GREAT SCOTT! GREEN LIONS HAVE ARRIVED
TONY VANCE believes Guernsey FC starlet Alex Scott’s move to Championship club Bristol City shows exactly why the Green Lions were formed.
Midfielder Scott would have been a youngster in the crowd when the Channel Islanders entered a team into the National League System back in 2011.
One of the cornerstones of GFC’s foundation was to provide players with the opportunity to further their football careers.
This week, 16-year-old Scott signed a two-year deal with the Robins and Guernsey boss Vance says everyone at the club is delighted for the youngster.
“We knew he was a good player coming through,” Vance told The
NLP. “I thought he would be with us a bit longer but he’s turned some heads already.
“It’s really good and almost vindicates what the club is set-up to do – it’s to give a pathway and opportunity to the kids on the island. Inspiring players on the island. It’s nice to get one through.
“He would have been about eight when Guernsey FC started. I remember coaching him at our soccer schools! Probably he wanted to be Ross Allen.
“I spend a lot of my time coaching in the academy. We have to develop our own players. You often hear people talk about their youth teams and the pathway to the first team but it never really happens – they might get one but we have to get 11. That’s why we put so much resource and effort into that.
Unique
“We’ll miss Alex but he’s a player that needs to be at that level of football so it’s great. Working in the Academy, I know pretty much all the footballers around. I don’t think there’s one as good as Alex around for a few years yet but there’s some real potential in our players.”
Vance says, eight years on, they are really seeing the impact the club is having on Guernsey’s young footballers.
“The club gives free season tickets to each academy player,” Vance said. “On a matchday they are all either ball-boying, holding the flags or behind the goal.
“When you do soccer schools, there isn’t talk over here about being the next Harry Kane. They want to be Ross Allen. That’s how real it is. Now they’ll want to be the next Alex Scott. All the youngsters know who Alex Scott is and he’s only 16! It’s unique.”
Guernsey began at Step 6 of the Combined Counties League and swiftly secured back-to-back promotions to reach Step 4.
They then finished in the playoff places of Isthmian Division One South but the last few years have seen them battling at the other end of the table.
In the main, it has been due to the transition of their experienced players hanging up their boots and youngsters being blooded.
Vance can only select players from Guernsey meaning it has been a challenging period.
“This passage over the last few years kind of shows how unique this football club is and the situation,” Vance said. “There wouldn’t be another team that would have been able to, or allowed to, go through a transition period of getfour ting a new team and be able to coach them for two or three years knowing they would still be with you.
“Development wise it’s unique. Most Non-League teams, the manager would have been sacked two or three times over, there would have been a conveyor belt of players. So the best thing is you get the reward of seeing the fruits of your labour.
“That’s really pleasing. It challenges you as a coach and a manager because you have to come up with new ways of getting results while also hoping to develop those players who will come good in the end.”
That is showing with the Green Lions currently around the playoff places in the BetVictor Isthmian South East division.
Another important factor has been the return of legendary goalscorer Allen, who had stopped playing to go travelling and then had a playing spell in New Zealand.
Opportunity
Vance is happy with how they’re faring and while he won’t go as far to say they’ve completely turned a corner, he feels they are heading in the right direction.
“One of the big questions I’ve been answering over the last two months is, ‘What’s happened? What’s the difference?’
“I would say there’s probably differences. Two are obvious – Ross Allen coming back and Harry Tobin, who used to play for us and moved to the mainland, plays for us again. He’s a natural left-back whereas we’d been having to play people out of position. Those are the only two on-field differences.
“Then the other players have started to mature and embrace the opportunity. All the hard learning from the last two years means they are now able to play with freedom.
“The final thing is we’ve tried to do video analysis and more of the stuff you’d expect at higher clubs and that is benefitting us as well.
“It’s not drastic but the players are also that one year older and have more experience.”