Dyer relishing senior role

27th April
First team

Nathan Dyer is relishing his senior role at Swansea City and the chance to pass on his years of experience to an exciting crop of young players.

The 31-year-old is the club's longest-serving player - having joined from Southampton in 2009 - and is closing in on 350 appearances in Swans colours.

After having to bide his time for first-team action earlier in the campaign, Dyer has been a regular starter during 2019 and helped Graham Potter's side retain an outside chance of a play-off spot heading into this afternoon's Liberty Stadium clash with Hull.

Having once been one of the younger faces in the Swans dressing room, Dyer is now among the most experienced players in a squad in which a considerable number of players are 23 or under.

He is enjoying passing on his know-how to the likes of Daniel James, Connor Roberts and Oli McBurnie, and feels his years in the game meant he was well-equipped to handle the periods he spent watching on from the sidelines earlier in the season.

"It can be frustrating when you’re just training and knowing you’re not going to be playing at the weekend. It does get tough at times, but you have to demonstrate your personality and mentality in the right way," he said.

"If you let it get to you, all you will do is crumble. About 80 per cent of football is based around mentality because if you can’t cope with certain situations, times will get hard for you. I just had to focus on myself and train as if I was going to be involved at the weekend.

"It was something I’d never experienced before, so it provided a different challenge for me to handle. But I felt I knew how to cope with it having been around the game so long. Ultimately, you have to get your head around it then stand up and be counted.

"It's important you learn from your experiences and you make use of those lessons as your career progresses and it will be the same for the young guys who are doing so well for us.

"I grew up at Southampton where the likes of Jamie Redknapp were among the senior professionals. They were always there for you and you made sure you were learning from them.

"If any of the younger boys need any advice then I’ll always be there to try and guide them through any given situation. It is important to look after myself but, first and foremost, I have to make sure I was there for my team-mates because we’re all pushing in the same direction."