Glenn Murray hails Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins as a credit to his club – and an example of how to reach and stay in the Premier League
SunSport columinst says the Swans supremo is a rare ease of a club owner and long-term fan living his dream - but in a sensible manner to gives the Welshman stability
I’M LOOKING forward to our game with Swansea as the fixture has a personal history — both bitter and sweet.
Rewind 11 years and I’m playing in the old LDV Vans Trophy final for Carlisle against the Swans at the Millennium Stadium — backyard of their arch rivals Cardiff.
It was League One v League Two and we missed out to a late Ade Akinfenwa goal.
Theirs was a star-studded squad at that level and had a number of players who went on to grace the Premier League and briefly sample European football.
Above everyone was their talisman — a certain Lee Trundle, who is now a club ambassador.
When I look at Swansea now, I see a club that has progressed quickly, but sensibly, into an established top-flight outfit under the careful guidance of chairman Huw Jenkins.
Jenkins is in the minority of chairmen, being a lifelong fan of the club he owns. He also represented the club at youth level and really does have their best interests at heart.
He has always invested pragmatically and logically and has an impressive record of more than doubling his money on many signings.
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These include Wilfried Bony, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Scott Sinclair, Jonjo Shelvey, Ashley Williams and Andre Ayew.
And they still managed to retain their Premier League status.
That afternoon in 2006, Swansea seemed like a class above us.
I could sense there was something special happening at the club, though I would never have predicted such amazing progress.
They went up through the divisions playing a praiseworthy version of total football and haven’t wavered from that ethos for almost a decade.
I also have a little soft spot for the Liberty Stadium — as it’s where I scored my first Premier League goal.
It was so much sweeter because I’d spent the previous ten months in the football wilderness, having suffered a rupture in my anterior cruciate ligament — a potentially career-ending injury.
I’d come off the back of scoring 30 goals in a promotion-winning season for Crystal Palace.
But instead of playing in the Premier League, which I had waited my whole career to achieve, I found myself on the treatment table and in the gym.
But it gave me huge motivation to return to fitness.
That’s why March 2, 2014 will live long in my memory as the day I got my career back on track and proved to myself I could still find the back of the net.
It was a not-so-glorious Sunday afternoon and, as the heavens opened, I tucked the ball in from the penalty spot for a valuable point.
You always expect a tough match at Swansea. I’m sure this afternoon will be no different as the clubs meet for the first time in the Premier League.
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