Chairman's concerns in October 1972

07-04-2008


I came across an old Swans' Football Programme last week and inside was an interesting question and answer article by the club’s chairman Malcolm Struel. After promotion under Roy Bentley at the end of the 1969/70 season, the club’s third season in the Third Division had seen the club start the new season poorly, with just three victories coming from the opening seventeen league games. Attendances by October 1972 were starting to fall to less than 3500, the manager, Roy Bentley had been dismissed, but more worryingly finances at the bank were getting worse. The article, penned by Chairman Malcolm Struel in the matchday programme v Blackburn Rovers on the 21st October 1972 revealed the harsh realities in the professional game at that time, and answered many pertinent questions still relevant to the current day.

Included in the Swans v Blackburn Rovers programme was a photo of Swans' winger Brian Evans with sons Richard(current Swans physiotherapist and Christian)

Can the Swans afford Academy status?

17-03-2008

The six figure investment last summer in the new training facilities alongside the Glamorgan Health Club in Llandarcy was the first step by Swansea City FC to bring modern day training facilities to the Swans professional playing staff. In previous years, training had been undertaken at the old AWCO sports ground at Jersey Marine and prior to that, the artificial pitches at the old Morfa Stadium, local council operated playing fields in the Swansea area, and also in the mid-1970’s at Bishopston Football Club at Pwlldu Lane. For so long professional footballers representing the Swans have endured quite a nomadic existence with regards to training facilities, and at one stage in the mid-1960’s the greyhound stadium at Skewen had been a regular venue for mid-week training, as well as the INCO sports ground in Clydach in the mid-1970’s. For the first time in the football club’s history, with the need for modern day facilities getting desperate year after year, a six figure cash sum had been made available for new training facilities, a tremendous investment by the club considering that in previous good times no other Board of Directors in charge at the Vetch Field had the foresight to think about.

Attempting to secure the better top class schoolboy talent in any town/city, let alone Swansea has shown that there has always been competition from almost every professional club in the league pyramid for their signature. What clubs with modern day facilities, catering for it’s professional staff as well as it’s schoolboys have shown is that if there are top class facilities available, it would prove to be a head start in securing the best talent, as well as the effect those type of facilities had on bringing senior talent to the club. Modern day football demands top class facilities, whether it be the stadium, or the training grounds. What many scouts attempting to sign a highly rated schoolboy would say to the boy’s parents is, “if he fails to make it with my club he can always stay in the professional game lower down the pyramid and sign for the Swans.” That statement certainly applied when the Swans were based at the Vetch Field, but with a modern stadium, what the new training ground, and should Academy status be achieved, will show is that for the first time ever the Swans will be on a more equal playing field in attracting the cream of the schoolboy talent to make a career in the professional game with Swansea City FC, rather than Manchester City, Liverpool or even Cardiff City.

With the Ospreys indoor sports centre the opposite side to the new training ground, what a shame it was when the hall was initially built that the Swans were unable to forge a shared ownership of the centre with the Ospreys. At the time, a move to the new stadium at Landore was high on the agenda for the football club, especially in the costs incurred by the move, with the availability of spare cash from the club’s bank account non-existent to support the Ospreys in their venture in the construction of the indoor training ground. Comprising a modern state of the art facility featuring an indoor artificial pitch, classroom, cafeteria, with at present the use of the sports hall by the Swans coming on a pay as you use basis.

Unlike many football clubs outside of the top flight who have wealthy benefactors, the Swans should they look to acquiring Academy status would have to take on board, or even share modern training facilities, but also the added financial outlay of full-time staff. An Academy set-up should also show that it is not only the younger footballers who benefit, but also it’s coaches. The vast majority of coaches in Academies are part-time, but what is important is that within the Academy it’s coaches are also encouraged to progress their own profile as coaches which in time would prove to be of benefit to the club’s younger footballers.

Looking at a typical Academy set-up, there are at least six departments split up between Coaching, Scouting, Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Sports Science, Education Welfare and Administration. Each department should be fully staffed with highly qualified and experienced people in their particular role. There are not many clubs, because of the cost, operating an Academy outside the Championship, Millwall, Crewe Alexandra, Leeds, Huddersfield and MK Dons being the exceptions.

