Despite leaving the swans and believing it was to be to Crystal Palace Flynn Downes couldn’t be thankful enough to Swansea City for the year he spent at the club. Coming on as a substitute for West Ham last night Flynn was happy to stay at Swansea, it wasn’t in his plans to leave.

However, Flynn didn’t hold back on his language when he was told Swansea wasn’t the place to go. Talking to the Evening Standard “I was a bit cautious about going,” he says, before adding,: “To be honest, I’d heard Swansea was a bit of a s***hole.” Whoever told him that when asked for their opinion in the future needs a pinch of salt adding to their response.

Having had a year to forget at Ipswich before coming to the swans Downes was rebuilding his faith in football. Had Crystal Palace and West Ham not come in for him he would have been more than happy to stay in west Wales. Talking before last nights European game he said : “It was the total opposite to what I’d expected. What a lovely place. The people were lovely, the club were so good. I loved it down there and, I’ll be honest, I wanted to stay. I’d gone from a year at Ipswich where I hated it to literally loving it, so I was all for staying. Then I came back for pre-season and from there I kind of knew I wasn’t going to…”

Credit there to the friendly welcome all players continue to get at Swansea, the area and the people welcoming and genuine. Although on the fringes of the first team Flynn genuinely thought he was going to sign for Palace after much of the decision making had been done two days before his West Ham transfer. He added: “I went to sleep thinking I was going to do a medical at Crystal Palace. I woke up the next morning, went into Swansea, walked into the gaffer’s office and he was like: ‘Look, West Ham have been in contact’.”

That conversation sparked a moments realisation that Flynn could join the club he has always followed. And to top it off the hammers had offered a better all round deal for a player who was in league one a year before. It was a sit down moment. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s my dream to play here ( West Ham ) but it’s my career and I’ve got to do what’s best for me. If I came here and didn’t think it suited then I wouldn’t have come.”

The style of play suited Flynn at Swansea, a style that he won’t see again for sure in his football career. “All I had to do was get the ball, give it to them, let them do their thing. It was lovely! But no, it was great to play with them, to see that level.” Things are not all rosey though he has a lot of convincing to do short term if he wants to see regular first team football at West Ham. There’s a lot of competition. Declan Rice and Connor Coventry especially. “in training, I just love training on his team,” he adds. “I’m just trying to learn from him ( Rice ) He’s on a different planet.”

Swans fans were unhappy to see Flynn Downes leave the club, it’s been a rise he could never have predicted even fourteen months ago. And the club have benefited financially. However credit to him. Despite what he was told, Swansea City are the club that lifted him up and made him who he is today, his hard work of course has paid off. To be able to turn around your career, and do so at a club like Swansea, let alone to be recognised by a manager you have the talents to be a premier league player is some feat. The player who came to Swansea as a deal breaker with Matt Gill and Russell Martin made his European debut last night, albeit for six minutes.

That’s some rising phoenix for a player who only in the recent past considered knocking it all on the head.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

ReslovenSwan1 added 13:40 - Aug 19 The old Journo trick of a grossly misleading headline for clicks. Downes was reporting on others words. They were not his own view.
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