Phil SumblerIt was with interest this morning that the Planet Swans archive timeline popped up a story that talked about this very date in 2001 when the site revealed the name of the Swans new owner to the world – a certain Tony Petty.
Little did we know when I penned that article 19 years ago that the name would change the history of this football club and galvanise the supporters behind it to such an extent that less then 10 years after the article was written we were a Premier League club competing in the richest league in the world. A world away from the club that was on it’s arse back in 2001.
Back then the site was hosted on the Rivals network but I will never forget the part that the internet played in what was a traumatic three months where fans from all over the world worked together to ensure the club was saved.
It had been a few days before that JackArmy.net (as this site was then known) had broken the story that the club was to be sold to an Australian based businessman (Story: Swansea Sold Again) – a story that had gained some traction in a Sunday newspaper where a journalist passed it off as his own work.
Back then the Swans had suffered for many years through the ownership of Silver Shield. A lack of investment on and off the pitch had meant that the shine of the 2001 league winning season was followed by a miserable 12 months and immediate relegation and the club again was languishing towards the bottom end of the league.
Silver Shield were out and the leech that was Mike Lewis was in charge. He had some people with him (let’s call them hangers on) but we should never forget that this was a man who wanted to hire “heavies” to stand near those in the fanbase who dared to question and give them a “slap”. I still will never forget the day he told me (and other members of the MAGS) that was his plan as we met him in Gloucester – thankfully he never saw that through and quite right too, he never should have thought it let alone thought in his own head it was a good idea.
Lewis wanted out (and had to get out) and he was ready to sell to the first interested party it seemed (sound familiar?) and it was here that you first read the name of Petty with the background in 2001. He had previously tried to have involvement at West Ham, had had some involvement at Charlton and now was ready to come in at Swansea.
And the arrival of Petty will, in my mind, always be the point that changed this football club forever. I firmly believe that without him (and his despicable actions) we would have just carried on as normal with questions being asked but answers never forthcoming. The Trust was in it’s infacy and the right vehicle to be created but it was lacking the momentum it really would need and not fully aware that the momentum was about to be gifted to them – momentum they took so well and delivered against.
We know much of the rest is history but over the course of the next few weeks we will look back on some of the key moments back in time as a reminder that football has pivotal moments in every club’s history and 2001 was definitely one of those as far as we were concerned.