At Crewe Alexandra, the full time staff include, Academy Director, Assistant Academy Director, Academy Recruitment Officer, Academy Welfare Officer, Sports Science, Academy Physio, Academy Administrator and the Soccer Centre Manager.
All of the above would be full time, increasing the club’s financial budget year in, year out by approximately £300,000. For the Swans to take on board Academy status, the above salaried positions would substantially increase the club’s budget and payroll. The benefits to the football club are obvious, and besides the ability to show off top class, modern training facilities to schoolboy, professional signings, the week in, week out matches for the youth and reserve teams would present a significant higher profile than the current youth and reserve team competitions.

At present the Swans possess just the one full time employee as Head of Youth for it’s centre of excellence, with the other positions being part-time, with coach Colin Pascoe also acting as reserve team manager. The criteria set by the Football League for the current centre of excellence is quite complex with the yearly budget from the League being on a five year basis, with stringent regulations/assessments in force before the yearly budget is given to the clubs. At present each year group has to have two coaches per team as well as medical back-up.

Regulations in force with regards to signing young schoolboys mean that up to the age of 12 they can sign up to one hours travelling distance from the club. From 12 to 16 that distance increases to one and a half hours travelling distance. What a number of the top clubs have been doing in recent years is when they have identified schoolboys, especially the ones who live outside the regulated distance for travelling to training, they leave the youngster with his nearest professional club, and when he comes to school leaving age the youngster is then free to sign for the top club, with compensation packages being paid to the club.

MK Dons, who play in the same Academy league as Cardiff City have developed their Academy in a different way in comparison to other clubs, incorporating direct links with the Football in the Community Scheme in the Milton Keynes district, where coaching in schools and on holiday and evening courses see promising youngsters selected to Development Centres, with the promising footballers progressing to Elite Centres, then to the club’s Academy. Within the confines of the Academy there are 14 full time staff and 30 part-time coaches employed.

On the other end of the scale, the recently improved Academy at Liverpool has shown that when an open cheque book is available how the facilities differ. With one full size pitch, indoor arena, theatre, full size Astroturf pitch, classroom, changing rooms, cafeteria, gymnasium, medical centre, hydrotherapy pool, laundry, the training pitches also include 3 full size pitches, 2 mid-size, and 5 mini-pitches.

There is no guarantee that the extra cost in setting up, running an Academy will bring success, as has been shown with the high rate of youngsters not making the grade in the top tier of the game let alone further down the pyramid. But more importantly, whatever finance is made available for the youth structure must be used responsibly and within whatever budget the department allocates. Part of the success Cardiff City have had in bringing through youngsters to the first team, and then transferred for large sums has come at a cost. The initial concept by the Bluebirds saw them throw thousands of pounds at the youth department, but what you must ask yourself is was this action irresponsible, considering the debt the club was already in.

The continued expansion of the Development Centre within Swansea City Football Club is perhaps the way for the club to move forward within it’s budget. An extremely successful department within the club’s centre of excellence which was set up some years ago to supplement the club’s existing youth structure, the department has proved to be extremely successful, resulting in an almost 50% success rate of young footballers between the ages of 12-16 graduating to the scholarship scheme with the Swans, but more importantly, spreading their centres throughout South and West Wales with sites currently in place at Newport, Brecon, Tenby and the Sandfields, Port Talbot. Within their age groups, the Development Centre over the last couple of years have competed successfully against Premiership clubs such as West Ham United, Fulham and Chelsea whenever they have met each other.

Indoor training/playing facilities and quality outdoor pitches, especially in the depths of winter are desperately needed to move the club forward, and, although finance has been made available to construct it’s own training pitches, perhaps the football club should consider investing, making available, further finance to construct it’s own indoor training centre. The benefits to the football club would be enormous in the long run, and although there is nothing wrong at present in sharing the Ospreys Academy, when you have your own facilities it would become a Jewel in the Crown as far as attracting talented youngsters to the football club. This indoor facility could prove to be the most critical, and beneficial investment the club could make for it’s future, and in time would show that there would be no need to go down the Academy path, and in years to come, the conveyor belt of promising young footballers could maintain Championship football for the Swans for years to come, rather than the yo-yo existence the football club has had since losing it’s Second Division status in 1984.

