'My life has been school and Swansea City and that's it'

Kristian O'Leary took his first coaching role at Swansea in 2012, when Michael Laudrup was the club's manager [Ashley Crowden Photography] It is 30 years since Kristian O'Leary made his Swansea City debut and four decades since he first watched them play as an eight-year-old. Having spent 15 years as a Swansea player, O'Leary is five years into a second spell on the coaching staff. Yet the joy of working for the club he once cheered on from the stands has not faded.

There is "still no better feeling", O'Leary says, than arriving for work "just as the sun is coming up over the pitches" at Swansea's Fairwood training ground. "Even now I love just the little touches - looking out at the badge in the car park," O'Leary adds. "I love representing this club.

" O'Leary is a coach under Vitor Matos, having been part of Swansea's senior backroom team since being promoted from his under-23 role by Russell Martin in 2022. He had also been on the staff between 2012 and December 2015, when he was sacked alongside Garry Monk despite helping the Swans to their highest Premier League finish – eighth – in the previous season. The day O'Leary was dismissed was among his darkest at Swansea.

There have been numerous good times, too, for a man who describes the club as "home". "My life has been St Joseph's School [in Port Talbot] and then Swansea City, " he says, "and that's it. " 'I hated it if someone had something negative to say' Kristian O'Leary had loan spells at Cheltenham Town, Leyton Orient and Wrexham during his Swansea career [Huw Evans Picture Agency] O'Leary has seen hundreds of players come and go, whether as team-mates or members of squads he has coached.