A date to remember for Britton

January 20, 2011 proved a significant day in Leon Britton's career.
Britton had ended his eight-year stay at the Swans to join Sheffield United in June 2010, but just seven months later he returned to the Liberty.
"It was a mistake and I should never have left Swansea," Britton revealed during an interview upon his return.
Now, four years ago to the day he rejoined, the little midfielder reflects on a remarkable rise for both player and club.



"Time has flown - so much has happened in that time," said the fan favourite, who has now made over 400 league appearances for the club.
"My first game back at the club was a 1-1 draw at Barnsley, and I had a great reception from the Swans fans when I came on for Joe (Allen). I've never forgotten that moment because I wasn't too sure what kind of reception I'd get after having left the club seven months before that.
"Coming back to Swansea was the best move for me.
"It has been an amazing four years for the club. We've won promotion at Wembley, held our own in the Barclays Premier League, won the club's first major trophy, played in Europe and had a film (Jack To A King) made about our rise from survival in League Two to reaching the best league in the world.
"When we got promoted people who hadn't seen so much of us had predicted we would go down with the lowest total of points. But we quickly proved them wrong and we've continued to do that.
"The things we have achieved as a club has been amazing and we've done it the right way.
"When we first came up we broke our transfer record with Danny Graham arriving for £3.5million. We've gone on to break the record a few more times after buying Ki (Sung-Yueng) and Pablo (Hernandez), and then it was a big moment for us to spend £12million on Wilfried (Bony).
"If you said four years ago that we'd end up selling a player for nearly £30million then you'd get a few funny looks, to say the least."



While the club continues to progress on the field, the Swans have made giant strides off it too. As Britton explains: "In our first season in the Premier League we were still training at the local health club in Llandarcy while sharing the gym, pool and washing facilities with the members and fans. Not many, if any, top-flight clubs were doing that at the time.
"We have really improved our infrastructure since then with two excellent training facilities.
"Our finishing positions in the Premier League not only underlines how far we have come as a club on the pitch, but the facilities we have now shows the progress we have made off the pitch.
"It bodes well for the future."