Former Swansea City manager Kenny Jackett has died at the age of 64 — with the club he set on the path from the Football League’s bottom tier to the Premier League leading tributes from across the game.
Jackett spent nearly three years in charge of the Swans between 2004 and 2007 — and his arrival marked the start of one of the great modern climbs in British football.
His first season was the club’s last at the Vetch Field, and he gave the old ground the send-off it deserved — guiding Swansea to promotion from League Two and FAW Premier Cup success in the same campaign.
The following season brought silverware at the Millennium Stadium, with a 2-1 victory over Carlisle United in the Football League Trophy final — and took the Swans agonisingly close to back-to-back promotions, losing the League One play-off final to Barnsley on penalties at the same venue.
In a statement, the club said it was “in mourning following the passing of the club’s former manager Kenny Jackett at the age of just 64” — describing him as “responsible for starting the club on its remarkable rise from the bottom tier to the top-flight”.
“He will be deeply missed by all who knew him, but our club and the game of football as a whole has been all the better for his presence,” the club said.
“He will always have a special place in the hearts of Swansea fans, and his place in the history of our club is not in doubt.”
The club said it would look to remember and pay tribute to Jackett “when we are all together again at the start of the season”.
Born in Watford in January 1962 — the son of Frank Jackett, who had played for the Hornets — he spent his entire playing career at Vicarage Road, making more than 400 appearances, playing in the 1984 FA Cup final and winning promotion to the top flight under Graham Taylor.
He won 31 caps for Wales before persistent knee injuries forced his retirement at just 28 — the start of a long coaching and management career that, alongside Swansea, took in Watford, Millwall, Wolves, Portsmouth, Rotherham United and Leyton Orient.
He was most recently director of football at Gillingham, stepping down in November 2024 for medical reasons.
Watford, where he is mourned as “a true club legend”, said condolences went to his wife Samantha and sons David and Ryan — while tributes also came from Wolves, Millwall, Portsmouth and Rotherham, with supporters across the country remembering a manager known for his integrity and his measured way with players.
For Swansea fans of a certain vintage, though, he will always be the man who got the climb started — the manager who closed the Vetch with a promotion, filled the trophy cabinet on the way through, and laid the first stones of the road that led, four years after his departure, to the Premier League.
