The winger was an important part of the side that romped their way to the League One title in 2008
You can feel the warmth in his voice as he reminisces about tormenting his former boss.
For Tommy Butler and his team-mates, drinking their way through the fine establishments of Wind Street was just as much a part of being a Swansea City player as stepping out and doing the business on a Saturday.
That’s despite the disapproval of Kenny Jackett, whose attempts to rein in his unruly, but largely talented rabble of a squad were doomed from the start.
“Kenny came in one day and just said he didn’t want us going out,” the former winger tells WalesOnline..
“He was just saying ‘it’s not good for you. You’re professional players. What are you doing? I’m here and you’re out two, three nights a week’.
Jackett, in a desperate attempt to try and keep his squad under control, tried to get his players to sign an agreement preventing them from going out.
Needless to say, his efforts were largely ignored.
“It probably didn’t help that probably 80% of us were single lads,” Butler says. “We’re all living in apartments around the city, so like again from a management point of view, it’s a nightmare. There was no way you were going to keep us all in, it’s just not going to happen.
“You’re just hoping that the lads will do the business on the pitch. And we did, in fairness.
“We could have been a lot better if we didn’t go out as much, but we’ve still done all right, you know what I mean?
“We were probably out two, three times a week. And we still smashed the league and did it in a really good way. That was when Swansea started to play the way we all know now.
“Looking back you think ‘what if I lived properly and I lived right and I ate clean’, but I always say Swansea was probably one of the most enjoyable times I had in my career.”
The move to south Wales was something of a second chance for the Irishman, who after making his breakthrough at Sunderland in the Premier League had been compared to the likes of Joe Cole.
But a string of injuries and the dismay of Peter Reid’s departure dented his progress, and at one point even left him wondering whether he still had a future in the game at all.
“You talk about mental health now, but you just didn’t know much about that back then,” he added.
“Looking back I probably just needed a bit of guidance. I was coming in every day, and I wasn’t looking forward to training.
“Howard Wilkinson was manager at the time and that was a probably big catalyst for me leaving because it was so boring. It was so daunting.
“We were in front of the screens all day. It was like being in a classroom, which I hated.
“I wasn’t enjoying training. I didn’t even bother coming to games because it was boring, a boring way of playing. I’m an out and out winger, and I wasn’t being utilised properly.
“I just needed to get out for a while, get as far away as possible and heal. But looking back I probably wasn’t emotionally astute enough to deal with it.”
Short spells at Dunfermline and Hartlepool followed, before a proposal from an ambitious League One club in south Wales came onto his radar.
Butler, like so many other prospective Swans signings over the years, fully admits he didn’t even really know where Swansea was.
But after taking a closer look, he saw a squad that he felt had the potential to achieve something special.
“They had good footballers down there,” he remembers. “Lads like Leon Britton, Leon Knight, Garry Monk, all these lads that have started up quite high in their careers and my agent felt they had the potential to go through the leagues.”
Despite giving him a hard time, Butler also has nothing but praise for his time with Jackett, whom he says brought out the best of him and his team-mates.
However, it was under Roberto Martinez he enjoyed his best spell as a player, although Butler and his team-mates weren’t initially convinced by the Spaniard’s methods.
“I remember Roberto did this talk. He just said, ‘lads the average number of passes per game in League One is around 180. We’re gonna be averaging 700, 800 passes a game. We’re gonna play fluid football, building from the back.
“We just looked at each other in disbelief thinking ‘does this bloke realise what league we’re in?’.
“We thought he’d be sacked after maybe five or six games.
“But Roberto knew the players he had and knew his coaching techniques could get the best out of us.”
Butler himself played 50 games in all competitions in that season, scoring six goals, as the club romped to promotion as champions.
“I always say to people that if I’d had Roberto when I was 18, 19, I definitely think I would have played a lot more games and had a better career.
“Not because the other managers weren’t good. i just think Roberto wouldn’t have allowed certain behaviours, especially from young players.”
That’s not to say Swansea’s drinking culture disappeared under the Spaniard’s watch, mind.
“He obviously didn’t like the fact that we drank alcohol, he said to us that it was bad and that it poisons the muscles and things like that.
“But, Trunds, obviously a brilliant character, he’d be standing up again and he’d be like, ‘no, no gaffer. I like a bevvy after a game, it relaxes me’, and you could tell by the manager’s face that he was just thinking ‘what am I dealing with here?’
Nevertheless, Martinez’s reign proved a roaring success, not just in terms of results, but also in laying down the foundations of what would later become the fabled ‘Swansea Way’.
But while the football was pretty, the sheer determination to win running through the squad often created a volatile atmosphere behind the scenes.
“We were fighting every day,” he chuckles.
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing at times is it? We were all such competitive lads and it would be rare for us to get through a week where there wouldn’t be a few scuffles in training.
“But then it was like ‘Oh sorry mate, didn’t really mean that. I just wanted to win’, and we’d get on with it.”
