Issue #92 Jack Swan

SU E# 92 IS

5 GREATEST SWANSEA TRANSFER WINDOWS

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LITTLE INTRO

That was a bit of a boring end to the season really wasn’t it.

We have managed to throw away a three-goal lead twice, which is a concern for next season but overall, I don’t think any of us really cared!

It’s a short break too. The season is starting in July as we fit in a Winter World Cup. The transfer window remains open until September 1st though, which isn’t ideal for a club that likes selling players.

That’s the elephant in the room isn’t it? I’d be very happy to keep everyone and add a couple of new faces and push for promotion but who is going? Will it be Piroe? Will it be Obafemi?

I’m hopeful that we can keep both of them. The logical move, especially as Leeds have shown an interest and have stayed up, is for Downes to go to Leeds for mega-bucks, Joey Allen to come in on a free and everyone should be happy.

I’d be sad to see Flynn leave mind you. He has slotted in nicely, adds a bit of bite to that midfield and him and Grimes could have a long-standing relationship in that centre midfield for many years to come. You do feel that it makes more sense than selling one of the front men though.

Obafemi has grown so much under Martin, he’s becoming a fans favourite and it would be a shame to see him sit on a bench in the Premier League. Piroe is more likely to go, he’s currently not looking to discuss a new contract which is understandable and there could be an offer which even us fans wouldn’t turn down.

If Leicester are interested then we could potentially be talking upwards of £20 million in which case, we have to cash in. It looks like it could be an exciting summer though. Martin looks like he’s committed and he knows what he wants in the transfer market.

This issue we look at the most exciting transfer windows of the last 25 years. If we can have one which challenges any of them then I’m happy!

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5 GREATEST SWANSEA SUMMER TRANSFER WINDOWS OF THE LAST 25 YEARS

#5 2003 I have put this season in at number five because at the time, the other campaigns were more exciting. However, the Summer of 2003 turned out to be the transfer window which completely changed the path of our club. This is the most important transfer window in our clubs history and led to the Premier League journey.

Brian Flynn’s side just avoided relegation from the whole football league the season before (Swansea 4 -2 Hull) and so we desperately needed something.

In the film Jack to a King, our previous owners stated that they regretted not doing a little bit more the previous season. The fear of relegation and what it would have meant for the club and city had maybe kicked them into being a little more generous in the transfer window. We were still dealing with free transfers and loans but the ambition was increasing.

The players coming in. Let’s start with a very promising young defender in Izzy Iriekpen. One of our greatest ever free-kick takers and still loved personalities Andy Robinson. The big target man who is now Millwall under 23s head coach Kevin Nugent. Speedster and former Burnley youngster Bradley Maylett and a return on loan of a Mr Alan Tate.

That is a very decent window in itself but on top of that we added Leon Britton, who was already a hero with the fans after winning two penalties in the crunch Hull game. We then added a Spaniard named Roberto Martinez and if that wasn’t enough, we somehow managed to sign Lee Trundle.

I’ll never understand how we signed Lee Trundle. He and Andy Morrell had a wonderful partnership which saw Wrexham promoted to (what is now) League 1 the previous campaign, whilst we languished in 22nd in the same league. It was the marquee signing of the summer and although we knew he had goals and assists, we didn’t realise quite how many or the bag of tricks which came with him.

There was a buzz around the club, although expectations were still about avoiding the drop and maybe pushing onto mid-table. What this transfer window did was added personalities to the club and relationships which would last forever. Lee Trundle, Leon Britton and Alan Tate are our 21st century club legends and this campaign forged these players at the club.

As the Swans moved to the Liberty a couple of years later, we will never know the exact importance of Lee Trundle on the gate receipts. People, kids who are now adults, started watching and loving the Swans because of him.

Swansea averaged 3,690 fans the season before Lee Trundle joined. By the end of his third season with the club, we averaged 14,112. Obviously, the Liberty was a major factor but the Trundle signing was absolutely immense.

Then there was Leon Britton. The greatest player to ever put on a Swans shirt. Where would the club be without him? We are talking about a player who guided us through every league. Someone who played at the club under 13 managers between 2002 to 2018. A free transfer this summer.

And then Roberto Martinez. What can you say? As a player, he changed the way that we played our games from centre midfield and then as a manager, he completely transformed the direction that we were going. The formation, the diet, the possession football, the attitude towards the game, every aspect of the club changed.

In this transfer window, Brian Flynn re-wrote our history.

Without these signings, the club that we now know would not exist.

The season saw the club finish comfortably in mid-table but it wasn’t enough for Flynn to keep his job. However, the core of the side which he brought in in this transfer window went on to dominate the Swansea dressing room for many years.

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#4 2014 Garry Monk took over the Swans temporarily in February 2014 and was given the full-time job that May. As a coach and tactician, fans were happy with the appointment but there were questions over what he could do in the transfer market.

On top of that, fans had to deal with seeing Ben Davies and Michelle Vorm leave to Spurs, plus Pablo Hernandez, Chico and Michu all leaving the club.

It was a concern but the player sales meant that the club could afford to splash out a little. Fans favourite Gylfi Sigurdsson was the pick of the crop, a signing which was merged with the Ben Davies and Vorm transfers to Spurs.

Argentinian international centre back Federico Fernandez also joined what was now becoming an established Premier League club. Ecuadorian winger Jefferson Montero was added that summer too alongside fellow speedster and Gambian international Modou Barrow.

Polish international Lukasz Fabianski joined on a free transfer, as did Bafétimbi Gomis, a current French international striker in the prime of his career. A young Matty Grimes was picked up for the future with a big reputation in the lower leagues and despite uncertainty, the club had an incredible summer.

This was putting the club on the map. No longer were Swansea a lower league club having a spell in the Premier League. This was a Premier League club with ambitions and one which players wanted to join. Previous campaigns had seen the club make ‘under the radar’

signings but this was different. This was a mid-table club able to go toe to toe with other Premier League clubs and come out on top.

Gomis was 28. He had 12 caps and 3 goals for the mighty France. He’d cost his previous club £13 million and had scored a Champions League hattrick. At 29 years old, Fabianski had already played in the Champions league, he had won the FA Cup, he was known as a top keeper but played second fiddle at Arsenal. Siggy was well-known for his quality, he had already scored 15 in 76 Premier League games from midfield but was not getting game time because of the world class Eriksen.

These were not unknown talents. These were proven players that would make the starting eleven of any team outside the top ten or twelve in all of Europe.

These players were added to a squad of established players and the expectation was not just to avoid the drop but to challenge for the top half and maybe more.

An opening day of the season win at Old Trafford was followed by Burnley and West Brom and Garry Monk enjoyed winning Premier League manager of the month in August as the Swans sat top of the table.

The club went on to finish 8th at the end of the season but this remains the peak of ambition during any transfer window. At no point before or since have the club looked willing to challenge mid-table Premier League clubs to player signings.

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#3 2000 The Swans were on a high under John Hollins having won promotion from Division 3 the previous season.

There was a buzz around the club which we hadn’t felt in some time. A manager from Chelsea royalty, a defensively solid, tight-knit group that just needed a little bit of flair added to it. Expectations were there that we could push up the leagues!

French trio Matthias Verschave, Nicolas Fabiano and David Romo were announced and were soon joined by Venezuelan international Giovanni Savarese Rubinaccio.

These were names that we couldn’t say. We weren’t as used to Spanish and French names as we are today, The Arsenal back 4 was still Adams, Keown, Dixon and Winterburn. They still had David Seaman in goal. Football boots came in one colour; black. We didn’t have diving. David Seamans hair was abnormally long, short back and sides or shaven all off was your standard footballer. Then suddenly, Swansea were signing a Venezuelan international! This pre-dated google maps and so we all had to look at an Atlas to know where Venezuela was!

Before we go on, for those fans who only realised that there was a football club in Swansea when we reached the Premier League, we need you to understand a few things. In the preceding years, Tommy Mutton in 1999 was our most exciting signing for some time. At £10,000 the signing from Bangor City was the first one which had cost any money for several transfer windows. We had to wait until 2004 before we splashed In 1991 Reuben Agboola became the first Swansea City player to represent the club having won an international out a whopping £35,000 on Paul Conner. cap for any country that wasn’t Wales, Norther Ireland or So please, lower your expectation from what some of Eire. There’s a fact for you! Swansea now had 2 in the same side, Boyd and Savarese. you may be used to.