Swansea Schools Football - Season 1969/70

07-01-2008

Below 7 school team pics are reproduced with the player's/teachers names included as they were in the Swans' programmes during season 1969/70. Included in the St. Josephs team is Russell Coughlin and there are a number of boys in all the school teams who went on to play at a good level in the Welsh and Swansea Leagues.

They Used to Play on a Saturday

05-11-2007

Since SKY entered the football arena in the transmission of LIVE football games, fans supporting their Premiership heroes have become accustomed to having their traditional Saturday football game being changed to either a Sunday or Monday event. Not much fuss has been made by the fans who follow their Premiership heroes in having their weekend altered, but when a minimum of a quarter of a million pounds enters the club’s bank account for just one game, the cynical fan amongst us doesn’t really care. But do they? 

In an era when the so called ‘beautiful’ game has changed dramatically in more ways than one, prior to the early 1990’s previous generations were brought up watching recorded highlights on Saturday night’s ‘Match of the Day’, or ‘The Big Match’ on Sunday afternoon, with Saturday afternoon for the fans between the months of August through to May a day to look forward to and watch their team. Apart from when the fixture lists regularly included Tuesday night games following the advent of floodlighting, the only other occasion Swans matches have been switched to a Friday night have been when the Wales Rugby team have been playing, especially during the early/mid-1970’s when attendances at the Vetch Field hovered around the 2500-3000 mark. Although there were occasional Sunday matches in the early 1970’s at the Vetch Field, but the reason they were played was because of a Government restriction on the use of floodlights because of a nationwide energy crisis.   

Many Swans fans have made public their opinions regarding the renewing of season tickets because of the diminishing number of Saturday fixtures at the Liberty Stadium.

One wonders whether that reason is actually because of personal shift working and being unable to change shift patterns in time, a difficulty in travelling to home matches during the week, or just the fact that fans enjoy following their team on a Saturday afternoon coupled with all the social events before and after the game, something the fans find difficult to enjoy in the midweek. 

As previously mentioned, supporters of Premiership teams have had to get used to having their fixtures changed to suit the SKY cameras, and over the years with the increased popularity and coverage of the game by SKY, rewards have been exceedingly handsome. On one particular Saturday during the early weeks of October this season, just 2 Premiership games were played, with the remainder played the next day, as well as a live game on the Monday. Gary Linneker, the Saturday night host of Match of the Day on that particular occasion really earned his money dragging out the show to cover highlights from just two games during the entire length of the programme.

Following on from the last television contract negotiations to screen LIVE football matches, Championship sides, and to a much lesser degree, lower league and non-league clubs have regularly been screened via one television company or other, but the financial returns to the clubs outside the Premiership pale into insignificance compared to money entering the Premiership club’s bank accounts, although Championship sides can accumulate a large return in comparison to what they would have had a few seasons ago, especially when even some of the less glamorous clubs like Barnsley, Burnley and Colchester United enjoy 3-4 LIVE games during the season.

Recently, the latest change of fixtures saw the Swans having to play Gillingham on the Friday night, bringing yet another match from the Saturday forward to accommodate this time the Ospreys, who were playing an EDF cup tie against London Irish at the Liberty Stadium on the Sunday. The argument placed was that there was insufficient time to turn around the pitch for rugby use in 24 hours, hence the Swans game being brought forward to the Friday night. Yet, in the previous two seasons at the Liberty Stadium there have been numerous occasions when the Swans have played 24 hours after an Ospreys game. So, does it take longer to mark out a rugby pitch than a football pitch, change the posts and also take the nets down!! 

Just prior to the start of the season when both the Swans and Ospreys fixtures were made public, the Swans games which clashed with a Rugby International and the Ospreys were brought forward, unlike the previous two seasons when the Swans played after the Ospreys had played at the stadium. But with the EDF cup games being made public sometime after the start of this season, shouldn’t the organisers of the competition have consulted with the Swans club officials with regards to the Swans home games, to prevent any fixtures being changed once more. With the Swans playing at Yeovil last weekend, the Ospreys also had an away EDF tie at Worcester. Why couldn’t they have been told to play a home game that weekend, instead of the following week when the Swans ALREADY had a home fixture.

