"He Never Played For Swansea"

Of all the words that have been written about the passing of Welsh football's greatest ever player over the past 48 hours, there have been some that have been overlooked by the Welsh media who have mentioned everything that he did in his career bar one major thing. And that is his links with our football club, Swansea City.

"John never played for us" I hear you say which is true bar a few reserve/youth team fixtures and a Welsh league fixture but where have you seen mentioned over the weekend that John Charles was very much part of developing the likes of Alan Curtis, Nigel Stevenson, Robbie James and more - all of whom went on to form parts of Swansea's greatest ever team.

'The Gentle Giant' came to the Vetch in the 1975/76 season - brought in by Harry Griffiths - who of course at the time was the manager laying the foundations for the success that was just around the corner. Charles arrived at the Vetch as reserve/youth team manager for that season as the two pictures below show. This was his biggest tie with our football club and as you can see from the face of the likes of Nigel Stevenson in one of the pictures, the apprentices of that day looked honoured to even be in his presence.

It is surprising to realise that some of our press have overlooked this fact but maybe it is also testament to the unassuming way in which John went about his business. Never one to take the spotlight unless it was offered to him, maybe we could assume that Charles was as much responsible for some of our success as the likes of Griffiths and Toshack

No Welsh football fan will ever forget the name of John Charles CBE but, as Swansea fans, let's also remember that we owe him more than just our memories and we have a link with him that stretches beyond being the city that gave birth to one of the greatest footballers.

We thank you John.

Top: John Charles together with the 1975/76 squad (a young Alan Curtis and Robbie James are next to him)

Bottom: John Charles with the apprentices of the season including Nigel Stevenson, Nigel Dalling and Steve Morris)

Photographs courtesy of Colin Jones and may not be reproduced without permission.

Why not check out the latest Vetch Verdict on the BBC site?