Now there is nothing that says flair and excitement in the lower leagues than a foreigner! The more foreign the better! We already had the eccentric Jamaican Walter Boyd in our group, but it was about to get electrifying.

Hollins added Englishman Martin ‘Psycho’ Thomas to the mix just to add that little bit of steel and we were ready to go. This was as exciting as it could get.

The swans were relegated with 37 points but that summer and the excitement, you can’t deny it!

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#2 2007 This was the birth of the Swansea Way. The Swans didn’t just go up this season, we destroyed the league. It is hard to remember how good we were in League One that season but our starting line-up wasn’t that far short of the team competing in the Premier League a few years later.

We were far too good for the league and the summer of 2007 was beautiful.

Martinez had already explained to the fans what the plan was. We understood his philosophy. It was sexy football.

We were going to do something which had never been done before and that was to play a continental style of possession based football in the lower leagues. That was exciting enough, the players who came in just took it to a new level.

You generally don’t get many fans at pre-season friendlies but this summer was different. Each game saw more and more fans following, the word was spreading, something was happening. This despite the club selling our best and most exciting player Lee Trundle to Bristol City.

Angel Rangel joined the club however he was an unknown. As was Andrea O’rlandi, Guillem Bauza and Ferrie Bodde but they all joined this summer. As fans we were more excited about Paul Anderson, a young up and coming winger at Liverpool. Manchester United loanee Febian Brandy also came back with a big reputation as the next big thing from Old Trafford.

Jason Scotland signed for £25,000 having banged the goals in up North and goalkeeper Dorus De Vries signed on a free transfer. They were joined by Centre back Steven Watt but it was the £150,000 signing of Darren Way which

was the exciting signing of the summer. The 5 foot 7 midfielder from Yeovil turned out to be a bit of a miss-fit here and had two pretty miserable seasons but at the time… so exciting!

The biggest factor for our optimism though was Roberto Martinez. He brought a belief into the whole club, and you could feel it, it was buzzing. For the first time in decades, the Swans were being discussed around the city.

You didn’t recognise every fan any more, there were too many. We were getting used to our new home and the crowds kept growing.

I still believe that if it wasn’t for his injuries then Ferrie Bodde would have gone on to captain the Netherlands and he would have been at a Champions League club. He went from being an unknown to being a hero before he’d even started his full debut, that is how good he was but that is also how much talk there was about pre-season.

Scotland was banging them in. Bauza was this breath of fresh air who just kept running. Angel Rangel was a cultured (if a little soft at first) full back like we’d never seen before, and they all liked having the football. It was alien to us. They actually enjoyed having the football at their feet. We were so used to seeing every side in the lower leagues get the ball and quickly shift it as far up field as possible but suddenly we were seeing players keeping the ball.

The swans pissed the league, Ashley Williams joined on loan later in the season and obviously stayed on. It was a special campaign and a phenomenal summer.

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#1 2012 It didn’t start well. Scott Sinclair couldn’t turn down Manchester City and so he joined Rosie Webster and Sally up North. Soon followed by our Gaffa; Brendan Rogers, the man who had brought us to the promised land. Then, our beloved Joey Allen (it still pains me to think he’s never wore a Swans shirt since………. but maybe soon) ‘In Huw We Trust’ was the belief and he soon appointed Michael Laudrup, a well-known genius as a player but what was he going to be like in the transfer window?

There was disbelief when the club were first linked to Spanish international Pablo Hernandez. Just being linked to such a player was insane for little old Swansea. Rumours continues though, they got stronger and stronger and before we announced the signing to replace the outgoing Sinclair out wide.

This was ridiculous! Only 8 summers earlier, we were excited about spending £35,000 on Paul Connor. Now we were spending £5.5 million on a Spanish international who was well known all over Europe. It put Swansea on the map but we didn’t stop there.

Fellow Spaniards Chico Flores and some guy called Michu also joined as the Swans love affair with Iberia continued (Michu would go on to become the undisputed ‘Premier League signing of the season’).

South Korean international Ki Sung Yung joined from Celtic to replace little Joey. Swansea were suddenly

prizing players from the Scottish giants. Their best player was opting to come to our pretty shitty city instead of a packed 60,000 Celtic Park.

We were in another dimension. The versatile Dutch winger/midfielder Jonathan De Guzman was added on loan, someone who was absolute class in previous Football manager games. A player which you’d sign if you were playing with Liverpool or Manchester United. He was now at Swansea!

It was the most exciting transfer window that we have ever had in these parts. An A-list managerial appointment who backed it up with signing after signing. Expectations were high and they soon went off the scale with an opening day 5-0 win away to Queens Park Rangers.

Followed up with a 3-0 home win at West Ham and ‘we are top of the league’ chants from the Jack army.

Has football ever been so sweet in SA1?

Transfermarkt states that this summer transfer window also saw the club make over £10 million in profit. Not a bad bit of business hey?

There were no American owners in site. Not an ounce of negativity anywhere. Nobody had ill-feeling to Brendan, Joey or Scott. Our board were adored, everything was positive and exciting. It has to be the greatest transfer window in the last 25 years!

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Player Watch Joe Allen The Swans are linked with little Joey Allen. We no-doubt will know more when you are reading this than when I write it. We look at his stats, compare him with Flynn and see where he fits in.

With 3481 minutes under his belt, only Josh Tymon had more game time for Stoke last season than Joe. With a 42.2 passes per game average, the Welsh Pirlo made more passes than any other midfielder for Stoke but far less than Matty Grimes (98.5) and Flynn Downs (66.6) did at Swansea.

The 2011/12 season, Joe made over 60 passes per game in the Premier League for Swansea. With a career high of 91.2% completion accuracy and of 1.2 key passes per game.

Joe Allens most touches this season came against Bristol City away (touches in blue right). In red is Flynn Downs touches against Barnsley. As we can see, the Swansea way allows midfielders to see more of the ball which Joe would no doubt enjoy. Joe, like Flynn sees the ball all over the park, slightly favouring the right-hand side which both compliments Grimes well.

It is difficult to compare two players who play at sides with contrasting styles. With 2 tackles per game average compared to 1.3 of Downes and with 1.9 interceptions, compared with 1.1, we could assume that Allen is better defensively than Downes. He also wins more headers (1.3 to 0.8). However, the opposition has more of the ball when playing against Stoke and so more tackles and interceptions are needed.

It seems most likely that Allen would be a direct replacement for the Irishman. We could cash in (as we do) on the former Ipswich Town player and bring in a quality replacement on a free. It is worth remembering though that under Mark Hughes, Joe Allen played further forward and scored 6 goals in both the 16/17 season (premier league) and (under Gary Rowett) 18/19 (championship).

It would be great to bring the Narberth boy home.

Give me hope Joe Allen!

Joe Allen

Flynn Downes

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Last issue was too hard! Number 2 was really tough. This one is fairly easy... ish. Get the link too! Number 3 is the NO Answers back anymore as requested the locals the the Masons in Wanuarlwydd.

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THE QUIZ OF THE SEASON IS HERE. Test your knowledge and your memory. Good luck.

1) Tough one to start! How many players scored a Championship goal for Swansea this season?

2) Swansea scored 3 or more goals against which two teams in the league both home and away?

3) Not so impressive, Which FIVE teams scored 3 or more goals against us in both the home and away league fixtures this season?

4) Matty Grimes completed 4140 Championship minutes. The most in a Swans shirt but who was next on the list?

5) Which Swans player was booked most often in the Championship? (10 times) 6) Which THREE players ended the season, having played over ten matches and a pass completion rate over 90%?

7) Who knocked Swansea out of the FA Cup? 8) Who knocked Swansea out of the League Cup? 9) Did Swansea win, lose or draw more matches?

10) Which Swans player hadthe most Championship assists?

11) Who is the tallest player to play forthe Swans this season? (surprised me this one!)

12) Who were the first team that Swansea beat in the Championship this season?

