With that in mind, I give you the first attacking player to make it into the team. At centre forward: Bob Latchford.
| Latchford celebrating one of his many goals for Swansea City |
Signed after the Swans had famously been promoted to the old First Division for the 1981/82 season, Latchford came with a high billing. He'd started his career at Birmingham, and amazingly a copy of his original contract shows he was only earning £8 a week when he first signed professional terms with the team. He'd go on to score 68 goals in 160 games for the Blues, before a British record transfer of £350k (although how that works out I'm not sure: Howard Kendall & Archie Styles moved the other way and Birmingham only received 80k) saw him move to Everton in 1974.
At Everton he excelled, and set about becoming the club's most prolific goalscorer since legendary figure Dixie Dean. After taking three games to get off the mark, he went on to score 138 goals in 289 games for Everton, smashing records left right and centre. During this time Latchford won a £10k prize offered by a national newspaper for scoring 30 goals in a season - the paper had bemoaned the lack of quality goalscorers in British football and Latchford managed to hit the target on the last day of the season, scoring twice against Chelsea. All in all he spent seven years at Everton, during which time he gained twelve international caps - predominantly partnering Kevin Keegan and scoring five goals in the process.
Latchford joined Swansea for £125k in July 1981 with the Swans about to embark on their debut season in the top flight. What happened next is rather famous actually, as Latchford scored a nine minute hat-trick on his debut, helping the club to a 5-1 win over Leeds United - and for those that haven't seen it it's definitely worth a watch! Curtis' goal for the fifth is simply awesome.
That first season for the Swans he would go on to score 12 goals in 31 league games as they defied expectation to finish in sixth place - although had it not been for a slump in form at the end of the season they could have finished even higher. It was the next season that Latchford really made his mark though, scoring 20 goals in 38 league games which, sadly, wasn't enough to keep the Swans from being relegated at the end of the year. The Swans scored 51 league goals that year, so Latchford single-handedly accounted for almost 40% of the Swans goals. Had it not been for the burly forward, the season could have been even worse - as it was the Swans were relegated seven points adrift of safety, and Latchford remembers that year as a frustrating one:
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| Latchford in action for England |
“In terms of my time at Swansea, how much I enjoyed living there, my life away from football and the people I met, it had no effect at all, but it definitely soured my second season on the pitch because of the things that were happening.
“Everything from the top to bottom was not right. The more games we lost the worse things became. Things fell apart and it was not a nice experience. I would not want the club to go through that again.
“You need that stability and unity to keep you going when things are going against you. At the time when we were in trouble the fans were as bemused as the players by what was going on; quite simply we let in too many goals. We tried everything but we could not find the way to stop it. If you think of all the talent and experience we had at Swansea back then but we could not put it right.
“Once you get on a slide it is very hard to stop it. I always felt if we could have survived that season we would have been there for much longer.”
After the Swans were relegated, Latchford was unanimously regarded as too good to stay at the Vetch (given the team's continued deterioration), and it was no surprise when he requested a transfer in the close season - and few can have blamed him. There were rumours his relationship with Toshack had fallen apart, but if true this must have been remedied as Bob ended up rejecting offers from Leicester and Chelsea, a change of heart which saw him state he wanted to end his career at Swansea (he was 33 by this point). Sadly, the Swans fall from grace meant that it simply wasn't possible for Latchford to remain with the team, and after 18 games and 3 goals in the Second Division he departed for Dutch side NAC Breda, where he helped them gain promotion, before spells at Coventry, Lincoln, Newport and finally Merthyr. After winning his third Welsh Cup (he'd won two with the Swans and remarkably this was the only trophy Bob would actually win in his career) with the valleys team, he called a day on his professional career which had seen him score 218 goals in 530 league games, quite the total I'm sure you'll agree.
Latchford's inclusion in the team was pretty much guaranteed from it's inception, as my whole life I've been regaled with stories of his goal scoring prowess. Anyone who saw him play seems to rate him as the best striker Swansea have ever had, and if current forward Michu enjoys a second season in SA1 similar to Latchford's (in terms of goals scored anyway!) we could be in for some fun next year.
Latchford's name will live long amongst Swansea fans for being the spearhead of the clubs first foray into the upper echelons of British football, and he's a worthy member of this All Time Swansea XI.
Do you agree with the selections for the All Time XI so far? Have your say by commenting on the blog, or by joining the forum!