and he's consistently scored goals for our U21's so surely he'll get his chance soon.

I've only been to one Under-21 game so far this season, (a 2-1 loss to Cardiff at the Liberty) but it was easy to see that most, if not all of the players that featured have bright futures ahead of them. Unbeaten in seven games and coming off a 4-1 victory over Brentford last night (in which a certain Jonjo Shelvey featured and scored in), I'd definitely encourage fans to get behind Chris Llewelyn's side. After all, entry is free of charge most of the time! 

Thanks to Josh for taking the time to put this together. I echo his sentiments about the U21 team - it's great fun and always interesting to see the potential stars of the future on display.

Black & White & read all over?

Not quite, but we're getting there...

Eric Imhof looks at the disappointingly predictable nature of some of the journalism following our epic 2-1 win over Arsenal

#458736304 / gettyimages.com

If Monreal had seen who was behind him, he may not have looked so composed...

When asked by someone from the Austin Gooners on Twitter what my thoughts were heading into Sunday’s match, I replied “cautiously optimistic” (surprisingly at the time, but less so in retrospect, they concurred). My optimism, as tempered as it was, quickly eroded after Sanchez’s goal, as an all-too-familiar story seemed to be going straight according to script. But as Arsene Wenger said himself after the match, football is sometimes unbelievable, and one can concede at any minute. I just can’t say enough about the many, many things that went right in the twilight of the game, and how happy it made me to see Monk’s men (it’s Monk’s team now, and for the foreseeable future) so publicly vindicated. 

And yet, to read some of the blogs and websites and tweets in the aftermath of the game, it’s as if the Swans just happened to show up to their own ground to watch Arsenal “out-Arsenal” themselves; the Gunners’ opponent couldn't have played a smaller part in proceedings. I guess the impetuous crashing down of a once mighty empire is a more entertaining story than the measured, prudent laying of a solid foundation. And yet, many more people than usual did give Swansea due credit, so maybe a corner has been turned.

Let’s start with the status-quo. In Football365’s weekly “Winners and Losers” column, Arsene made the headline as the first loser, but strangely Swansea wasn’t even mentioned in the winners list. In that post, Daniel Storey writes; 

“So, was this peak Arsenal? A central defender playing at full-back losing his individual battle, followed by a full-back playing at centre-back also losing his, the end result being Arsenal losing a match after leading to rule their title hopes obsolete in November?” 

That’s all well and good; those mistakes were clearly made. But why not mention the fact that Arsene’s counterpart (we’re not mentioning the Swans by name, apparently) deliberately and cunningly exploited these weaknesses with shrewdness? If Arsene was out-foxed, why not mention the fox who out-foxed him? 

And how about his lead from the BBC: 

“MOTD2 pundit and former Arsenal defender Martin Keown expands on his TV analysis of why Arsenal only have themselves to blame as they see another lead slip away in their defeat by Swansea, and what they can do to stop it happening again.” 

Well of course the former Arsenal defender thinks Arsenal only have themselves to blame; the Big Four “drop points,” and all the other clubs are innocent bystanders. 

Meanwhile, and in great contrast, The Guardian rocketed to the top of my bookmarks with both its fair-minded match commentary and actually insightful analysis—featuring, firstly from the former: 

“Credit also to Garry Monk, who picked Montero and kept him on, replaced Bony despite his displeasure, and generally shut down Arsenal, who created maybe three or four decent chances across the 90 minutes” 

Then also from the latter (in Barney Ronay’s great piece): 

“It is of course an indication of the feudal nature of English football’s top tier that the presence of Southampton, West Ham, Swansea City and Stoke City in the top nine of the Premier League should be noteworthy.”

He even goes on to call this group the “Alternative Big Four.” Cheers. 

A quick scroll down the match report list shows that a good number of other articles actually contain the words “Swansea,” “Swans,” and/or “Gomis” in the title: a very good sign indeed. 