13) Who were the last team which we beat?

14) To the nearest 250, what was the average attendance at the Liberty this season? (Championship only) 15) What was our average possesion percentage over the whoe season? (to the nearest 2%) 16) How many red cards did Swansea players get over the season?

17) How many shots on target per game did Swansea average over the season?

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1) How can a man who shaves several times a day still sport a long beard?

2) What rocks but does not roll?

3) An elevator is on the ground floor. There are five people in the elevator including me. When the lift reaches the first floor, one person gets out and two people get in. The lift goes up to the second floor, three people get out, five people get in. It then goes up to the next floor up, no-one gets out but 12 people get in. Halfway up to the next floor up the elevator cable snaps, it crashes to the floor. Everyone else dies in the elevator except me. How did I survive?

4) Which tire doesn’t move when a car turns right?

5) What 4-letter word can be written forward, backward or upside down, and can still be read from left to right?

6) Mr. Jenkins is trying to find a butler he can really trust. Out of the four candidates, James, Hudson, Paul, and Steven, he knows that two are honest and the other two are compulsive liars. From what each one of them says, can you work out which two are the liars?

JAMES: “Neither Paul nor Hudson tells the truth.”

HUDSON: “If Steven is a liar, then James is trustworthy.”

PAUL: “If, and only if, James is not an honest person, then Steven, too, has a rather loose attitude to the truth.”

STEVEN: “What Paul said is untrue.”

7) It’s not easy to figure out who’s who when the Brewer family gets together. The brother of Nick’s uncle Manny is named Mark. Lisa’s grandparents are Nick’s parents. Mark is married to Lisa’s grandma. The children of Angela’s daughter Sandra are named Lisa and Sasha. So who is Angela’s brother-in-law?

8) If you have a 7-minute hourglass and an 11-minute hourglass, how can you boil an egg in exactly 15 minutes?

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B Y J O K E S S P E N S E 8

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I was in a shoe shop and tried on a shoe.

I said to the assistant "it's too tight" He said "Try it with the tongue out" I said "It'th nho ghood, it'th thtill thoo thight" I just got a full tank of gas for £22. Granted it was for my lawn mower but I’m trying to stay positive !

After losing his luggage, a man who took an airline to court lost his case.

I asked my wife if I was the only one she’d ever been with.

She replied ’Yes, all the others were nines or tens’ My wife is the boss in our household but when she told me to stop impersonating a flamingo I had to put my foot down.

The British public: I can't afford to heat my home, drive my car, pay my rent or put food on the table.

Also the British public: let's all celebrate a woman who owns a £1 billion hat.

"Your school attendance has been appalling this year Johnny, you've been absent for 275 days.

How do you account for yourself?"

"I'm practising for when I become a teacher."

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My Dad's motto through life was "Always leave them wanting more."

Great man. Terrible anaesthetist.

In other news, the inventor of the throat lozenge has recently died.

The family have requested there be NO coffin at his funeral.

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I am going out with a thin tall red head tonight. I met her on Match.com My doctor told me I really need to watch my drinking, so I am off to find a bar with a mirror.

Two commuters meet on the bus. "Isn't this great?" says one. "You don't have to sit at the wheel, no traffic jams, nothing to get on your nerves, no road rage, noise or stress, you're conserving the environment and you still get to work on time.""Exactly," says the other. "By the way - How long are you banned for?"

Wife being the romantic sort, sent her husband a text....

"If you are sleeping send me your dreams, If you are laughing send me your smile, If you are eating send me a bite, If you are drinking send me sip, If you are crying send me your tears, I love you" Husband replied...."I am taking a shit, what should I do?"

You see my next door neighbour worships exhaust pipes, he's a catholic converter My dad died last year when my family couldn't remember his blood group in time for the paramedics to give him a blood transfusion.

As he was dying he kept insisting to "be positive" ,but its hard without him.

On Saturday my friend underwent a painful procedure that required him to have his spine and both testicles removed. Still, he got some great wedding presents though.

I had five hundred Kit Kats in my fridge and my mate had one in his. I pressured him into giving his to a homeless person. That's basically how celebrity charity appeals work.

My wife asked me how I could love her and enjoy watching porn.

I told her, I love my car, but I still watch Formula 1 too.

She was happy with this analogy.

I just never mentioned I also go to Hertz for the occasional rental I keep randomly shouting out 'Broccoli' and 'Cauliflower' - I think I might have florets

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A NICE BIT OF LOCAL HISTORY FOR YOU: CARN LLECHART I’m getting old now. Finding myself interested in a load of ‘boring’ shit and local history fascinates me. Last year, I heard of an old stone circle above the hills around 2 miles from Pontardawe.

I googled its name ‘Carn Llechart’ which appeared a kilometre or so from Rhydyfro off the old road to Ammanford. I visited the site on a very cold and windy January afternoon. The Cairn itself dates to around 1500 BC and much of the spectacular view would have been similar back then as it is today; the sea to the West and the snowy Brecon Beacons opposite.

It is a clear and unmistakable stone circle. The largest stone is about 8 foot and approximately 2.5 ton in weight.

As with Stonehenge the mind drifts to how they could move these stones? An estimated 50 people would be needed to shift the larger stones here, potentially less if they were using ropes, levers, rollers and ramps. But either way, there would need to be a clear and organised purpose, a lot of effort and a real desire to build it.

Which begs the question as to why it was built? And who were these organised people around Pontardawe 3,500 years ago?

Carn Llechart Chris Collyer from stone-circles.org.uk says of the site “It is a strange place indeed, a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age circle of some twenty-two to twenty-five low stones that reminds me of those in Derbyshire but set close together forming an almost complete kerb in some places with a shattered stone lined cist towards the centre. What is unusual is that the circle stones are titled slightly outwards.”

“It has been suggested that the circle was indeed a kerb to a covering earthen mound. But what seems more likely is that this monument represents a mixture of ceremonial purposes at a time of change. The builders could have seen early stone circles. Perhaps elsewhere in Wales or further up the coast in Cumbria and decided to incorporate the idea into their own structures producing a hybrid circle or ring cairn. A similar arrangement exists at the site of Bryn Cader Faner in Gwynedd.”

David Ross has another theory, he wrote on britainexpress.com that the site “may be all that remains of a burial mound dating to about 1500 BC. The cairn holds a burial cist and is thought to be the largest in Wales.”

“What makes Carn Llechart so striking is that the kerb stones have been arranged at an outward angle to create a ‘crown of thorns’ effect. In the centre of the cairn is a cist, or box formed of small stone slabs. The cist was originally topped by a large stone slab, but this has been lost. The cist was originally covered by a large cairn, or mound of earth.”

What are Stone Circles?

There has been much analysis and debate about similar monuments. No simple explanations have emerged. The original purpose of the stone ring monuments has been widely debated by archaeologists for several centuries.

Stone circles typically show very little evidence of human visitation during the period immediately following their creation. Which suggests that they were not sites used for rituals that left archaeologically visible evidence. They may have been deliberately left as silent and empty monuments. Some archaeologists suggest that in

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Neolithic Britain, stone was associated with the dead and wood with the living.

Richard Bradley in his book ‘the Prehistory of Britain and Ireland’ noted that this interpretation was “consistent with the archaeological evidence from Britain”, where evidence for feasting and other human activities have been found at a range of timber sites but not at their stone counterparts. At the latter sites, there has been evidence of human remains. Bradley suggested that the stone circles may have been spaces “devoted to the dead”.

Other archaeologists have suggested that the stone might not represent ancestors. But rather other supernatural entities, such as deities or gods.

Decay An issue with understanding stone circles is that only the stone remains. We may never know whether these stones were always just stone or a part of a wooden and/or earth structure. Which would help in finding out its desired purpose.

What Chris and David both agree on, which fits with other finds is the date Carn Llechart was built. Both trace it back to the Bronze Age and around 1500BC. Our understanding of Wales during this time has changed over recent decades and even more so in the last few years.

The previous belief was of a hostile era where ‘foreign’ tribes were constantly at war. However, it is now understood that it was far more peaceful, with regular trade and communications between not only fellow Welsh tribes or even British tribes but from tribes from parts of mainland Europe and Ireland as well.

