In the Spotlight | Josh Tymon

Josh Tymon has been among Swansea City’s most consistent performers during his maiden season in SA1, yet a little over two years ago the left-back was seriously considering giving up football.

Here he explains how some tough experiences at Stoke have led him to have a greater appreciation of life on the pitch and off it, how he is finding fatherhood following the recent birth of daughter Novi, and why he is convinced better times lie ahead for the Swans under Luke Williams.

Josh Tymon has cut an assured figure on the left flank for Swansea City since arriving from Stoke City on transfer deadline day last summer, but he regularly acknowledges there was a time not long ago where he was uncertain whether a future in football was what he truly wanted.

The 24-year-old had a meteoric rise at hometown club Hull City. He joined the Tigers at the age of 12, played for their under-23s as a 15-year-old and made his senior debut at the age of just 16.

A Premier League bow soon followed and, when the East Riding of Yorkshire club were relegated in 2017, he was quickly snapped up by the Potters.

However, a tough few years in Staffordshire – including spells out of the team and loan stints at MK Dons and in Portugal – meant that when Tymon returned to the club in Michael O’Neill’s first summer at the helm, he felt worn down and ready to bow out of the game at the age of just 21.

But, after resolving to continue, he would become a regular at the bet365 Stadium and has been for the Swans this term.

Those were difficult times, but they left Tymon – who recently welcomed daughter Novi into the world – with a determination to make the most of his life on and off the pitch.

“When I look back at it now, I feel like I almost started too early at senior level because you just assume your career is going to keep going and keep rising for the next 20 years,” he says.

“It’s not like that, no-one tells you that.

“When I was thinking about stopping I was 21 and about to turn 22, and I don’t know what I would have done had I stopped.

“But I was fed up and disinterested, I felt I was done with it, and it was only speaking to my agent and my dad that convinced me to try again.

“My agent told me it was the closest he’d come to having a player of my age call him and tell him he was just going to stop. 

“It was a hard time, but I think I now appreciate things more. I hope supporters watch me play and feel I wear my heart on my sleeve and give it everything.

“That has come with knowing I nearly had it all taken away, so every time I pull on a shirt for a club the minimum is to fight for the people of the club. That’s what every player should do.

“But it carries me through games, it motivates me, even when things are not going well.

“I’ve experienced the lows, but I am enjoying it a game it has helped me massively.

“Off the pitch things have been really good, too. We’ve settled here and just had our first child.

“It’s been challenging and you don’t really know what to expect, but it’s the best feeling in the world to be a dad.

“Novi is already showing her personality and there are new little things every day, it’s an amazing feeling and I am learning day to day, just like all parents do.

“It’s lovely going home to her, it can put football in perspective as I am a sore loser, I always am, I think my family would back that up.

“But she just takes my mind of it and makes it a little easier. I appreciate what I have in life.”

Tymon’s early football experience was with grassroots club Westella and Willerby, but he had never considered football as a potential career path until he was offered a trial by Hull.

While he enjoyed the game, Tymon played as many sports as he could as a youngster, particularly relishing his role as a slogging batsman in cricket.

But the work of coach Andy Martin, and a timely eye-catching performance for a Hull representative side against the Tigers academy, meant football would become serious very quickly.

“My first real experience playing football was for Westella, and one of my coaches – who has sadly passed away now – was one of my biggest inspirations,” says Tymon.

“His name was Andy Martin, and he really pushed me because I had never really seen myself having football as a possible career. I had liked a lot of sports, I loved playing cricket and I wanted to do everything. I didn’t want to just settle and focus on one sport.

“But he told me he felt I had some talent and that I should take it seriously. From there, things took off very rapidly, but he was my biggest influence. He coached me from the age of 10 and a couple of years later I was at Hull.

“There was a Hull representative team where the best players in the Sunday leagues got called up into that team, and one of the games was against the Hull City academy.

“I played and within a few days I got offered a trial and it happened pretty quick on the back of that game.”

Tymon progressed rapidly – admitting he only belatedly realised academy boss Billy Russell was allowing left-backs to leave the club in order to promote him – and played for the under-18s and under-23s while still aged 15.

A debut in the FA Cup against Bury aged 16 followed in January 2016, and in the next round Tymon would face an Arsenal team including the likes of Theo Walcott, Alex Iwobi, Per Mertesacker and Danny Welbeck.

His first senior goal ironically came against the Swans in the FA Cup the following season. 

It was some rise, but parents John and Michaella made sure their son kept his feet firmly on the ground.

“I was living at home, so I was never going to get on my high horse about it or anything like that. I don’t think my mum and dad would have let me,” says Tymon.

“They made so many sacrifices for us, they were working all hours, they made sure I kept grounded.

“I think the night I came home after making my debut I helped with cleaning the house. 

