I’ve teased a Facebook Live later this week and it’s time to let you know exactly who we’ve got coming on to chat about his Lincoln City career.
If I said Young Player of the Season, pursued by Aston Villa and Birmingham, perhaps he wouldn’t spring to mind. If I said ‘chicken’, then he would Right now, that might be Moses Swaibu’s legacy, but on Thursday night he’s going to come on Facebook Live (7 pm) and talk about his wider Imps’ career.
Let’s not avoid the obvious elephant in the room; match-fixing. After leaving Lincoln, the agile defender was sent to prison on match-fixing charges as part of the same incident that saw Delroy Facey also imprisoned. At the time, it was reported that although both were ‘willing participants’ Facey had been ‘far more the initiator and prime mover’, which at the time caused me to question some of the results we suffered in 2011.
Since leaving prison Moses has launched a foundation to inspire young people through sport and is using his experience to educate and help improve the lives of others. We’ve been communicating for a bit through Twitter and I firmly believe he’ll be a great person to chat too, especially as he is candid and open about his past.
In truth, many will find it hard to remember Moses Swaibu as a good defender for us, given what happened later, but he was. He arrived on trial at first, after coming through the youth setup at Crystal Palace. Peter Jackson believed he did enough to earn himself a full-term contract, and he made his debut in a 1-1 draw away at Morecambe in February 2009.
He was a tall and athletic defender and his first ten games saw him become a firm fixture in the Imps’ first team. He had good pace and many fans had high hopes that he might turn into a gem for the club. As we’ll hear, he attracted interest from both Aston Villa and Birmingham City and was named Young Player of the Year in 2008/09. He scored his first goal on 9th February 2010 during the 2–1 defeat away at Chesterfield, with an audacious chip from 20 yards. Moses went on to make 60 appearances for the Imps in his two-year spell but left the club in January 2011 by mutual consent as part of Steve Tilson’s cull.
Why such a sudden exit? Certainly, Tilson has much to do with it as we know he was ruthless with players, but the alleged theft from Tesco on Wragby Road also played no small part.
Moses Swaibu fascinates me. He comes across as an intelligent man who has learned from his past and made himself a force for good. He was a key player for us during rather turbulent times and by no means will we merely be talking the obvious. How did he view Peter Jackson, and how did he feel when his mentor was sacked? Was Chris Sutton as belligerent and aloof as his TV pundit persona suggests? How good was Davide Somma to play against in training? Did Stefan Oakes ever manage to peel a vegetable with his foot? Finally, was Steve Tilson really to blame for our relegation out of the Football League?
From 7pm on Thursday, I’ll get to quiz him on all this, and more. If you have any questions you’d like me to put to him, drop me an message using the form below.
To view this live feed, you’ll need to follow The Stacey West on Facebook. If you don’t use Facebook, it’ll be posted on here immediately after it has finished. 7pm on Thursday we start, ending before the NHS clap.
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