This change in our understanding of Bronze Aged Wales adds further possibilities to our site in Pontardawe and of who built it.

The Beaker People Around 2000 BC, 500 years before our estimated Cairn was created, a new pottery style arrived in Great Britain. It is a period known as the Beaker culture, named after the pottery itself. The pottery, is the traditional early big round drinking beaker. The earliest such pottery can be traced back to 2700BC and was discovered in modern day Portugal.

These discoveries and the scientific method in being able to date these finds led historians to theorise that the art of pottery spread via the movement of people. The new style of pottery worked its way through Europe, into Spain, France, Germany, Poland and over to our shores.

The Beaker culture also brought the skill of refining metal to Great Britain. At first copper, but from around 2150 BC smiths had discovered how to make bronze. With this discovery, the Bronze Age began in Great Britain.

Changes It was not just new skills which the Beaker people brought here. There were notable behavioural changes at this time too. Back on topic with our site in Pontardawe, the Beaker culture changed the ways that people buried the dead (which until this period had usually been communal) to becoming more individual.

Previously, a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead but the ‘Early Bronze Age’ saw people buried in individual barrows or as we may see here in Carn Llechart, a cist which is covered with cairns.

Often the deceased were buried with a beaker full of liquid to ease the journey to the next life (well this is one theory). There has been evidence of beer and mead within some jars found in Cists from Scotland. Men and Women were mostly treated the same, interestingly the only difference was that men tended to be buried facing the East, and women facing West. So, one had sun rise and the other sun set.

Who Built Carn Llechart?

If Carn Llechart was built around 1500BC then an influence from the Beaker Culture is almost certain and its purpose could have been as an individual burial cist covered with cairns as David Ross thought on visiting the site.

There is a clear merger of cultures over this time in Britain.

It is thought that the Beaker people themselves built Stonehenge but many stone circles around the UK pre-date the Beaker culture. There are also far more stone circles in the UK than in other areas of Europe where the Beaker culture was strong. This suggests that it was the Neolithic British habitants who introduced the Beaker people to stone circles and not the other way around. The

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Beaker people then adopted and adapted the circles into their own culture. Although, this is also disputed by some historians.

What we do know is that the cultural change at this time in Britain was huge and another debate amongst historians has been whether the change was simply the passing of information or whether it was more of a change of the people living here.

Beaker Remainers We know that the ‘Beaker People’ of mainland Europe came to the British Isles but with modern science, we also know that not all returned. Around the site of Stonehenge for example, scientists have traced tooth enamel from some of those buried nearby to modern day Switzerland.

So how many stayed? Were the Beaker people a race of people who migrated to Britain en masse from the continent or did they simply share their cultural “package” of goods and behaviour which spread to us here in Pontardawe?

New Evidence A 2017 study seems to have put an end to the debate. It showed a major genetic shift in late Neolithic/early Bronze Age Britain, so that more than 90% of Britain’s Neolithic gene pool was replaced with the coming of a people genetically similar to the Beaker people of the

lower-Rhine area in West Germany.

This indicates that around 4,000 years ago, large numbers of Beaker people came to these shores and settled here for good. Many historians believe that it was the early Beaker people who brought the Celto-Italic languages here too.

We are unlikely to ever know the exact answers to many questions about our earliest site. The first examples of writing on these shores were in Scandinavian, written on stone over 1500 years later. There is little written of the battle of Hastings 1000 years after that. We are left with archaeological discoveries and trying to understand its findings.

Local Evidence Just last year, archaeologists discovered an ancient Beaker site in the Cwmcelyn Valley in Blaenau Gwent.

Finding numerous places of interest linked to the Beaker culture throughout the valley, dating back to 2000 BC. If Carn Llechart was built around 1500 BC then it would have been built with a merger of ideas and of people from across Europe. Over the 500 years after the Beaker people settled here, they simply fused into our ancestors.

What the site was built for, we may never know. But I like to look at it today as a collaboration of ideas and cultures from people of different tribes and countries and to think maybe they were not as pre-historic as we like to think.

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THE ‘TOSH’ SWANSEA CITY FILM IS A MUST WATCH! John Toshack will always be a legend in these parts. The incredible rise of Swansea City under his management is a folklore to some but a beautiful memory to others. The film ‘Tosh’ perfectly captures these moments as ex-players and the man himself look back at their remarkable achievement. I spoke with the films mastermind Pete Jones, who dreamt up and put the film together.

in October 2017. Its 5 and a half years since I met Tosh to broach the idea, so it has been 6 years in the making. We filmed in November last year, in Barcelona because that is when the film company put the money up. We spent a lot of time looking through archives for the right footage etc.

May ‘82 was the last time we finished 6th in the topflight. So, I’m happy that the film has come out on an anniversary, 40 What is the film about exactly? Is it a documentary all years after our best ever Swansea season. However, originally I wanted to get it out for 2018, so it would have been 40 about John Toshack or his time here.

It’s been a bit misleading in some places suggesting that it’s years after he joined. I never dreamt it would take this long the ‘official story of John Toshack’ which suggests it’s his life but its for a good reason. story. However, it is all about the years 1978- 82. The 4 years and the three promotions. We don’t go beyond that because Tosh is fantastic, we got him in a mellower time in his life, gentler. He is a famously strong mans-man, alfa male but in obviously it all went to shit. this film, he clearly shows his gentler side and it takes people We set the scene pre-tosh, how the club was going down the by surprise. Especially some of the ex-players. They love him pan and that we had to apply for our place in the football but the players were surprised at how gently he was. But I league. We touch on the pedigree of Tosh and then hit the suppose that’s with age, and it is certainly met with peoples ground running a couple of minutes into the film with when approval. he joined the club.

What is your background? I see photos of you with Noel Its 75 mins of nostalgia. We have had people coming out of Gallagher, Pete Doherty etc… it really emotional because we are looking at Fathers and I was in London for 20 years in a few bands with various Grandfathers that are no longer with us. It has had really degrees of success, but I got to know people like Pete nice reviews from everyone I’ve spoken with; I’ve not heard a Doherty, I wrote a book for him and worked in TV. I’ve always bad voice yet. been creative. This was the perfect toil for me. I was in the better position than most with experience in creative arts. As How long has it taken to make? my creative producer said, if we hadn’t of made it then If you remember, we put Tosh on the cover of Jack Swan back nobody would. It’s a shame that people like Robbie, Dai

Davies and Chris Marustik weren’t here to see it but we pay homage to them in the film.

What was it like for you getting to know Tosh? When was the first time that you met him?

I met him as a kid waiting for his autograph and then again in Chelsea when we were in the Premier League but not properly. I was then introduced by a mutual friend when I wanted to do the film. It has taken longer than Tosh would have liked so the relationship got strained at times. Covid didn’t help obviously, it took me a year to be able to get out to Spain. The timing of it has worked really well though because the way that he comes across is brilliant.

We hear a lot these days about mental health with ex-players etc… Just wondering how are they all? Do they still miss the game?

It is a good question and to be honest I don’t know. I don’t know them well enough to be able to answer that properly.

What I saw, they are all in their 60s and 70s now and seem to be in a good place. It has been wonderful to get to know them and to give them this acclaim.

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Lewis has been a post man, Stevenson a physio. We all know what Curt has been doing. He seems really happy in his role as an ambassador and we are so lucky to have him as a club.

Leighton James has given up on football and more into cricket now. Wyndham is great, he’s a fixture on Swans tv.

David Giles is in Cardiff with the BBC punditry. They all seem good.

When and where is it out?

At the moment it has pretty much done the cinema run, it is on in Cinema and co tonight (20/5) and that’s the last one unless they release a load more. Digital downloads are available on 13th June and the DVD is available on 20th June, but you can pre-order on Amazon.

DID YOU KNOW? In 2021, pubs, bars, restaurants and How have the premiers gone? clubs served the equivalent of It has been fantastic. The premier at the Liberty stadium, we 1.4 billion LESS pints than usual. had 300 there.

The Taliesin sold out with about the same amount. The Gwyn Hall in Neath sold out. Everywhere around here has sold out. We have done a couple in Liverpool and Chester which didn’t sell out but they were still healthy numbers. Liverpool run through the film a lot.