“It was the same in the Premier League, they made sure I knew I had to keep working hard and not get over-excited and let it fizzle away. Their support was what I needed, and we were only five to 10 minutes from the training ground.

“When I first stepped up to the first team, they used to pick me up and drop me off there because obviously I couldn’t drive. 

“I remember playing against Arsenal in the FA Cup at 16, we got back to the training ground, my father was working and couldn’t pick me up and one of my friend’s fathers had to come and pick me up. He couldn’t believe it, I think he was more excited than I was.

“But when I went home, life was the same and I am grateful for that because it kept my feet on the ground.

“At that time, it was just a constant steady rise, and you don’t know any different when you’re that young.”

When Hull were relegated there was quickly interest from other clubs in Tymon and, following discussions with former Wales striker and manager Mark Hughes, he elected on a move to Stoke City.

While Tymon moved without any assumption or expectation that he would be a first-team starter, he was keen to make an impression. 

However, a lack of opportunities soon left him confronting the first doubts he had experienced during his career to date.

It was unchartered territory for a player still in his teens, and he admits he did not know how to deal with the emotions he felt.

The managerial churn in the Potteries did not help as Paul Lambert, Gary Rowett and Nathan Jones had spells in charge before O’Neill’s arrival and, while loan spells with MK Dons and Famalicão were part of his development, it was a period that left Tymon questioning his future.

“I remember my mum really didn’t want to me to leave home, but I always knew I wanted to have a new experience at some point. It came earlier than I thought but once I spoke to Mark Hughes I knew on that drive back it was a move I needed to make,” says Tymon.

“It was one of the hardest decisions I had to make but, looking back, I am glad I did it because I had one of the toughest times of my life and I have come through it.

“I was 18 and I never thought I would go straight in the team, Stoke had finished in the top half for three seasons in a row and I can remember looking around at people like Peter Crouch, Bojan, Marko Arnautovic and feeling I had to be something special to get in there.

“But, as the season goes on, I could not get my head around that feeling of not playing on a Saturday, because it was all I had known.

“I went on loan to MK Dons, I had just bought a house in Stoke and did not really want to move but I did end up going there and I did enjoy it.

“But Stoke were relegated that season, Hull had been relegated the season before, and in my mind the blame for that lay with me.

“The two years after were the hardest, I got bombed to the under-23s for a season, having been playing at that level at 15 so that felt like a write-off.

“I had barely kicked a ball since joining and it didn’t look like I was going to play and in the end I made the move to Portugal.

“Marco Silva’s former assistant João Pedro Sousa had got a job in Portugal and he rang me up about joining, and I also had offers from Shrewsbury and Bolton, I think.

“I initially told him no, but as pre-season carried on I felt I needed to get away and in the end I went over to look at the club and the place, and on the flight home I rang my agent and said I wanted to do it.

“Football-wise it was the best thing I could have done because in terms of the technical quality of the football the league as really good, and for me to see a different country and way of playing was important for me. The lifestyle and the weather are pretty good too!

“When I went back Michael O’Neill was there and he literally picked me up from the bottom, I was on the floor mentally. I was doubting myself and whether I should carry on.

“I phoned my dad and my agent and I was in tears. I thought this was not for me, and I was going to have to leave it. I felt like my career had nose-dived.

“I was getting called up in my age-group for England and turning it down because I did not feel I could go there with the frame of mind I was in.”

But discussions with O’Neill, his family and his agent saw Tymon resolve to continue playing, and it’s a decision he is grateful he made.

“I had a chat with him, and I told him I was glad he was there but that I did not know where my head was at,” says Tymon.

“He told me that coming season he had to keep the club up, and that then there would be more opportunities, and the following year I played nearly the full season and rejuvenated my career after a few bad years.

“He really helped me massively. He gave my career a second wind when it needed it most.

“Without him, I don’t think I’d be sat here now. He told me things would turn, and he was right.”

Now Tymon is loving life in south Wales, and keen to play an important part in taking the club forward.

And he is confident a bright future lies ahead under Williams, with the Swans ending the season in excellent form. 

“I think it was always going to take a little time for me to settle, I had been at Stoke for six seasons and we moved on the last day of the window,” he says.

“It was not easy to get that balance straight away, but it did not take too long and I feel my performances have improved massively since then.

“I wanted to come here because of the style of football Swansea have played over the years, I played against that and believe me it was really hard to have to face. You just didn’t see much of the ball.

“It was a real attraction and this manager has the ability to take us to places the fans are expecting and delivering football the fans are expecting.

“He is taking my game to a new level, in some ways they are levels I did not know I had, and we love working with him. 

“He has not been here long, but once he has his squad together I am sure it will click.

“Speaking from someone in my position, his detail on positioning and working off the ball, the one-to-one work on and off the pitch is brilliant. I’ve not really had that before and it’s helped me massively."