Swans Swansea City Nathan Dyer Leicester City

18th July

The Premier League medal Nathan Dyer has locked away is concrete evidence of the incredible triumph he was part of while away from Swansea City.
Last season's stint on loan Leicester City, Dyer acknowledges, will not quickly be forgotten.
But the winger insists the Foxes are in his past.
His focus now is the future, and the plan is for that to involve further success back "home" at the Liberty Stadium.
Okay, so another crack at the Premier League title is unlikely, but Dyer is optimistic about what 2016-17 might bring for the Swans. And he wants to be part of it.
"I am contracted to Swansea, so as far as I know I am going to be here unless the manager tells me otherwise," he said from the club's training base in America.
"I am focusing 100 per cent on playing for Swansea.  
"I want to come back and play here. I don't want to leave - that's a no-brainer for me.
"I want to stay and the coaching staff know that. Now I just have to work hard. It's about making sure the manager sees my dedication on the pitch and in training to force my way into his plans."



Dyer is making progress on that front already. He has been one of the star performers in the early stages of pre-season, turning the heads of Francesco Guidolin and his coaching team.
The wideman is back on familiar territory - he has racked up more than 260 Swans appearances since Roberto Martinez brought him to the club nearly eight years ago - and is keen to reproduce the form which has made him such a popular figure with the Jack Army.
If anything, Dyer suggests, his best may be yet to come.
"I am 28 now. I wouldn't say I'm old but I've got a lot more tools in my bag," he says. "I want to get back and show that to the fans.
"I think going away has helped me learn a lot. I was used to the Swansea style, but I've now sampled a completely different style - it was more direct at Leicester.
"You have to adapt and learn that style, and that can add something to your game."



This time last year, few saw Dyer's move to Leicester coming.
But when it became apparent that he may face a battle for game-time, the former Southampton player was ready to take a chance elsewhere.
"The season before I had a good start but then I was in and out of the team," Dyer adds. "Last season I felt ready to compete but I wasn't really in the fold.
"I didn't really get told I wasn't going to be involved, but I could tell when I wasn't in the squad to go to Chelsea for the first game.
"As a player you don't want to be sitting around on your backside, so I said I wanted to go out and try to get some football. The possibility was there and Garry Monk said I could go.
"I moved for football reasons.''
There were plenty of clubs interested, but Dyer opted for Leicester because they had made a promising start to the season under Claudio Ranieri.
He would not end up getting as many games as he was hoping for at the King Power Stadium, but Dyer did have a hand in what is arguably the greatest shock sport has ever seen.
"When I first went to Leicester, I came on at half-time against Aston Villa and scored but got knocked out," he explains.
"I did my medial ligament in my knee as well. The manager wanted me to start the next game at Stoke, but I wasn't able to play.
"I was out for three weeks and that was when Leicester went on their run and the team didn't change much after that.
"It was a bit of a killer for me because if I hadn't got the injury, maybe I would have been the one playing all those games.
"But whether it was coming on for 15 or 30 minutes in games, I was glad to play my part in making history.
"It's a bit crazy to say the least, going on loan and ending up with a Premier League medal. It was hard to take in."
At the start of last season, most pundits would not have fancied Leicester to finish higher than the Swans, never mind above every club in the land.



Now the Swans, just like so many others, are trying to follow Leicester's lead.
So what was the key to the Midlands club's 5,000-1 triumph?
"The main things we had were unity and belief," reckons Dyer.
"When we went into games, it wasn't a case of 'how do we stop them from winning?', it was 'how do we win the game?'.
"There was no feeling of 'let's sit back and be solid', we went all-out attack and I think that caught a few teams off guard, especially the big clubs.
"And the players were so close. The squad was so close-knit - hopefully we can be that way at Swansea this year."
As thrilling as his stint at Leicester was, Dyer is adamant that chapter in his career "is over now" as he bids to re-establish himself in SA1.
"I am back and I want to break into the team," he says.
"I want to give a good impression to the manager and I am working as hard as I can to do that. Swansea is the club I have been at for many years. It's my home."