Shankley is a big part of it and any Liverpool fan should want to see the film as much as any Swansea fan really. It has contributed to Liverpool’s legacy.

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Davies and Chris Marustik weren’t here to see it but we pay homage to them in the film.

What was it like for you getting to know Tosh? When was the first time that you met him?

I met him as a kid waiting for his autograph and then again in Chelsea when we were in the Premier League but not properly. I was then introduced by a mutual friend when I wanted to do the film. It has taken longer than Tosh would have liked so the relationship got strained at times. Covid didn’t help obviously, it took me a year to be able to get out to Spain. The timing of it has worked really well though because the way that he comes across is brilliant.

We hear a lot these days about mental health with ex-players etc… Just wondering how are they all? Do they still miss the game?

It is a good question and to be honest I don’t know. I don’t know them well enough to be able to answer that properly.

What I saw, they are all in their 60s and 70s now and seem to be in a good place. It has been wonderful to get to know them and to give them this acclaim.

Lewis has been a post man, Stevenson a physio. We all know what Curt has been doing. He seems really happy in his role as an ambassador and we are so lucky to have him as a club.

Leighton James has given up on football and more into cricket now. Wyndham is great, he’s a fixture on Swans tv.

David Giles is in Cardiff with the BBC punditry. They all seem good.

When and where is it out?

At the moment it has pretty much done the cinema run, it is on in Cinema and co tonight (20/5) and that’s the last one unless they release a load more. Digital downloads are available on 13th June and the DVD is available on 20th June, but you can pre-order on Amazon.

How have the premiers gone?

It has been fantastic. The premier at the Liberty stadium, we had 300 there. The Taliesin sold out with about the same amount. The Gwyn Hall in Neath sold out. Everywhere around here has sold out. We have done a couple in Liverpool and Chester which didn’t sell out but they were still healthy numbers. Liverpool run through the film a lot.

Shankley is a big part of it and any Liverpool fan should want to see the film as much as any Swansea fan really. It has contributed to Liverpool’s legacy.

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A LETTER TO CHRISTINA REES AND ANYONE ASSOCIATED WITH THE LABOUR PARTY IN NEATH PORT TALBOT Dear Christina Rees, It has been painful living in Neath Port Talbot in recent years. Across each border we see huge investments. The Swansea arena and the billion-pound project to regenerate the city. Carmarthenshire have found millions of pounds to rebuild their Town Centres and a huge zip line built in Rhondda Cynon Taff just a few miles from the NPT boundary.

Meanwhile in NPT we are told that the council do not have the staffing resources to even apply for available money.

Labour had a good election night in May throughout Wales and over the whole UK, but Neath Port Talbot was an exception.

Specifically in Neath, Pontardawe, Skewen and the Dulais and Neath valleys. Why have they done so badly?

I saw that you have blamed the poor result on the unpopular closure of 3 schools in the Swansea Valley. I’ll get into that in detail in a bit, but you and Labour need to understand what happened. This was not a freak result based on one isolated incident. This was a Labour council that took it completely for granted that they were assured continuous roam.

A council that didn’t feel the need to serve the people, listen, engage but instead to force upon. Decisions were made by a handful of people at the very top of the Labour party which affected communities which they didn’t know or understand.

There was a dictatorship and other Labour councillors just followed rank.

Regarding the school closures. I have emailed you on more than one occasion and had no reply. I know others that have had the same. Neath has been a very safe Labour seat, for council, Westminster and Senedd. I really hope this wakes you and Jeremy Miles up.

The Swansea Valley school closures was unpopular, but it was the manor of the closures which highlighted how the council operated. This is something which resonated with each ward throughout Neath.

Rumours of a ‘super school’ emerged and then suddenly Godre’r’graig Primary school was closed overnight on safety grounds. A well-attended school which had enjoyed good ESTYN reports and a good future ahead of it, was moved into ‘temporary accommodation’ over 2 miles away on the grounds of Cwmtawe Secondary School.

The press knew about the closure before teachers, pupils, and parents. The press was taking photos of the community opening letters outside the school gate and finding out the news. The leader Rob Jones compared the landslide ‘risk’ behind the school to Aberfan. He was later recorded on tape stating how he wished the schools to close.

There were suspicions from the off. When the proposed super school came in, the location just so happened to be a stones throw away from the ‘temporary’ school. I walked the site of Godre’r’graig with a geologist who told me ‘Its bollocks’. The report stated no need to close the school. The ‘risk’ amounted to; in the event of unprecedented rainfall, there is a minute chance that some stone could technically reach the wall of the playground if all streams (down a steep hill) became blocked.

The geologist told me that its never going to happen. However, if you were concerned, the stone which is at spot ‘a’ has been taken out of a hole ‘spot b’. You could simply put the stone back into the hole. Instead, the council spent upwards of a million pound to put the pupils in temporary accommodation.

Houses nearby were concerned for their safety. There are houses literally next door either side of the school. Yet, residents were assured that their houses are perfectly safe. The only issue is to this school (the one the council intend on closing and wish to move next to the ‘temporary’ accommodation).

The report which followed, written by Andrew Thomas, suggested closing three schools. Godre’r’graig, plus Alltwen primary and Llangiwg. Each school deemed ‘good’ by ESTYN, with a ‘good’ future and all 3 schools deemed as medium schools in the heart of their communities.

If we role the clock back a couple of years, the first suggestion of a new school suggested merging 4 schools. With R included. This new proposal would see a school of 770 pupils, later reports showed that it would cost £2.4 million a yea ‘a large saving for the council’.

Except, the current three schools cost less than £2.1 million to run combined. Not only that but the existing schools than 530 pupils in them, and the report showed these figures to be dwindling. This never added up. The council refus for a public meeting or even a zoom meeting to assure parents and answer questions.

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It seemed obvious that a fourth school would close. Rhydyfro could fit into it easily. As could Rhos or Trebanos. Plus, location of the school would mean that most of those attending Godre’r’graig would be closer to a neighbouring school. Meaning the 530 pupils could easily become 450 which would allow two more schools to close! This would re saving for the council and explain the surplus space.

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dane@gwrhydservices.co.uk ‘Backlog maintenance figures’ were used as a reason to close the old schools. The three schools ‘needed’ around £2

spent on them combined to bring them up to standards. A freedom of information request showed that Baglan need million spent on it alone and Tywyn needed £2 million. Alltwen Primary needed the second LEAST amount spent on it p than any English Primary school in the borough. If these schools needed to close then all schools in NPT did, it made n

The report by Andrew Thomas spoke of the advantages of medium and large schools over small schools for educ purposes. The ESTYN report that he quoted stated that for the purpose of the study, small schools are those with less t pupils. So, all three schools were medium schools and not small, this was not mentioned and it was implied they wer schools

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Another Freedom of information request showed the exact location of the school. It was to be built on the Leisure Cent in Pontardawe. A field protected by Fields in trust for the people of Pontardawe. Emails between council officer and (WHAT trust showed howWE the DO) council wished to swap this protection for another field and they stated that ‘these fields ar used’.

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SALVAGE, BLUE BARRELS, Anyone who knows Pontardawe would know that these fields are incredibly well used. This was a blatant lie. Fields FIND UShowever AT LOCAL MARKETS & BOOTSALES agreed. They swapped the ‘protection’ for fields on the ‘Rec’, which is within a flood plain. Essentially, the cou swapped the protection for a field which could never be built on anyway. They may as well protect the sea!

DOG SHEDS, IBC TANKS NEW STOCK ARRIVING DAILY Andrew845096/07891 Thomas was promoted to Head of Education after these reports were released while Rob Jones was still 01639 723942 Leader. It felt to some that he was being rewarded for forcing through his wishes.

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8 Days A Week A ‘consultation’ took place where people could give their wishes. 93% of those whoan responded did not want the new experienced Each school governing body said that they did not want the new school. Pontardawe Town roofer callcouncil, Cilybeb Mark Williams TV Aerials.ai 1 09/12/2013 14:50:30 Godre’r’graig community council all voted against the new school. Each elected councillor in the areas voted against 07858 478467 school.

