After 22 years as a player, Gavin Swankie has announced his retirement.
The 38-year-old has decided to hang up his boots after a remarkable career that has seen goals, league wins and – almost – a taste of the Champions League.
Arbroath-born Swankie made a scoring debut for his hometown club in 2001 against Clydebank in the Second Division.
Over 500 appearances later, he played for the final time in the Gayfield side’s 3-0 win over Morton.
He has three wildly-successful spells with the Lichties to his name, but also turned out for Dundee, St Johnstone and Forfar.
And to cap off his playing career, Swankie sat down with Courier Sport to pick out his personal highlights from more than two decades in football.
2000-2005: Arbroath
“One of the biggest moments at Arbroath was making my first debut.
“I think I was 17 – and I scored. That was a big moment.
“With being that young, I didn’t get nervous. I just took it in my stride.
“After one of the games in my first spell, I remember jumping on the bus and John Brownlie [then manager] telling me that Stoke had been on for me.
“I went down to Stoke for a week after that.
“When I turned up, their manager had just resigned and went to Leeds, that meant the first team were off. I ended up training with the youth team.
“It was kind of a waste of a trip but it was good to see.”
2005-2008: Dundee
“We came so close to winning the First Division, just missing out against Hamilton.
“I moved to Dundee and it was my first full-time gig.
“I was really excited once I had it all signed to get started. I loved every minute of it.
“We had a good dressing room in there with the likes of Lee Wilkie, Bobby Mann, Tam McManus – there were good boys in the changing room.
“I keep in touch with quite a few today.”
2008-2010: St Johnstone
“At Dundee, there was interest from Derry City just before I signed for St Johnstone.
“It was going to be a big move going over to Ireland and I did think about it. They were in the Champions League qualifiers at the time.
“Then my agent said that St Johnstone were interested, I think they told him: ‘Don’t let him go over to Ireland.’
“I ended up speaking to Del McInnes and that was pretty much it done and sealed.
“They were in the Championship at the time. The first year there we won the league and it was the second season we played in the SPL.”
2010-2012: Arbroath
“Coming back to Arbroath was amazing. I knew a lot of supporters and die-hards and you’d see them on the street.
“A lot of the boys come from further afield and they might not see that, bumping into the fans.
“Every day, I’d see somebody and, with things going well and scoring goals, it was a good place to be at the time.
“I managed to take all that in.”
2012-2017: Forfar Athletic
“We played Rangers at home in the League Cup and I managed to score two goals, winning 2-1.
“It was not long after my mum passed away.
“We had just put Rangers out of the cup and I remember sitting in the changing room and I should have been up dancing about but I just kept thinking about my mum.
“It was a weird time.
“It was difficult with my family being Rangers fans too but that was probably the highlight at Forfar.”
2017-2022: Arbroath
“To play in that 2018/2019 league-winning season was great – it was a good team and there was a lot of good football.
“Since I’d went back, they’d really kicked on. Year after year they just kept getting better.
“We went up to the Championship and stepped it up another level.
“With the season just past, our focus was initially on survival but because we were doing so well we had to start thinking about winning it!
“We kept ticking off games and winning them then it got to a stage where we starting to think: ‘Hold on a minute here, we can win this.’
“In the end we came up just short.
“I said to the gaffer when I signed my six-month deal in January that would be me after that.
“I started at Arbroath and I was happy finishing there.
“I’ve no regrets. I’ve loved every minute of it and I’ve made loads of friends.”