From the first home Saturday of the season fixture against Nottingham Forest, up to the Xmas period just two other games(Doncaster and Brighton) have been played on a Saturday, it would have been three but for the unfortunate circumstances regarding young Maidens of Hartlepool for the game to be postponed. The Huddersfield game in mid November has been brought forward because of the Wales football side playing the Republic of Ireland in Cardiff. 

Make no mistake about it, the previous three seasons have produced the best spell financially for the club for a long, long time, but when the ‘bubble’ does burst and the new stadium factor wears off, the finances of the football club will become affected as fans will not tolerate the fixture changes when there is no success to be had, and the sale of season tickets will also diminish. The supposed tri-partheid agreement involved at the stadium between the football, rugby and council arguably decide on what games get played and when, but with spectators going through the turnstiles far greater in football than the rugby side, one would have thought that more consideration would have been placed on the Swans side rather than the rugby. Unfortunately, in comparison with the Swans, far more rugby matches get LIVE viewing, and until the Swans attain a higher level of the game, the same problem will persist. Should the Swans achieve promotion to the Championship it will be interesting to see then who dictates which code will be played to suit which television channel.

 
I would think that fans would also be interested in finding out what actual finances are being paid by the both codes as far as rent is concerned to Stadco for the use of the stadium on matchdays, especially when one considers, apart from two particular rugby games at the stadium which drew large attendances, the VAST number of fans going through the turnstiles have been in support of the football club rather than the rugby team. If it were not for the large subsidies awarded to the four regional rugby clubs by the WRU, it would take some difficulty in working out how the Ospreys can continue to keep their heads above water on average attendances of approximately 7700, in comparison to the supposed 12000 average attendance required to keep the football club in the black. This can also be reflected in the catering at the stadium as the larger attendances in football would be translated into higher profits via the catering contractors through to the council. So is there a case that the Swans provide a larger slice of the cake to meet the annual running costs of the stadium, yet take second place in dictating when they play their matches.   

At this particular moment for the football club there is no downturn in sight as far as a lack of success is concerned, and the ‘floating’ supporter will continue to support the Swans for particular matches. But when success falls away for the Swans, and crowds diminish, is it only then that the penny will drop with the club’s Directors who deal with Stadco, because at the moment despite the mumblings about the Ospreys getting preferential treatment, the rugby code continues to dictate policy inside the stadium as and when it suits them.

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The Swans Town & City, Seasons 2000-2007

26-10-2007

 

Swansea City Football Club President, Professor David Farmer published in 2000 the Official Biography of the Swans, The Swans Town & City. Next week a supplement to his book, covering the last seven seasons will be published by Colin Jones.

Apart from editorial/line-ups covering the last seven seasons and an updated club records section, new features include a list of the Victory Season Appearances 1945/46, Final League Results season by season, Swansea Town/City Complete Results Record against all Teams in an A-Y format, Managers at the Vetch Field/Liberty Stadium, and an editorial of the Swans at the Vetch Field.

As well as the editorials, included in the book are photographs of players, managers and teams during the club's history. One such photograph on the back cover features seven of the Welsh side that drew 2-2 with Scotland at Ninian Park Cardiff on 20/10/1956. All of the seven players were born in Swansea and during their playing career, six of these players made appearances for the Swans. Jack Kelsey(Arsenal), Terry Medwin(Spurs), Trevor Ford(Cardiff City), John Charles(Leeds United), Cliff Jones(Swans), Ivor Allchurch(Swans), Ray Daniel(Sunderland).
John Charles never played a first team game for the Swans, only the youth and reserve sides prior to joining Leeds United in January 1949. Former Winch Wen keeper Kelsey played all of his league games with Arsenal.

