Kristian O'Leay begins the build up to his testimonial match by talking to Wales on Sunday about his time at Swansea
For a man who has played thirteen years for the same club he has pretty much seen it all.
Endless managers, not being paid at Christmas, being sacked two months before that, nigh on administration, near relegation from the football league as well as Millennium glory and heartbreak, Wembley heartbreak and the only man in Swansea history to have two league winners medals in his possession.
You can certainly say that life in Swansea has not been dull for Kristian, who has spent all his professional life at Swansea bar a short spell on loan at Cheltenham the season before last. That move could have turned permanent last summer but he chose to stay loyal to the only club he has really known and he will now be part of their Championship challenge for the coming season.
How much of a part he plays in that challenge remains to be seen but he is there, and remarkably he is there marginally over five years after the Swans faced a huge fight to stay in the football league. But that in itself was a small fight when you consider the events of October 2001 and pretty much everyone on the playing staff being told that they were having their contracts terminated.
It is a day that I will never forget and clearly not a day that anyone involved in will forget either as Kris explained “We’d played Rochdale on the Tuesday night. I was driving out from the prison where we used to park by the Vetch and I had a phone call telling us to be in at 10 o’clock in the morning, our day off, because the chairman wanted to see us,” O’Leary recalls of the day dubbed Black Wednesday.
“Petty had just taken over, but all of us had these calls so I thought nothing of it whatsoever.
“I came in as told and there was the usual banter in the changing rooms where we all met and the goalkeeping coach, Glan Letheren, came in and we started taking the mick out of some awful jumper he was wearing.
“But then he turned around and just came out with it, telling us he’d been sacked, Ron Walton, who’d been with the club for 20-odd years was getting sacked and some of us would be going as well.
“Thankfully, Nick Cusack was in there with us because I think if he hadn’t been, there a few of the boys would have just crumbled. Lads were being told they could go, contracts were being cancelled or they’d have to take a drop in wages.
“We got on with it and a few lads left, but the situation just rolled on.
“On Christmas Eve, Roger Freestone rang me up and said ‘If you’ve done your Christmas shopping I hope you’ve got the receipts because you’re going to have to take them back – we’re not getting paid.’
“We both laughed at first, but then it started to sink in what was happening.
“It wasn’t nice to go through, but it’s still only now I look back at it perhaps I realise just how bad things were or could have been.
“I remember being on the bus to play Bristol Rovers and all the build-up in the day had been how this London consortium would take over the club from Petty.
“I was in the process of signing for a new house and a mortgage, but I pretty much knew it all depended on things getting sorted out with the club.
“Then, as we were reversing into the ground, the news came through it had all fallen through.
“That was the worst point for me. I was in my early 20s, had a wife and young child and the whole thing was a mess and my club was 24 hours from going out of business.
“Thankfully, the likes of Cusack and the people involved with the club now worked tirelessly and saved it.”
O'Leary will line up next Saturday at the Liberty against West Brom where the fans have the chance to play tribute to him. 7000+ fans are expected to do just that and Kris hopes that it is nowhere near the end of his time at Swansea and that he has many more memories to come
“I’ve spent years at my club, but I want to stay here as long as I can and I want to play my part." he added
“I’m not motivated financially, I’m motivated about my family and the club I want to be at.
“It’s easy to look at another club if you’re not playing, but, for me, playing just five games for Swansea is the equivalent of playing 20 for someone else. It just means more.
“Am I the last of a dying breed? Maybe.”
Quite probably in the modern game and for that reason alone you deserve your day Kris. Enjoy it.