By Alex Stedman
I was asked to meet Lee Trundle at the Village Hotel in Swansea before their home game against Norwich City in early March.
The 39-year-old’s popularity with the club has been well-documented and I was all too aware of the cult hero status he enjoyed.
He caught me unawares, arriving through the door in reception as I was looking through my phone, but with a beaming smile and an offer of a handshake we soon made acquaintance and he made himself comfortable opposite me.
Since arriving at the club in 2003 it’s fair to say Trundle has warmed himself to the hearts of Jacks supporters in south Wales.
Tricks aplenty on the field and national television fame followed before he moved temporarily east to Bristol City along the M4 in 2007.
Type his name into Google and YouTube videos titled ‘The Magic Man’ and ‘Trundle Showboating’ greet you – that in itself tells you all you need to know about what he brought to the side at the old Vetch Field – more on that later.
They say never go back, but nine years later and Trundle visibly holds the club and the city close to his heart. Now club ambassador, he talked me through his story with Swansea City.
“It’s a club that holds a special place in my heart and it’s the club where I played my best football,” he begins.
“I’m a club ambassador at the moment so I’ll spend a lot of my time in the community going to schools and different events.
“It’s something I’m really enjoying, and I want to get on with my coaching, too. I want to do my A licence in the summer and then long term that’s what I want to do – I want to go into the coaching side of the game.
“I scored most of my goals here and enjoyed a lot of success. I enjoyed my time living in the city as well and it’s nice to be back and a part of it. It’s good to be living here.”
Over a four-year spell Trundle was a regular on the City scoresheet, scoring 78 goals in 146 appearances.
“Before myself, I think the last player to score over 20 goals in a season was in 1981 – and that was Bob Latchford. Being an Everton fan growing up, to become the next one to do it after a legend like him was a lovely achievement.”
He came to the club following in the footsteps of his former manager at Wrexham – Bryan Flynn, who had just been appointed manager of the Jacks.
The side had escaped relegation from the Football League on the last day of the previous season with a victory over Hull City at the Vetch Field, the club’s former home.
It didn’t take long for the maverick forward to establish himself as a favourite amongst fans on the famously partisan North Bank.
“People say I brought Hollywood to Swansea, but I just think me and the club met at the right time,” he says modestly.
“Swansea had just managed to stay in the Football League and avoid relegation, then I came in and I think the way I played was something the fans enjoyed.
“I tried to bring tricks and my style was something they took to.”
Trundle made an instant impact, scoring on his debut against Bury at the Vetch in a 4-2 win, prior to scoring his first hat-trick for the side in an away victory at Cheltenham Town.
“It was the perfect start for me at the Vetch Field when I scored on my debut,” he said. “It was a header and I didn’t get many in my career so that stands out. It just took off from there.
“It was the best part of my career, a million percent. Those first four years were my best by far.”
It marked the beginning of several seasons of goals and thrills aplenty for fans of the Swans as they got to watch the likeable Scouser week after week.
The fame soon spread nationwide and was no longer isolated to the small corner of south Wales as Trundle made national television most weeks on Saturday morning primetime.
“The attention from Soccer AM was something that came about more from the showboating side of things,” he said. “When I did the shoulder roll against Huddersfield the programme picked up on it.
“After that they used to get clips on each week and I think that opened the club up to a wider audience. Everyone watched Soccer AM and people outside of the city started noticing the tricks as well.”
The tricks and flicks were played out every Saturday at the Vetch, the club’s famous former home.
It was an environment that was held dear by supporters, having seen their side struggle there for many years and triumph through adversity on the final day of the 2002/03 season.
“I loved the Vetch, the atmosphere there was what stuck out the most for me,” he said. “I don’t think you can beat the old terracing and the noise it generates.
“Everyone’s standing together and if you go with all your mates you stand together so it’s completely different to the all-seater stadia. I had some great times there.”
Tears were shed when the club announced the move away from the Vetch and into the Liberty Stadium in 2005 with memories of league and cup campaigns burning bright, but it signalled the dawn of a new era for the club.
“When the club announced they were moving to the Liberty Stadium I loved it because as a player you want to be playing in the best stadiums you can.
“To go and play in one like that was great. We managed to get promotion that year so we were going into it on a high. For the club to move forward we needed somewhere new like the Liberty; that’s not disrespecting the Vetch but that sort of stadium would never be able to be in the Premier League,” Trundle admits.
A rise up through the divisions culminated in Swansea becoming the first Welsh side to play in the Premier League in 2011, though Trundle had moved on again by that stage after a loan spell with the club in 2009-10
In an eye-catching first season in the top-flight, they defeated Arsenal, Liverpool and eventual champions Manchester City at the Liberty.
The following season, 2012/13, Michael Laudrup led the side to Carling Cup glory as they defeated Bradford City 5-0 at Wembley. It was a triumph that meant the side qualified for the Europa League the following season – a quite remarkable achievement.
“Over the years we’ve had some great times, the Carling Cup win in 2013 and the subsequent European campaign topped the rise of the club in such a short space of time. To win at Wembley in the final of the cup and to go and play against teams like Napoli and Valencia – beating the latter was brilliant,” the Swansea hero enthuses.
“But going forward the aim has to be just to stay in the Premier League. We’ve had our toughest season out of all of them in this division so far this year, but we’ve managed to turn it around and now we look ok.
“I’d be telling lies if I said I ever thought that Swansea City were going to be a Premier League club when I came here when we were in League Two.
“To say ten years on from nearly dropping into Non-League that we’d be here you would never have dreamed of it.
“But it’s happened and I think the club have built properly. They haven’t gone out and spent loads of money straight away, they’ve tried to build bit by bit and I think that’s important.”
In an age of oligarchs and billionaires, the Swansea City Supporters’ Trust still owns a stake in the club that they saved all those years ago. It is a characteristic worth keeping according to Trundle.
“I think it’s realistic to keep things the way they are and I wouldn’t say the club needs a big money man,” he said. “We’re not a team who’s going to go and splash lots of money anyway.
“With the new money that’s coming into the Premier League this year, staying in the league will help us out massively.”
Swansea may not be challenging to win the league, but they’re certainly holding their own in the lucrative top-flight.
Trundle’s return visit to the club has served him extremely well indeed and after Premier League survival was secured for another year all looks decidedly rosy for the club in the future.