Some other record breaking statistics included in the book;

The game against Bristol City on the 14/12/1957 saw the Swans field an All Welsh line-up, with TEN of their players born in Swansea.
Team: King, Griffiths, Jones, Charles, Peake, Nurse, Allchurch, Lewis, Price, Allchurch, Jones. Keeper King was born in Blaenllechau, Ferndale.

The Swans playing squad during the 1949/50 season included 10 Full Internationals. Feeney, Keane, Paul, O’Driscoll, McCrory, Richards, Lucas, Scrine, Parry, Clarke.

By the end of season 1981/82 the Swans had 14 Full Internationals on their playing staff apart from manager John Toshack. Stewart D, Davies D, Hadziabdic D, Rajkovic A, Mahoney J, Curtis A, James R, James L, Charles J, Latchford B, Marustik C, Stevenson N, Kennedy R, Walsh I. Of these, 9 were Welsh Internationals, 2 English Internationals, 2 Yugoslavian Internationals, and 1 Scottish International.

Ben Beynon scored hat-tricks for the Swans in the Southern League and in the Football League, as well as gaining an International rugby cap for Wales whilst playing for the All Whites of Swansea.

When Harry Griffiths made his only International appearance for Wales at Outside Left, the remaining four forwards were ALL born in Swansea. Terry Medwin, John Charles, Trevor Ford, Ivor Allchurch.

In recent generations there has been a decline in the talent moving through the club's youth system, but what must be mentioned also is that no club in the history of the game can match any of the above statistics, especially when placed into context regarding home grown players.

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Swansea City Youth Players Graduating to the First Team

11-10-2007

Youth players who have graduated to the Swans’ First Team since the Chris Coleman era, 1990


Can lack of finance be the sole reason when you look at the lack of top class recruits the Swans Youth Department have forwarded to the first team conveyor belt since 1990. Certainly, the Swans have endured some tough times during the post Toshack era, the pre Silver Shield era when Kevin Cullis and chairman to be Michael Thompson were involved, and the post Silver Shield era when the club was sold to Tony Petty.

Looking at the players above, who have evolved through the youth team since 1990, and played in the Football League for the Swans, only one Swansea born player, Richard Duffy has been sold on for a six figure transfer fee, yet five youngsters from outside the city boundaries have brought much needed cash into the club’s coffers. Of the players who were released from the club’s playing staff, quite a number went on to make lengthy league appearances for lower division clubs, namely, Davey and D’Auria. Bridgend born Matthew Crowell and Swansea born Richard Jones and Scott Evans came through the club’s centre of excellence and fees were involved when they signed for Southampton and Manchester City respectively on leaving school.

Granted, when Rhondda based Youth Team boss Ron Walton was in charge, he recruited a number of youngsters, invariably from the Rhondda, and Gwent areas, but even a number of those players for one reason or another failed to make the impact required for Football League levels.

Besides the instability surrounding the football club for so many years, as well as not having the same ‘pulling’ power as Premiership/Championship clubs, perhaps one other reason which needs to be looked at for the low success rate is the quality of opposition the Swans reserve and youth team play against week in, week out.

What must be remembered is that when a young player is spotted, and joins the club’s centre of excellence from an early age(8, 9, or10), up to the age when a decision is made to offer some of the youngsters a scholarship (apprenticeship), they will usually play the same teams year in, year out in the South West Region, only playing against different sides in one of the cup competitions. Even after leaving school, and still having an involvement in the Swans youth structure, again, the Swans will still play the same sides. So, by playing the same teams year in, year out through the age groups, is this a good enough test for the young players, and are they being pushed to their potential. Granted, if there was enough money in the club to be involved in the Academy set up, different teams, and a better quality of young footballer would be encountered in games. But even the Academy system has it’s flaws. How many quality youngsters have Cardiff City brought through their system in the last couple of seasons, after spending in the region of £750K-£1M a season over the last three seasons.

With the Swans not in the position at present to enter the Academy system, what other avenues can be pursued to improve the young players on the staff, and increase the ratio of talent reaching the first team squad on a more regular basis, besides increasing the scouting network.

