please log in to view this image Hull City writer Philip Buckingham meets Tony Pennock to find out how he transformed Swansea City's academy and why the Tigers could be about to turn a similar corner WHEN Tony Pennock assumed control of Swansea City's youth development ranks in the summer of 2008, he inherited an operation run on a shoe-string and goodwill. Pennock worked with just one other colleague and oversaw fixtures played on park pitches. The club's best youngsters invariably departed, poached by neighbours Cardiff City. The Swans were more like the ugly duckling of South Wales. "We would beg, steal and borrow just to keep going," says Pennock, recalling those nomadic early years. How times change. Tapping into the successes of a first team that had quickly risen from the fourth tier, Swansea's academy was revolutionised during Pennock's five and a half years in charge. Now housed at the enviable Landore complex, a £6m purpose-built site employing 24 full-time staff, it is an academy that is comfortably able to boast Category Two status. Pennock resigned from his post in November in search of a new challenge and that has led him to Hull City's grateful door. Appointed as the Tigers' academy manager in late February, the 43-year-old has been tasked with repeating the overhaul he led at Swansea. "There are massive, massive similarities," Pennock told the Mail. "The history of the two clubs, the culture of the area. People have lost their jobs but the football club remains a focal point of the area. "Historically, there wasn't always a lot of investment in youth development at either club and it's been very difficult to keep up with the first team. That's natural when you've come from the bottom of the Football League. "But I could see straight away the potential of this club and that's what made the decision easy for me. "There are so many similarities to Swansea and we're in a great position to make a statement as a club." Pennock's arrival marks a potential watershed in City's history. For all the strides made in earning another season in the Premier League, a youth system led by the long-serving Billy Russell has been asked to perform under stifling financial constraints. Historic under-investment has left City lagging far behind in the modern world of Elite Player Performance Plans (EPPP). While Premier League rivals rear their young against one another, the Category Three rating of City's academy leaves them forced to compete against Grimsby Town, Lincoln City and Burton Albion in the North East Conference of the Youth Alliance League. At long last, City have finally begun to address the fault-lines that undermine all ambitions for progress. Relocating from the cherished but inadequate Ideal Standard site on County Road North to the state-of-the-art Bishop Burton College this week, City will make their biggest leap yet towards that all-important Category Two academy status. Pennock hopes this is the start of a journey he witnessed first-hand at Swansea. With foundations already far more impressive than the ones he inherited there, the 43-year-old sees no reason why that progress cannot be mirrored here in East Yorkshire. "You've only got to look at the investment to see what the owners want to do," said Pennock. "When I started I would have been the 10th full-time member of staff but soon we'll be over 20. "I'm moving 300 miles away from my family. I'm not going to come here just to be in a job, that would be the wrong thing to do for me and the club. "The club are committed to moving the academy forward and wants to be a Category Two as soon as we can. "Will we ever have 11 Hull lads born and bred? I very much doubt it. But in the main we want to give local lads the best opportunity to be professionals. "To do that we have to be out in the community and have a presence. When you've only got three or four members of staff, as has been the case in the past, it's impossible to do that. "No matter what local perception is of the academy, without investment you will find it difficult. Apart from the last couple of years, this club has probably only lived off the Football League funding that every club has. "We want to do the best we can and at the end of the day I'll be accountable. If it doesn't work out then I'll have to pay the consequences of that." Pennock accepts there is much work to be done before City can compete with the Premier League's best. Instead, a level standing with Sheffield United, Barnsley and Huddersfield Town is the first target. It will all take time but the value of a strong academy has now been noted. "It all comes down to the vision for the whole club," added Pennock. "If there's no pathway for the kids then there's no point having an academy. Some clubs perhaps do it just as a token gesture to keep people happy. But if you're going to do it you might as well do it right because in the long-term the club benefits. "Swansea sold Joe Allen to Liverpool for £15m and it paid for all the new training facilities. Simple as. "Once you pay money on the infrastructure, and to Swansea's credit they have, you don't have to fork out that money again. It's there. Huw Jenkins (chairman) and the board have left a legacy there. "Three years ago the only thing the club owned were the players. The council owns the stadium, but now they've got two fantastic facilities that attract players to come and play for you." The similarities between the two clubs is clear. Now it is up to Pennock to usher in another new dawn. 