‘I bought my own plane ticket for my new club’s pre-season trip – it was chaos’

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    A night out before the day of the match, a smoking team-mate and a manager who didn't mind – Jonjo Shelvey had a fun start to life at Swansea.

    The 31-year-old, who joined Swansea from Liverpool in 2013 before spells at Newcastle and now Nottingham Forest, met his new colleagues on a pre-season tour back in the summer of 2013.

    Shelvey had nerves when meeting the likes of Ashley Williams and Gary Monk, but he was swiftly welcomed into their South Wales family.

    Shelvey told the Studs Up Podcast in 2021: "Going from Liverpool to Swansea was such a big culture shock in terms of how things are run. I bought my own plane ticket to meet up with the team during pre-season in Holland. They were flying that day and I was signing the same day."

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    "I get to the hotel and it's nerve-racking going into a new team with people you don't know. I get to the lunch table and Ashley Williams just goes to me 'You coming out tonight?'.

    "Obviously in Amsterdam, and I'm like: 'This is my first day at the club'. So they've all obviously gone out but there's a game the next day.

    "A pre-season friendly. But it was one of those hotels where you could get dropped off in the car park down the bottom in the lift. I got the bus and I found out the next day it was Garry Monk and Ashley Williams.

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    "Ash has got all leopard print facepaint from when he's been out and he's going up in the lift. Laudrup's going down for brekkie on the day of the game.

    "Laudrup just goes to him: 'Good night was it?' At Liverpool that just doesn't happen."

    Shelvey also explained what it was like to room with veteran keeper Gerhard Tremmel – who he claims to have seen smoking on the balcony.

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    He said: "I'm not into smoking or things like that, but he's smoking on the balcony and then he's come back into the room and he's gone: 'Jonjo, what is the capacity at Anfield?'

    "And I'm just like: 'How the f*** am I supposed to know that?"

    Shelvey, who joined Forest last summer, is now preparing for his 17th season as a professional, 12 of which have been in the Premier League.

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