One avenue I believe needs to be looked at with a view to improving the skill levels of youth team players is the loan transfer market. By sending young players out on season long loans, what will be achieved is that young players will be tested more severely by playing in a higher standard, not necessarily a more technical environment, but against mature adults, instead of playing in youth fixtures against the same age groups. Chris Jones is one example of a scholar who’s potential has been spotted, and given a professional contract before he finishes his scholarship. Apart from when the situation arises and he is included in the first team squad on matchdays because of a long list of injuries in the first team squad, what happens when the injury list recedes, and more senior professionals are utilised as substitutes? Does he then only play in occasional midweek reserve team fixtures?

Toughening up is a vital part of a young professional’s education. The reserve team fixture list is not as demanding as it used to be in the London Combination, and there are too many weeks when there are no fixtures. Another benefit the Swans would achieve I believe should the loan transfer system be utilised, is the goodwill generated between the two clubs. That goodwill would be reciprocated should the club have one or two promising youngsters showing promise, giving the Swans the opportunity to offer them trials.

Dario Gradi at Crewe Alexandra has perfected a system within his club where, over a period of years he has a conveyor belt of talent continually evolving within the football club. Players who are not in contention for a place in the first team squad are learning their education playing regularly in various non-leagues in the North West of England, besides the more senior professionals on loan to Football League clubs. That is the way he was able to take his club to the Championship on small attendances, rebuild the football ground with the proceeds from the sale of players, and also maintain the expense of Academy status within the club.

Example: Merthyr Tydfil playing in the Southern League could be allocated Kyle Graves and Dion Chambers for the season. Providing these players are regularly selected for Merthyr, wouldn’t it be a better learning curve for these youngsters, rather than the occasional mid-week fixture and Saturday morning youth team game.

The last two seasons have seen the Swans tie up with Welsh Premier side Port Talbot Town for the use of the Remax Stadium for reserve team fixtures. Why not allocate two players to the club for use for a season. In Port Talbot’s side at present they include two former youth team players in Scott Barrow and Tom Wellington. These two players were released by the Swans last season as not being good enough for the next level of the professional game, so why not allocate one, or two youth team players for a season, and see if their skill levels and maturity within the game improve.

Backfilling the vacancies in the youth team that would arise if youth players were ‘loaned’ out would be achieved by recruiting from the club’s centre of excellence and development centre sides, or trialists. Again this would be another test for these youngsters, and the club could benefit again by giving youngsters the opportunity they would not otherwise have.



If there is a problem with the FAW as far as registering the players for a season long loan deal is concerned, I am unaware of it, but I am sure this could be overcome, and long term would be beneficial to both parties(the Swans and loan club)



If you fancy penning an article for the site - and as long as it's topical or entertaining it will go up.
Just send it to me.

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Born in Burry Port, Colin’s first sampling of the North Bank came in August 1961 against Preston North End, but his father does recall taking him to see his uncle Les Jones play for Luton Town some years earlier. Since then after ‘emigrating’ to live initially in St. Thomas, as well as being involved in local football, his memories of the goings on at the Vetch Field have seen both ends of the scales being touched. If fans think the Petty era was the low point in the club’s history in 2001, then the late 60’s when the legendary Ivor was asked to take a pay cut, the mid-70’s when the ground was ‘given’ to the local council and in season 1974/75 when average league gates were 2,069, December 1985 and the High Court winding up order, the 1995/96 season when Kevin Cullis was manager for two weeks are all memories of how topsy turvy life has been at the football club. But it’s not all been heartache following the club, as promotion back to the Third Division under Roy Bentley in 1970 was some years later eclipsed by possibly the best era in the history of the Swans, promotion to the First Division and that fantastic day at Preston. Later would come two visits to Wembley, as well as joy and heartache at the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff.

A long standing contributor to the Swans matchday programme, going back to the mid-1980’s, Colin took over as programme editor in September 2000, up to January 2004. In October 2005 he published, Swansea Town/City, the first comprehensive player A-Y, featuring detailed profiles of all Swans footballers who have played in the Southern and Football Leagues since 1912. Late October 2007 saw Colin publish a supplement to Professor David Farmer’s book of 2000. Since 1994 he has also been providing information for the PFA Footballers Factfile, a Who’s Who of footballers who have made appearances for the Swans during the season.

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