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However, Labour owned the council. It was already decided. It was, as some believe (including me) decided long ago, p in a room in Port Talbot by a handful of Labour councillors.

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TV Aerials.ai 1 09/12/2013 14:50:30 Labour councillors forcedMark it Williams through.

Labour councillors like Sonia Reynolds in Gwaun Cae Gurwen who somehow b 25 Years Experience that this was the best option for education of these kids but wished to keep her local school with less pupils and needin Local Installer money spent on it than the ones she voted to close. The hypocrisyInstallation, got people angry!and Repair to Aerials Maintenance 25 Years Experience

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Free Quotations on New Aerials Labour are doing some great things in other boroughs, as they are in Wales.

I am far from anti-Labour, I have been a Installation, Maintenance Repair to Aerials party member most of my adult life but in NPT you need to genuinely look at how youand behave.

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25 Years Experience 25 Years Experience Local Installer Local Installer ones. About ‘starving’ opposition councillors of oxygen. You cannot blame the electorate.

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Email: marky3167@gmail.com Jackwww. tvwww. aerial and satellite services .c tvaerial and satellite services .co.uk Neath/Port Talbot Pontardawe Congratulations and thank you to all those councillors and those supporters who made a change inAmma NPT po www. tvaerial and satellite services .co.uk Neath/Port Talbot Pontardawe & Ystrad etc.

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If we role the clock back a couple of years, the first suggestion of a new school suggested merging 4 schools. With Rhydyfro included. This new proposal would see a school of 770 pupils, later reports showed that it would cost £2.4 million a year to run, ‘a large saving for the council’.

Except, the current three schools cost less than £2.1 million to run combined. Not only that but the existing schools had less than 530 pupils in them, and the report showed these figures to be dwindling. This never added up. The council refused calls for a public meeting or even a zoom meeting to assure parents and answer questions.

It seemed obvious that a fourth school would close. Rhydyfro could fit into it easily. As could Rhos or Trebanos. Plus, the new location of the school would mean that most of those attending Godre’r’graig would be closer to a neighbouring Powys school. Meaning the 530 pupils could easily become 450 which would allow two more schools to close! This would result in a saving for the council and explain the surplus space.

‘Backlog maintenance figures’ were used as a reason to close the old schools. The three schools ‘needed’ around £2 million spent on them combined to bring them up to standards. A freedom of information request showed that Baglan needed £2.5 million spent on it alone and Tywyn needed £2 million. Alltwen Primary needed the second LEAST amount spent on it per pupil than any English Primary school in the borough. If these schools needed to close then all schools in NPT did, it made no sense!

The report by Andrew Thomas spoke of the advantages of medium and large schools over small schools for educational purposes. The ESTYN report that he quoted stated that for the purpose of the study, small schools are those with less than 100 pupils. So, all three schools were medium schools and not small, this was not mentioned and it was implied they were ‘small’ schools Another Freedom of information request showed the exact location of the school. It was to be built on the Leisure Centre fields in Pontardawe. A field protected by Fields in trust for the people of Pontardawe. Emails between council officer and Fields in trust showed how the council wished to swap this protection for another field and they stated that ‘these fields are barely used’.

Anyone who knows Pontardawe would know that these fields are incredibly well used. This was a blatant lie. Fields in Trust however agreed. They swapped the ‘protection’ for fields on the ‘Rec’, which is within a flood plain. Essentially, the council had swapped the protection for a field which could never be built on anyway. They may as well protect the sea!

Andrew Thomas was promoted to Head of Education after these reports were released while Rob Jones was still Council Leader. It felt to some that he was being rewarded for forcing through his wishes.

A ‘consultation’ took place where people could give their wishes. 93% of those who responded did not want the new school.

Each school governing body said that they did not want the new school. Pontardawe Town council, Cilybebyll and Godre’r’graig community council all voted against the new school. Each elected councillor in the areas voted against the new school.

However, Labour owned the council. It was already decided. It was, as some believe (including me) decided long ago, probably in a room in Port Talbot by a handful of Labour councillors.

Labour councillors forced it through. Labour councillors like Sonia Reynolds in Gwaun Cae Gurwen who somehow believed that this was the best option for education of these kids but wished to keep her local school with less pupils and needing more money spent on it than the ones she voted to close. The hypocrisy got people angry!

Labour are doing some great things in other boroughs, as they are in Wales. I am far from anti-Labour, I have been a Labour party member most of my adult life but in NPT you need to genuinely look at how you behave.

The culture in the party is more of a ‘gang’ mentality. Rob Jones said on that tape how he’d favour Labour projects over Plaid ones. About ‘starving’ opposition councillors of oxygen. You cannot blame the electorate. You cannot blame people like me for ‘having a go’.

It is far too simplistic to blame an unpopular decision to close the schools. The public don’t trust you. I don’t trust you. As far as I’m concerned, this council have lied to me. Then you, Jeremy and the whole Neath Labour Ward have gone along with it.

Improve, be honest, hold your hands up or get used to losing!!!!

Congratulations and thank you to all those councillors and those supporters who made a change in NPT possible!!

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Let your imagination solve this Universal problem Last month we learned about the slit experiment and Quantum Physics. There are similarities with that and Dark Energy. Essentially, nobody has a clue why or what it is, nobody understands it, but we know it exists…. Or at least we think we do.

could have been dreamt up by a child but perfectly plausible and so beautiful. Essentially there was a big bang, and all matter shoots out in all different directions. The force from the bang is huge, so huge that it takes billions of years to slow down. Think of a gun or kicking a football, or anything we know, the initial force is its hardest/fastest and Let’s rewind around one hundred years. Edwin Hubble first then it slows before coming to a stop. discovered that some of the stars which we see in the night sky are in fact galaxies, themselves containing billions of Only with this theory, after the matter slows, over billions of stars. He then went one step further and realised that all years and then comes to a stop, the gravity from all matter these galaxies are moving away from us and each other. in the entire universe is the only force which remains. This, will naturally pull all matter back together again. And so, This essentially led to the big bang theory, which is quite a the next few billion years will see all known matter simple leap with this information. If everything is moving reversing and returning to the centre, merging with one away from one another, then tomorrow things will be another again before…… the next ‘big bang’ and so on further apart, yesterday everything was closer together. If and so on, forever! we rewind 13.8 billion years, then everything we know is all in the very same space. Just awaiting a big bang to send all This was a beautiful theory. Based on the only information matter everywhere! which we had. A basic understanding of gravity and that the universe is expanding and that we believe this must be So that was that and despite landing on the moon, sending because of an explosion many years ago. Nothing overly rovers to Mars, Voyager bypassing the outer planets, we clever. Quite logical really. didn’t really get any further information on this. Which was great because it led to loads of different theories.

One thing which was accepted pretty much throughout the Scientific community and something which any Theories are brilliant because they are essentially an idea layman would believe to, was that the expansion of the which anyone can dream up and for decades there was universe is slowing down. It obviously must do. The initial literally no more relevant information than what you’ve force of the explosion (big bang) will wane as gravity slowly just read. wares it down, just like that football or shooting gun, only at far, far greater speed, size and therefore time.

The big bounce was my favourite theory. Something which

In the 1990s, a couple of scientists wanted to measure how everything which we see, every star, every black hole, quickly the expansion was slowing down. From this, we every planet and everything on it, makes up just 5% and could measure at what date the expansion would cease dark matter makes up the rest. and for the big bounce believers, when it would retract.

We don’t know what Dark Matter is either, but we think After the first set of results, which took many months, the that we know it exists. We know it exists because we see scientists discarded them and started again. They must how matter behaves around certain invisible masses. We have made a mistake. However, the second set of results know that something exists there (if our understanding of came back with the same result which when released, was gravity is correct) but we cannot visibly see anything and completely laughed at by the scientific community. Before we have absolutely no idea what it is. more and more scientists and astronomers, did their own studies and came back with the same result.

These ideas are pretty universal in their support within the scientific community. There are super-computers which By the end of the 20th century, it was accepted that the track how galaxies should behave, how the universe expansion of the universe is not slowing down but in fact expands and how we expect huge objects to interact with speeding up! one another and it all points to a mysterious force (dark energy) and an invisible mass (dark matter).

