Recruitment, retaining academy talent and fan engagement: The key quotes from Sunderland's new Sporting Director

Speakman has been handed a significant brief, with a club statement saying: “Speakman will lead SAFC’s overall football programme, including player identification, development and acquisitions across the first team and academy.

“Working alongside Chief Executive Officer Jim Rodwell, he will also take primary responsibility for reviewing and implementing new strategies to develop the club’s footballing infrastructure, with an emphasis on data analytics and innovation, and providing a clear pathway from the younger age groups to the first team.”

Speakman then opened up on the role he has been handed in far more detail during an interview with safc.com.

You can read the key quotes below...

On his big Head Coach decision...

“I think it's really important when you take this position within the structure I've got, that you have that autonomy to make a decision in all the areas.

“There's obviously a high-profile nature to that [head coach] selection.

“It's a really key role because it can set the tone.

“For the ownership group to give me that autonomy quickly I think is a really important message to the supporters in terms of the direction the club is going.”

On the path ahead for recruitment and development….

"From a player development perspective, I’m a big advocate of player development.

"But I think player development occurs at different stages. That doesn’t mean people have to come through the academy from eight all the way through, you also have players that develop from 16 through to 23.

“From that standpoint, I think that always provides a great foundation for a football club to then have player acquisition occur in the different phases and have a squad that isn’t leaning too heavily on external sources.

"As I know from my time at Birmingham, the fanbase can always attach themselves to a player who is coming through.

"From a strategic point of view and the ownership group making a selection on who is best to do my role, I think if it was a sporting director position where the emphasis was on player recruitment then I wouldn’t be sat here today.

"There was a complete alignment between me and the owners on what the role looks like and therefore who was best to do that role.

"I see that as me having the autonomy over the football department to make sure it’s aligned across all the different departments and from top to bottom.

"Recruitment is one fifth. We’ll be in a position in the coming days to get our recruitment search underway for a Head of Player Recruitment – and I think that underlines the nature and direction that this project is going to take.”

On retaining the club’s best academy talent….

I think it's a fairly obvious thing in terms of the club wanting to do that.

But I also think that the players want to do that.

I very rarely come across young players that come from an area of the country, are part of that academy, and are desperate to move.

So I think what you've got to try to look at, what are the reasons that's happened, and how can we correct and improve it?

Ultimately, the biggest thing you can provide for a young player is an understanding that you're going to manage their programme on an individual basis and that they are going to get everything they need.

That's not spoiling young players, but there is now across the country a very high benchmark on the provisions available to these young players. That's across player development and personal development, medical and sports science analysis.

So if you're not going to provide players with elements of that, and you're restricting that, they'll go somewhere else.

The ownership want the academy to be at the centre of their strategy.

One improving the club’s data analytics

A lot of the strands that link in to player development and recruitment, they're all now heavily reliant on the data.

Obviously there are different viewpoints at different clubs about how much you should use that data, but what we've got to try and do at Sunderland is look at what our model is and what our processes are, so that we can maximise the resources and tools that are out there, to try and mitigate risk, identify talent and improve talent that is here.

From that perspective, the big thing with some of that stuff is it costs money. So what you need is a strategy and an investment plan attached to it. They [the ownership] are going to invest in the AoL, try to ensure that the technological infrastructure is available.

What we can't do in my opinion is try to continue to play catch up, we've got to make some really key decisions on what's important and put that money into it.

That way we build up the provisions for the younger players, for the older players.

Ultimately, when you're recruiting at any age, it's incredibly competitive.

Whether it's at the younger end of the spectrum, or identifying two players who could potentially play in the first team, will they come here because the provisions are so good? Can we sell a story that enhances the chance we have to sign these players? Then perhaps it doesn't just come down to finances.

On engagement with supporters...

It's not a football club without fans.

The recent period with these very sterile environments, I think it's enhanced the understanding of how important they are.

The thing that you've always got to try and create is a connection between the fanbase and what goes on on the football side, but there's got to then be some alignment on some behaviours.

I've been here less than 24 hours, but that's maybe where we've had some problems in the past, where they don't understand quite what's going on.

I don't have any issue in communicating our strategy with any supporter, any fan forum, and I think that's part of the communication strategy moving forward and it's certainly part of my role.

So hopefully in the coming weeks and months, the people out there who support Sunderland passionately will hopefully get to a better understanding of what the process will be moving forward, what my role does and doesn't do.

Ultimately, though, I can sit in front of the camera all day and say this and that, but they need to see things happen.

So we need to win more games, get promoted, get some stability in the Championship, and then slowly move through.

I think if we're doing that and demonstrating that with values that are aligned with the people of the area, and we understand that it's an area that is unique and we can use that as a selling point, then the whole thing can be a successful project.

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