Last season Mike Lewis was sworn and spat at. One disgruntled supported even urinated over his black Jaguar which was parked in the club car park.

Now Swansea City's managing director and acting chairman is aiming to win over the same North Bank fans who, at the end of last season's final home game against Cambridge, called for his head.

If he succeeds, and it allows John Hollins's men to mount another promotion charge, then the days of Swansea supporters chanting "We want Lewis out!" and "What a waste of money!" might just be a thing of the past.

"I'm not interested in whether people like me or not," smiled Lewis, "but if there's a ripple of applause inside the ground when I take my seat for the first home game of the season, I'm sure I won't have a dry eye. But that's asking too much!

"If you look at the end of last season, some fans were venting their anger at me (around 200 verbally abused him after the Cambridge match) and I understood why because it was a disappointing season and I was the only director at the ground on match days," said Lewis.

"In some people's minds I'm paid too much money but I'm paid to keep this club afloat and, at this point in time, to find new investors. I suppose the future of the club is resting on my shoulders," said the 59-year-old.

He is aware - because of a few "ill-informed opinions" - that he has become something of a hate figure at the Vetch. He feels this is a tag he does not deserve.

"I'm paid well but nothing like the £200,000 a-year some people claim I'm earning. My salary is less than half that," he pointed out.

"There's another rumour that I've been sacked by every club I've worked at. That's not true. There's another rumour that claims the club has given me an apartment on the marina. It's things like this that annoy me.

"The one thing that really hurts me is when Swansea supporters say to me, "Ah, but you're not a Swansea fan". I can't pretend to be, can I? I'm from Newport and that's my club.

"I can't be a Swansea supporter, but what I will do is use all my expertise to take this club forward."

He added, "I believe in looking at the big picture and if you look at the picture at the Vetch during the last three-and-a-half years then I think I've earned my money.

"I think I've made the club more stable. If we were promoted to the First Division last season we would have been ready, no doubt about that. We have a stadium manager and all our stewards are trained up.

"We have a commercial department that raises £750,000 a-year - three-quarters of the players' wage bill.

"But I know the fans don't really care about these things. They would be happy standing in 6ft of snow and with holes in the ground as toilets if their team was winning.

"After a game they don't talk about how good the commercial department is or how good the photographs are in the programme.

"They only want to talk about the team. I have to accept that."

Lewis, who hardly has the financial muscle to keep a football club going, is currently racing against time to bring new investors to the Vetch. "Spreading the word," he smiled, "is the story of my life right now."

A condition for whoever buys a stake in the Swans is that Lewis stays as managing director or possibly vice-chairman. "I still want to be driving the thing. All the people I'm speaking to appreciate that because they have their own businesses to run."

He continued, "We don't want a boardroom of 20 people and by the same token we don't one Mein Fuhrer. The happy medium is five or six including a supporters' representative.

"A supporters' voice is a vital element. A voice has to be heard even if it is unpalatable at times. I'm not against supporters running a club, as is the case at Lincoln.

"I want to shift my 46 million shares as soon as possible. I don't particularly want to go into the season wondering whether we've got the money to keep the club going or not.

"I've been talking to a number of people for months and I'm confident something will be sorted out."

"I'm talking to a number of individuals at the moment - not consortiums - and one of them, who I won't name, is pretty well ahead of the rest."

By reducing the playing staff from 34 to 26 during the summer, the Swans have trimmed nearly £400,000 from their wage bill.

"I couldn't get investors here if we were losing £1m a year. Can you imagine telling them Swansea City was losing that much? The colour would have drained from their faces," added Lewis.

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