There are often shocks and surprises within science but this was a big one. How can this be? What force is speeding up Let me complicate this further. We now understand that the expansion? I suppose our football could be going for the first 6-7 billion years after the big bang, the downhill? But can there be a downhill forever in every universe did behave as we expected, and the expansion direction of the universe? did slow down. At this time, something kicked in and sped it up and continues to do so.

This is pretty much the last bit of information which we have and again, your theory or your kids theory to explain So, what is it? What is your theory? Why is the expansion of this is as likely to be correct as anyone else. the universe increasing? You have all the relevant information.

The common belief within the scientific community is that Dark Energy is at work! This is the secret to our mystery. The There is no reason to expect us to ever work this question natural question then is ‘what is dark energy?’…… to which out, there is no certainty that it will or can make any sense. nobody has a clue.

It is good fun though to get your head into it and imagine the unimaginable and to realise that the true reality is However, Scientists now believe that 68% of everything in probably far, far, far more incredibly unbelievable than the universe is Dark Energy. Normal matter, which is your wildest and most insane dreams can imagine.

Cheers to Andre for getting in touch after our last issue.

Always nice to know that people are reading these pages when waiting for their takeaway!

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SWANS ACCOUNTS ARE HEALTHY.....ISH Gylfi Sigurdsson which would secure you Premier League football was a better investment than 10,000 new seats. It is sad. But it is obviously true when there is a £90 million a year difference between topflight and Championship TV revenue and around 3.5 million a year in 10,000 matchday seats.

We are looking at our accounts from 2017 to 2021. Over these five years, the club have made a small profit of just over £1 million. Which is impressive.

If we compare that with Stoke City, who were relegated the same season as us, they have reported over £80 million loss over the last twelve months alone. Stoke are indebted to the Coates family who run Bet365 to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds. Many fans, (me included) are disillusioned with our current owners and hope to see a change but it could be a lot worst.

This was the issue with not properly investing in the playing squad WHEN we were in the Premier League.

Post-Premier League, it is hard to say whether the club have got it right or not. Stoke have gambled and failed to get back up but most teams should be able to get promoted again quickly because of parachute payments. It is why we are now seeing so many Yo-Yo clubs.

Having said that, it could be better.

TV Reliance The most obvious thing to see is that the club, as a business, are a fraction of what it was when in the Premier League and the huge bulk of that loss is TV Revenue. I have said this again and again in the magazine, but I’ll never understand the Americans initial plan. In 2017, over 85% of our £127 million income came from TV. The club’s income has dropped nearly £100 million to £27.5 million but 78% of that is STILL from TV revenue.

Over the previous two campaigns, Sheffield United, West Brom, Fulham, Norwich, Watford and Bournemouth have been relegated from the Premier League. 2 were promoted last season and 2 are already promoted this season.

It is clear from our finances over the past few seasons that promotion is easiest when you have the most money. Which is when you are first relegated. But for every Norwich, Fulham or Bournemouth who gamble to go back up and succeed, there is a Stoke, Cardiff or even Sunderland or Portsmouth that don’t.

Football today, from a business point of view is all about TV revenue. It is why we never prioritised expanding the stadium. If we had a spare £15-20 million in our Premier League years then signing a player like Wilfried Bony or

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

2017

Revenue £127,800,000.00 £126,800,000.00

Broadcas�ng £109,300,000.00 £104,600,000.00

Commercial 9400000 £12,000,000

£68,180,000.00

£51,600,000

£3,480,000

£50,000,000

£38,900,000

£27,500,000

£21,600,000

% Broadcas�ng Commercial 85.5 7.36

£7,360,000.00

Costs £150,800,000.00 £175,100,000.00

Staff £98,700,000.00 £90,700,000.00

£6,550,000

£102,900,000.00

£48,900,000.00

£2,600,000

£4,800,000

£64,500,000

£40,200,000

£1,200,000

£1,700,000

£47,800,000

£27,700,000

-3,200,000 -7,000,000 2,700,000 -£4,600,000

Perentage Staff Cost 65.5

Percetnage income 77.2

Matchday 0.00

Matchday

Staff

Profit/loss £13,400,000.00

201 201 201 202 202

201 201 201 202 202

The UK spent £53 billion in Tesco over the last years accounts. With just over 4,000 stores, it means that a larger than usual store, say the one in Llansamlet or Forestfach would take more per annum than our beloved Swansea City. I’m not sure if this is a surprise to you or not but there are around 1,700 businesses based in Wales alone that are similar in size or larger than Commercial Sales (One last rant!) The idea that the clubs focus could be Swansea City Football Club. commercial sales is still beyond belief and the owners must realise that now. Covid and the loss of Premier And it is dwindling. The club has taken 100 Million less League football has obviously been a big blow, and over the last 12 months than it did 5 years previous. That nobody would expect to see our commercial side is a lot of money. rocketing but this was supposed to be what the Americans could bring to the table. This was their bread Positives and butter. The whole business plan was based on the It is hard to knock over 17,000 average attendance this fact that Chris Pearlman was going to get the club into season. It is impressive. This makes the club the 11th places which Leigh Dineen couldn’t dream of. highest attendance in the league which should make us competitive at this level. The clubs finances moving Chris Pearlman has long gone but that dream has been forward should allow us to be a mid-table Championabsolutely shattered year on year. We are never going to ship club on merit. If our academy can continue to be at a stage where Swans shirts are selling as well as perform then we may be able to increase expectations Chelsea, Juventus or Manchester United in Madrid to dream of promotion. airport. However, the only way to sell more shirts is to succeed on the pitch.

The gulf between where we are at and where we were is a worry because there are clubs around us that still enjoy Swansea City Football Club are merely aMatchday Large Tesco the resources which we hadCosts three, four orStaff five years ago.Profit/loss Revenue Broadcas�ng Commercial Revenue Broadcas�ng Commercial Costs Matchday Staff Profit/loss £13,400,000.00 £13,400,000.00 £127,800,000.00 £109,300,000.00 2017 £127,800,000.00 9400000 £109,300,000.00 £150,800,000.00 9400000 £98,700,000.00 £98,700,000.00 Store.

These clubs are always£150,800,000.00 going to be able to tempt the £126,800,000.00 £104,600,000.00 2018 this£126,800,000.00 £12,000,000 £7,360,000.00 £175,100,000.00 £12,000,000 £7,360,000.00 £90,700,000.00 -3,200,000 £90,700,000.00 -3,200,000 Football clubs have huge fanbase£104,600,000.00 and we see the likes of Piroe, Obafemi,£175,100,000.00 Grimes or Downs because they £68,180,000.00 £51,600,000 £68,180,000.00 £3,480,000 £51,600,000 £6,550,000 £102,900,000.00 £3,480,000 £48,900,000.00 £6,550,000 £102,900,000.00 £48,900,000.00 2019 -7,000,000 -7,000,000 millions of pounds and the huge stadiums but the reality can pay them four times more than we can. £50,000,000 £38,900,000 £50,000,000 £2,600,000 £38,900,000 £4,800,000 £2,600,000 £64,500,000 £4,800,000 £40,200,000 £64,500,000 £40,200,000 2020 2,700,000 2,700,000 is that as a business, really or impressive.£1,200,000 £27,500,000 £21,600,000 £1,200,000that big£21,600,000 £1,700,000 £47,800,000 £1,700,000 £27,700,000 £47,800,000 £27,700,000 2021its not£27,500,000 -£4,600,000 -£4,600,000 Essentially, it is difficult to say whether the club have made the right call or not by dramatically downsizing the business. It has meant that promotion has been far less likely over these years, but it does mean that we are in a decent financial position right now.

