As you get older you get used to a lot of your heroes retiring, but it never gets easier.
Joe Allen has been a stalwart for club and country for approaching two decades, and while this day was on the horizon I didn’t think it would be just yet.
With him coming out of international retirement last year, it looked obvious that he would try to go to the World Cup next summer if Wales qualified and most likely bow out after that.
Today as he announced tomorrow’s game with Oxford would be his last, he revealed “my instinct told me I wasn’t going to get there” in which case it’s hard to argue with his decision.
He made his league debut in a crazy game eighteen years ago this month against Blackpool that ended 3-6 to the visitors.
But it was in a League Cup win over Walsall that Allen really came to our attention as a star of the future. He put in a man of the match performance which included setting up Paul Anderson for the first goal.
The Swans romped to the League One title that season with a midfield three of Leon Britton, Darren Pratley and Ferrie Bodde – which anyone would struggle to oust so his appearances were limited.
But a knee injury to Bodde in the next campaign gave Allen his chance and he took it. Starting with a superb display against Barnsley from the bench to help us comeback to draw from 0-2 down, he established himself in the side that would finish eighth in the division – our highest finish in a quarter of a century.
The highlight was of course that goal at Ninian Park where he found himself half a yard of space from Gorka Pintado’s flick to to blast a shot home in front of the Grange End to give us a late lead, and fulfil every youngster’s dream of scoring in a south Wales derby.
The following year he was restricted by injuries, but when Brendan Rodgers arrived in the summer of 2010 things really took off for a player who was now a key component in the side and a true believer of the Swansea way.
That season would end in the ultimate glory as we won the Play-Off final to reach the top flight for only the second time in our history with Allen being a key reason for our success having made 48 appearances.
He would go onto shine in the Premier League, scoring a career high four goals in thirty six games as we finished in a superb 11th spot.
That summer we said farewell to our local hero as he followed Rodgers to Liverpool for £15 million which in truth was good business for everyone.
He was part of the team that were so close to winning the title in 2014 and would stay at Anfield until 2016.
At that stage he was hoping for a return home to Swansea but it didn’t materialise and it remains a huge mistake that we didn’t make it happen at that point.
If we had then we could be talking about a player with significantly more appearances, probably our club captain and who knows maybe we would’ve stayed in the top flight for longer.
As it was we had to wait until 2022 for the homecoming we’d longed for and while the quality was undoubtedly still there, the last three years have been very stop start due to injuries.
But there have been highlights, that first goal for the club in over a decade against Preston in April 2023. Playing a starring role during March last season to claw us away from trouble including a win against Cardiff. This term we saw the rarest of things – a headed goal for a vital point against West Brom and recently his form has been superb with his vital interception and assist for Zan Vipotnik at Leeds a particular highlight.
For Wales he will go down as an all time great who played a huge role in taking our nation to three tournaments. To be named in the team of the tournament at Euro 2016 was a superb and thoroughly deserved achievement and that pass for Aaron Ramsey in the demolition of Russia remains a personal highlight. World class vision and execution that so few could pull off.
For what it’s worth I think he’s making the right call. I remember when Leon Britton retired after we were relegated and he’d barely played due to injuries that season and it felt like an undeserved ending for a club legend whereas if he’d gone the year before after we’d stayed up, in hindsight that may have been the better move, especially as he was a huge reason why we survived.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but that way he would’ve left us wanting more, but with nothing left to prove and getting the send off that he deserved.
Joe Allen is leaving us wanting more and by ending things on his terms in front of the Jack Army (with hopefully a full house) it feels like the perfect send off.
Thank you Joe, enjoy your retirement.