The welcome Butler gave Andrea Orlandi, who arrived as part of Martinez’s Spanish contingent in late 2007, perhaps summed it up.
On Orlandi’s very first day, Butler took it upon himself to give the club’s latest continental import an unforgettable welcome – by shooting him with a BB gun in the leg.
“It was almost beautiful,” he says. “All these new Spanish joined and they were all handsome lads and good footballers.
“So we were just laughing one day saying ‘lads, we can’t be having this. They’re good players and they’re all so beautiful as well’.
“We just felt some drastic measures were needed and we had a bit of a warped sense of humour as you can imagine.
“Andrea comes out with his hair slicked back and he’s coming out and looks great.
“I’m just thinking ‘no way. He could take my position this kid, look at him’.
“I don’t know how I hit him actually. He was a good distance away.
“He came up to me afterwards and he tried to fight me and I just said ‘look mate, this is normal around here. you’re going to have to get used to this’.
Promotion to the second tier brought about a more professional atmosphere, but there was still plenty of edge burning away in that dressing room.
What’s more, Orlandi was by no means the only figure to receive both barrels from the Irishman.
Just ask referee Mike Dean, who sent Butler off during a chaotic South Wales Derby with Cardiff City at Ninian Park.
The winger wasn’t even on the pitch, but flew off the handle after Dean gave a late penalty that would ultimately see Ross McCormack cancel out a young Joe Allen’s strike in an eventful 2-2 draw.
“It was just a soft penalty, especially in a derby,” he says.
“I was fuming. I just lost it. I think we would have gotten to the play-offs if we won that game. I think I’m not sure.
“I was there, red mist came down, and at the final whistle I stormed onto the pitch and went over to him.”
What followed was an astonishing 18-page wrap sheet, which was presented to Butler during a tense meeting with Martinez the following Monday.
“He just said to me ‘Tommy, a red card? How did you get a ******* red card you weren’t even on the ******* pitch.
“He called me into the office on Monday and pulled up the report from the FA.
“It was like a scroll.
“I could see Graeme Jones in the corner of my eye. He was holding his laugh in and Roberto was just like ‘Here is what Mike Dean has said about your red card in his report: ‘You are bottom of the ******* food chain. You’re a ******* disgrace. You are a joke. You’re a cheat. You’re a cheat. I hope you die’, and all this stuff.
“I was just thinking ‘holy ****’.
“Graeme Jones was looking at me and thinking ‘you’re a psychopath, there’s something not right with you’.”
Butler fully holds his hands up to his role in what was clearly one of the more unsavoury episodes of his career.
Luckily for him, the bond with Martinez just about remained unbroken, although the Spaniard would move on at the end of that season, with Paulo Sousa coming in.
Butler made just nine league starts under the new boss before Brendan Rodgers arrived, an appointment that would ultimately push the Swans to the brink of the big time.
However, not for the first time in his career, a serious injury in April 2010 would ultimately sabotage his hopes of playing any part in what was arguably Swansea’s finest hour.
“I had a hip flexor rupture, which I would eventually retire from,” he remembers.
“I said to Brendan, ‘look I’m close to getting fit’, this was the summer I first met him and he actually gave me an extra year on my contract.
“I was never going to play for him with the injury, but it was a sign of a brilliant human.
“He pulled me into the office, and just said ‘I think you’ve had a hard time with injuries. But I know about you, I spoke to people about you. I’m going to give a year to just use as a way to get fit. You’re not going to get fit for me. But you should be fit and ready for another team then to try and I want to see you do well’.
“I always think I was very lucky to have managers like Brendan and Roberto. If I’d had other managers I probably would have retired at around 24, 25.
Butler would never play another minute for the Swans, and despite short stints in non-league, his professional days were over.
“Every time I came back, the surgeon said, look, because you’re 31 your body won’t heal as quick. It won’t heal like a 21-year-old.
“He said ‘given the trauma you’ve sustained in that area you’re just going to have to have a real sit down and think about health now. Forget about football and think about your health.
“It was obviously disheartening because you’re only 31. But every time I tried to do certain kind of manoeuvres on a pitch, it just didn’t work, you know.”
After a brief spell working as an agent, Butler’s now studying for a Masters in sports performance at Northumbria University, which he supplements with a bit of coaching.
Having made his breakthrough in the Premier League, he admits there’s some disappointment at not tasting the the top flight again, although looking back there’s also an acceptance that some of the vices during his playing days may have been a factor.
“I think around 80% of the injuries were probably my own fault. When you look back, you think, you know what, was I really getting the right sleep in? Was I really eating the right foods? Was I hydrating properly?
“Probably the most of the time, the answer was no.
“But I met so many brilliant characters, especially down at Swansea.
“They were some of the best people I’ve ever met. It’s testament today that I’m still in WhatsApp groups with most of them now. That’s a rare thing in football.
“I’m sure many of the other lads feel the same.”
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