% Broadcas�ng Commercial 85.5 7.362017 82.5 9.462018 75.7 5.102019 77.8 5.202020 78.5 4.362021

%Matchday Broadcas�ng Commercial Staff 0.00 85.5 7.36 5.80 82.5 9.46 9.61 75.7 5.10 9.60 77.8 5.20 6.18 78.5 4.36

Matchday 0.00 5.80 9.61 9.60 6.18

Staff Perentage Staff Cost 65.5 51.8 47.5 62.3 57.9

Percetnage income Perentage Staff Cost 77.2 65.5 71.5 51.8 71.7 47.5 80.4 62.3 100.7 57.9

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MY FAVOURITE JOE ALLEN / JACK SWAN STORY

The Summer of 2012 (which was a whole decade ago!!) was when Joey Allen left his beloved Swans. I was actually at a wedding which he was at a few weeks before he left. I had a brief chat with him and let’s say that I was less convinced that he was staying after it. He was a great guy and if we are honest, very few players can turn down Liverpool and I certainly hold no grudge for his decision.

If you cast your memory back, there was supposedly a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ that Brendan wouldn’t take any of our players for twelve months. Twelve weeks later and Joe is announced to the Kop. We ran with a front cover (which I can’t find) of Brendan and Joe sporting Swansea Tartan suits and looking a bit like twats to put kindly.

I then added speech bubbles which went along the lines of Brendan: “I couldn’t live without you Joe.” Allen: “me neither big man”. Brendan: “I love you Joe”: Allen “I love you too”. Something along those lines, something incredibly witty as always with this magazine!

Anyway, the issue went out and that was that. The following month, when dropping the magazines off, I got chatting to a lady who worked (maybe owned) a shop in the Marina. She told me that Joes father was staying in the Marriot a few weeks back, he picked up a copy of Jack Swan and he love the cover with Joe on it. Found it really funny.

He took a photo of it and sent it to Joe. Joe also found it funny and so took it into Brendan in the managerial office in Liverpool.

It was a really proud moment to think that something which we’d put together in this little magazine was being shared in one of the biggest clubs in Europe. It also said a lot about both Joe and Brendan. They didn’t take themselves too seriously, they hadn’t got too big for their boots, weren’t up their ass.

As a club, the secret of our success around a decade ago was that we had grounded players. They were still getting changed with commoners (although wealthy ones!) in the Glamorgan Health and Racquet Gym. It gave us an edge against the prima donnas at other clubs.

If we are able to bring Joey back then his influence on the dressing room will be as important as on the pitch. He comes across as a great guy, he is a multi-millionaire but you’ve always felt that he remembers his roots. I remember his debut, saw him grow as a footballer and to have his guts and determination in the camp will be immense.

There are a good few seasons left within him and then there is the life after football. Should he enjoy another five or six seasons as a player here, he could have a coaching role for life. It makes sense. C’mon Joe. Give me hope Joe Allen!

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THE VEGAN REVIEW FINDING RUSSELL THE BEST PLACES TO EAT IN AND AROUND SWANSEA.

Gower Wildflower Centre I hadn’t been to the Gower Wildflower Centre in years. Possibly ten years. But I was down that way and thought it would be a nice place to check out to let Russel know what its like for Vegan food.

Less than a mile from the Swans training ground, Russ passes this place most days and so it seemed an important place to visit.

The location is beautiful, for anyone who hasn’t been, I recommend it on a nice sunny day, just to get out and enjoy. It is very middle classed; I can’t afford any of the flowers for sale but I’m sure Russel Martin can and the food there is reasonably priced.

I put on a bit of timber having been on crutches for a couple of months and so I went for a vegetarian (not vegan!)

Haloumi salad. The wedge of cheese was huge and amazing. Perfectly cooked and the salad and garnish that went with it was superb. Absolutely faultless.

Tara went full vegan! A Humous sourdough open sandwich which she said was outstanding. A good coffee each and set in a great place.

The choices is quite limited but everything is done very well. I always prefer a small menu of good food rather than a huge choice of shit. One criticism was that it wasn’t very clear what was vegan or vegetarian. There was no little ‘v’ or ‘ve’ which we have come to expect on the menu which would have been nice.

Russel Martin, you will enjoy. Send us a picture of yourself sampling the food so that we know that this section of the magazine is working for you!

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THE PUB DEBATE

Is Football ready for a gay footballer?

On May 16th, Jake Daniels became the first proffesional footballer to come out as gay in the UK for 32 years. How will football respond? Our pub debatethis month is whether football is ready to accept an openly gay footballer?

NO! by Matthew There is a reason why it has taken 30 years for any footballer to ‘come out’. Football, as a culture is not accepting of homosexuality. Particularly with men and I worry for Jake Daniels. I think that he is very brave, and I hope that I am wrong but I imagine that he will have a very difficult time.

Football fans are different to most sporting events. We tend to enjoy a few beers before, during and after the game. The chants, banter and rivalry between supporters is something which we don’t see in other sports. It is commonplace to attempt to intimidate and wind up not only the opposition fans but also the players on the pitch.

being gay is a bad thing, it is something which you can be attacked for and laughed at; in the same way as shagging a sheep essentially.

We have moved on a lot as a society. Things are better now than in the 80s and early 90s and I do expect most fans will head to stadiums with good intentions. However, after a few beers, after ‘messing about’ and having a laugh, after going one or two goals down. I fear that he will become a target.

And as a target, authorities need to decide where the ‘limit’ is. This itself will cause issues. We are in a ‘cancel culture’ society where many are getting increasingly upset by not being able to say or do very much.

It is still predominantly a Mens sport. Three quarters of fans are male and when you put the drinking culture, chants, intimidation, and men together then I fear that this lad will inviably get abuse.

I can’t envisage any large section of football fans shouting anything deliberately homophobic, as with racism. You can’t see a few thousand standing in unison and calling him a ‘poof’ or whatever, but I can see the type of chants which have been sung ‘with banter’ to Brighton fans.

‘Does he take it up the ass?’ ‘Does your boyfriend know you are here?’ ‘We can see you holding hands’ are all chants I can remember our fans singing from our games with Brighton.

Brighton being seen as a Gay city in the UK.

The question then is whether football thinks that that is OK. It isn’t. It shouldn’t happen but I think that it will, and I believe many football fans will see it as ‘political correctness’ for spoiling a bit of perfectly fine banter.

This might be ‘banter’ to some, in the same way as calling us Sheep shaggers is but this is being sang as derogatory.

Football fans and Swansea City Football fans still believe that

I do hope that I am wrong but drunk, predominantly male football fans in large groups will go wrong.

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YES! BY Peter The prejudice towards football fans angers me. There are always a very small percentage of idiots, but this is the same with any section of society. If you put 20,000 Christians, Muslims, red-heads, saxophone players or origami enthusiasts in a stadium every week then some of them will be assholes.

That doesn’t mean that, that specific section of society are assholes. It is a numbers game.

Football fans get an undeserved poor reputation and football is totally ready to accept homosexuality, in the same way as other sections of society have. The Elton John Farewell tour has been advertised at the Liberty for most of the past season.

Many of those watching the Swans will be going to that gig.

The idea that these people will pay good money to watch an openly gay musician but are unable to accept a gay footballer seems absurd.

I have felt for football fans on this issue for some time. I feel like we have been treated like medieval idiots. There will be ever so small sections of the public who say derogatory things but that’s inevitable when you have that many people. This isn’t a ‘football’ problem.

We hear it with racism and football. ‘Football is racist’, ‘there is an issue with racism in football’. No, there is an issue in society with racism! There is an issue in society with homosexuality and sexism and all manor of things but for some reason football fans get labelled.

Much was made about football fans booing when players took the knee. There is no praise now that those ‘fans’ have been drowned out and embarrassed by the vast majority who clap. We still have a middle-upper-classed press which looks at football fans as barbaric and behind the times. It is bullshit.

The press will be desperate for this kid to get abuse because that will sell papers and will be a good story. They will be paying hundreds of thousands of pounds for a photo of the one football fan who shouts any kids of abuse because that will be a story and they can build on that.

As a football fan I welcome him and any other player who comes out. We watch and support our players on the pitch and would do so whatever their sexual orientation. Assuming that he plays at the Liberty next season, I expect he will get a positive reaction from the crowd. As would any of our players if they came out too.

The press have built this up. It is the press who have made this into an issue. Nobody gives a shit. We have gone far, far away from caring about any of this. Give it a few years and it won’t even be news when a player comes out, in the same way as its not in music or TV. Football fans are more than ready for this. The press will try always to put us down but that’s normal.

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