Also worth mentioning is this post on Bleacher Report, which is about Arsenal’s slow but now glaring demise, but which surprisingly begins: 

“Let’s get one thing straight about Arsenal’s latest crisis. It’s not happening in a vacuum. And what most recently exacerbated it was a thrilling Swansea City comeback in which two very good goals were scored.” 

What is perhaps more shocking than the Swans sitting in fifth (fifth!), is that after eleven games [and three prior seasons - Ed] we're actually being acknowledged in the media.

About time, too.

Thanks to Eric for his latest piece - give him a follow on Twitter @AustinJackArmy

On track at the back, the exuberance of youth & who drops out for Leon...

With the international break now upon us, Garry Monk has another chance to assess how best to utilise his squad before the visit to Man City

#458695894 / gettyimages.com

Yesterday we saw a true heroes performance, but in a good way the performance has almost raised as many questions as it did provide answers to doubters still worrying whether Monk has the wherewithal to succeed as Swansea manager. 

Swansea on-track at the back

Firstly, once the international break is done and dusted, who should partner Ash at Manchester City? Jordi Amat seemed to have been Monk's preferred option before Fernandez started staking his claim, but with the Argentinian facing a spell on the sidelines and Kyle Bartley having given a brilliant account of himself yesterday, it's going to be tough for Monk to decide who'll partner Ash at the heart of the Swans defence.

The big positive for the Swans though is that yesterday it was confirmed that we have, without doubt, four centre-backs capable of doing a job for us in the Premier League. Being completely honest I'd still harboured some doubts about Bartley - namely his overzealousness in the tackle which seemed to lead to lots of unnecessary injuries - and I know I wasn't alone in that, but his performance yesterday was exemplary. 

With Ash still on form week-in week-out, Fernandez & Amat impressive, and Bartley also now established as a solid option, it's no wonder our defence is the second tightest in the league - even if Ash has had three different centre-back partners this season. If you exclude the loss to Chelsea, we've conceded seven goals in ten games, which included trips to Old Trafford & Goodison Park, plus the home game against Arsenal. Not a bad effort at all.

Who drops out for Leon?

Yesterday we saw Ki & Tom Carroll (for most of the match) control the midfield fairly well, with Gylfi doing his usual "close down anything that moves" tricks. Without Leon Britton (absent through injury until late on against Arsenal when he made his comeback) we've been unable to control possession as we've become used to, and we've had to look to move the ball forward more quickly. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but having a bit more possession would definitely aid us over ninety minutes, as having the ball is easier physically than not having it. 

If pushed I'd say that, if you assume Jonjo is an automatic starter ahead of Carroll, he should be the one to miss out for Leon - assuming Leon is deemed fit enough to start away at Man City. Simply put, he's already picked up too many yellow cards this season, while Ki & Gylfi have done nothing wrong. Leon to come in alongside Ki, with Gylfi ahead of them. That works for me.

Swansea can look to youth for replacements

The arrival of Modou Barrow from the bench (a young Gambian footballer signed from Sweden this summer) changed the swing of the game in our favour, and Monk has been open in his desire to get more talent coming through from the youth setup into the first team. With Jefferson Montero also excelling yesterday, it'll be interesting to see who starts out wide when Dyer & Routledge are fit again. 

Plus, it was really encouraging to see the confidence flowing through Barrow - he's been in great form for the under-21's and he carried that straight into his first-team debut. I particularly enjoyed when he stood Kieran Gibbs up on the right wing, and indulged in some extravagant showboatery - it's not often we've seen a Swansea player show such disregard for their opponents, and perhaps the exuberance of youth so excitingly displayed by young Modou Barrow hints at a big career for the Gambian. 

The more young players we can have progressing through the youth setup the better, as for one thing it costs a damn sight less than signing players for ten million at a time. With the club's continued investment in youth & training facilities, it surely won't be long before we see more of Barrow's u21 teammates making the leap to the first team.