'Seeing lads play in the first team gives me a buzz' TONY Pennock believes the thrill of overseeing a rookie's graduation into the first-team fold is "the best feeling in football," eclipsing all he achieved during 20 years as a player. Hull City's academy manager has been challenged to bring through the club's next generation of talent in East Yorkshire and repeat the success enjoyed at Swansea City. Ben Davies and Jazz Richards were the big success stories of Pennock's time at the Liberty Stadium. Both full-backs have played Premier League football for the Swans and won full international honours with Wales. The stellar achievements of Davies and Richards were beyond those of Pennock in a goalkeeping career that included spells with Wigan, Hereford and Yeovil, but his greatest satisfaction has come from others. "There's nothing better than seeing a lad you've helped bring up walking out on that pitch," he said. "Whether they started at 9 or 12, coming up through the system and then into the first team, it's the best feeling in football for me. "I take more pleasure in seeing a young lad represent the first team than I ever got as a player. No doubt about it." Pennock brings a colourful history with him to the KC Stadium. After starting out as a youngster with Stockport County, his most cherished days came on a part-time contract with Yeovil Town. There he juggled playing with a role as a financial consultant before eventually returning to hometown club Swansea in 2006 as a goalkeeping coach, via spells with Rushden and Diamonds, Farnborough and Carmarthen. The thread that has run through Pennock's adult life is coaching. He said: "I was about 17, playing local league football, and one of the men playing in the team with me gave me a little part-time job in his summer training camps. "I went away to play after that but I always enjoyed coaching. It was in my late 20s when I dropped out of the Football League and had six years as a financial consultant. I got made redundant, which was great looking back, and had a spell just going around schools coaching kids. "I started doing my badges then and although I went back full-time with Rushden & Diamonds, I knew coaching was what I wanted to do." Pennock found his niche with Swansea from 2008 when he was appointed to lead the club's struggling academy. He reflects on five and a half happy years at home in South Wales, but says his resignation in November was a must to restore a lost spring to his step. He added: "It was always my dream job working for my hometown club, but I got to the stage where I wasn't enjoying going in anymore. "I've always said to the players if you don't enjoy what you're doing then you're in the wrong place. I felt it would have been hypocritical if I didn't do the same myself. "When I started there in 2008 it was me and one other member of staff. When I walked away there were 24 full-time staff, playing Category Two football for the second year running. We also had a number of lads who made their debuts and played Premier League football. "I'm not criticising the people who were there before because I had the backing of the club to move forward. Hopefully we can do that here." http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull...tory-21281651-detail/story.html#ixzz35XZTa2SI
Good stuff it sounds like a really positive step, but the club need to commit to it and realise it may be a slow process at first.
It does seem that we're finally addressing our poor academy set-up, something that's well overdue and it's nice to see the Allam's getting something right.
There's still some big questions left unanswered since that last big article someone did about our centre of excellence. Are there any plans to move forward to a cat 1 academy? Are the facilities at bishop burton adequate to make this step? Ferking annoying. We get told that the move will prett much instantaneously grant us cat 2 status, and how wonderful that will be, but not a thing about moving forward or if there's any intention to get to the top level.
I think the good things that the Allam's have done, are in a way, a part of the problem. They seem unable to accept that they've got some things badly wrong because they've got other things very right and assume themselves to be infallible.
Personally I think this is a more awesome and inspired appointment by our chairman than the recruitment of Steve Bruce. Or at least on a par with that.
Considering they're not football people, and freely admit the know **** all about football, they do seem to have done extremely well with all their football based decisions. They've got a good adviser and they're willing to listen, obviously, which is clearly a good thing.
Allam didn't appoint this guy, nor did he appoint Bruce. He won't have heard of either of them before being told. Though as Hat says, it's good that he at least listens to others on footballing matters nowadays. It really does seem like a good appointment.
There you go again, you just cannot make 1 comment without a little negativity. The Allams have gotten a lot right, and without them we wouldn't be where we are now.
Exactly, if he had listened to an adviser for matters related to the business of football - such as marketing - I'm sure he could have been very successful. Unfortunately however, he is unable to differentiate the business that he knows from the business of football, not realising that there are huge differences in terms of the emotional connections between fans and the football club and the connection between a consumer and a brand.
Give it a ****ing rest its pathetic. Allam did appoint Pennock and Bruce. FACT. They were scouted and recommended. FACT With Bruce Allam met him and they discussed the job. They agreed to work together. Allam appointed him. FACT
Technically he may have signed it off. POTENTIALLY FACT. But the point is, people on this very thread had mentioned it being an Allam masterstroke in appointing Pennock, and the same is often said of Bruce as an attempt to heap praise on the owner. Which it obviously isn't since he'd never heard of either of them. Once again you don't mind people talking bollocks as long as PLT doesn't question it. The bollocks posted by the likes of ollyhcafc is fine as long as no one dares to point out it's bullshit. That attitude of yours is ridiculous.
Quite simply you are an idiot. No more words to be said, no further discussion or debate you are deluded.
So when Steve Bruce sends a scout off somewhere and he returns with a file on a player, Brucey checks him out and signs him, does Brucey not deserve any praise? Has he not signed the player?
