http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38004715 I can vividly remember Len coming back to the Vetch in 1969. RIP
Len was a great player, and part of the golden post war era at Swansea. I count 5 Swansea born players in that Welsh team. Where was Cliff Jones, I wonder? RIP Len.
The last time I saw Len was in his Leather Goods Shop in Mumbles. He was very friendly and we talked about Ivor for a while. I would have loved to talk all day, but he had customers to serve.
Len and Ivor were real gents as was John Charles. It is amazing to think they were all scouted around the same area. Look at the talent that used to be scouted in parks around Swansea sadly no longer. I remember my friend Jonathan Clark being scouted in Cwm level (same place as Ivor Allchurch) Clark went to Man Utd. I asked Alan Curtis why nobody is scouted anymore and he said thats the way the game is if they are not in the academies by 10 years old they would not be picked up. Maybe we are missing something in the game when you think John Charles was 16 when he was spotted in Cwmbwla park.
When i was a lad as big as my Dad and my dinners were all covered in gravy i use to love going to watch the football at Ashley road and other parks in and around Swansea and in those days you would find many scouts from many different clubs looking for that one player that had that little bit of something special and over the years many Swansea and surrounding lads have been talent spotted, Most dont make the grade as expected of course but a few do....Today with all the money that is in football the clubs can afford to look further afield and its rare to clock a scout at local matches and what tends to happen now is the manager tends to recommend a player to clubs and use video evidence and if a club shows interest the player will be invited to the club..........A bit of a shame really and i wish More clubs would scout for local talent than they do....
I agree but the problem with that is the scouts knew what they were looking for. If you watch the John Charles video he states that the scout went to look at a match that was between two local sides with some potential targets playing, but he noticed Charles playing with his mates and stayed and watched him instead. He was a Leeds scout he was a pro. The trouble with the way it is today is people in the game work to set criteria nothing is gut instinct. Some of the best players ever to grace the game would never have made it today.
Newport I have always maintained that there is still plenty of talent in South Wales, but of the two Welsh Clubs, Cardiff scouts are more active at looking at this situation, over the years I have chatted to a number of Cardiff scouts at games, but Swansea are like Dinosaurs, and it's a flawed policy, just look at Vardy as an example, trouble is we end up watching the average drivel of so called pro's, it's one of the areas that the Swans have seriously disappointed in, and the Swansea schoolboys isn't much better...............
