John Toshack will remain a hero to many Swans fans for the way he led the club from the basement division of the football league to the top flight in a magical three year period between March 1978 and 1981.

The Wales international - A European Cup winner with Liverpool - arrived at the club and finished the promotion job set by Harry Griffiths before sealing two more promotions for the Swans to lead them into the First Division, as it was then, for the first time in their history.

And for much of the first season at that level the Swans competed for the title never losing a place in the Top 6 from the magical moment they beat Leeds 5-1 at the Vetch on the opening day of the season.

But they never recovered the dizzy heights of that season and the following season they were relegated before sliding back down through the divisions and nearly folding completely in a story well documented by many.

They were lessons of the past learned by the current owners and one of the reasons we are run the way that we are currently run but Toshack believes that the Swans could have overcome those financial worries had it not been for Liverpool interest in his services and an injury list that robbed him of some key players.

Speaking to the Evening Post as he approaches his 50th anniversary in football, the former Swans boss said "We had a great first season in the top division with Swansea, then there was interest from Liverpool in me and I took my eye off the ball a bit.

"I can't be more honest than that. People talk about us over spending, but we had a lot of injuries. Colin Irwin was badly injured, Dzemal Hadziabdic and Ante Rajkovic needed operations and Jeremy Charles was also ruled out.

"Five or six important players were injured at the same time. I think that coupled with the disappointment I felt not going to Liverpool are the reasons we got relegated.

"If we didn't have the injury issues we could have overcome the financial problems"

Of course we will never know what difference overcoming those problems may have made but these times are massively important parts of our history and as someone who lived through those times I'm not sure I would change them as it has definitely made us the resolute and well managed club that we are now and as Swans fans we will always have much to thank John Toshack for

Photo: Action Images

Ceejay added 22:33 - Jun 23 I started following The Swans during Harry's last full season in charge. The ride we went on in the next 5 years undoubtedly set me as a Jack for life!
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