The Tate (Modern)
By Chris Leadbeater
Alan Tate served the Swans with distinction as a player and continues to do so now as part of the club’s coaching set up. Whilst we all dream of a team of Alan Tates, ATFV columnist Chris Leadbeater fondly remembers meeting the one and only………
With the new era at the Swansea.com well and truly underway with Sexy Russ at the wheel, it was really refreshing and reassuring to see a modern day legend of the club in Alan Tate being retained as part of the coaching staff.
For me, and borrowing a Stereophonics album title in the process, “You’ve got to go there to come back”, Tatey was an integral part of the rise from near oblivion to the promised land.
It’s great to see him part of the new coaching setup and whether it was a condition put in by the club on appointing Martin, whether it was to cut down on severance payments or whatever; its great to see that link remain.
It’s easy for a club to forget and lose its identity as it evolves and revolves. For us; historically a lower league club that mixed it with the big boys whilst playing a very sexy brand of football, now trying to regroup and refocus in our 4th consecutive second tier season, now is the time that a man like Tatey and his experience of that historical rise is key.
The Premier League run is well and truly behind us, parachute payments are gone, the last of the players from that time cling on with only Kyle Naughton left of those who would have been regarded as first teamers back then. I see this season as being a watershed year for the club.
I recall speaking with Tatey way back in August 2014. At the time I was a local copper working in Bath overseeing the team that had Bath City’s Twerton Park on its patch.
I’d never set foot into Twerton Park. I’d heard it was a “proper” old non-league football ground and with the Swans sending an U23 team down for a pre-season friendly, there was no better time to pop in and say hello. I was surprised to be honest to see Tate line up in a team of young faces I didn’t really recognise. I think Mrs Trialist may even have had a couple of her kids playing.
I saw Tatey come off after about an hour and rather than head down the tunnel, he made a quick exit through one of the gates and out into the car park.
I popped down from the stand and shouted “Oi Tatey!”
I could see as he turned round that on his face was a look that my police career told me roughly translated into “what the f does this copper want now?”
He jogged over to me and as soon as I said “It’s ok mate, I’m a Jack”, his face and demeanour changed completely.
We spoke for a few minutes. I did the friendly cop thing of giving him directions to the swanky hotel he was taking the Mrs to, and he did the friendly footballer thing of letting me as a fan have a photo with him.
It was clear that he knew his Swans career was coming to its end, he seemed to hold a little hope that Garry Monk still held him in his plans but wasn’t confident on it.
At the end of the chat he actually seemed quite dejected and I got the idea that what he wanted more than anything was to keep on representing the Swan on his chest. It was clear just how much that badge meant to him.
Alas, shortly after that ‘copper in a carpark’ conversation he left the club on loan for Crewe and was then released at the end of the 2014-15 season.
I guess you don’t leave a club that you’ve been at for 13 seasons and represented 340 times in all competitions without it leaving its mark on you, and I’m glad he was brought back into the club as a coach just over a year after leaving as a player.
Long may his association with our club continue!
Editorial Note: This article was written and submitted before the change in Tate’s circumstances at the club. Whilst Tate is no longer part of the first team coaching set up, he has taken up a significant role at the club and so Chris’s article still stands. Besides, I was never going to drop Chris’s piece as he’s a former copper – and the last time I fought the law, the law won!
