Mark Allen promoted to Sporting Director by Swansea City
Allen joined Swansea in January 2021
Written by Training Ground Guru — August 8, 2021
SWANSEA CITY have promoted Mark Allen to become their new Sporting Director, just eight months after he joined the club as Academy Manager.
The 58-year-old already has experience in the role, having been Director of Football at Rangers from 2017 to 2019. At Swansea he will be responsible for “all football operations”, as well as continuing to have oversight of the Academy. He will also join the club's senior management team.
The Swans have not had a Sporting Director since June last year, when club legend Leon Britton stepped down from the role. The former midfielder had been the first person to hold the role in the history of the club.
Chief Executive Julian Winter said: “I have been extremely impressed with Mark’s knowledge and insight ever since he arrived at the club earlier this year.
“The role of Sporting Director has been a natural evolution in football over many years and during my ten months at the club it has been clear that this was an area that needed due care and attention.
“Ownership and the board wanted to establish a joined-up ethos across the club and it made perfect sense for Mark to make the step up.”
Allen will work closely with Andy Scott, who joined the club in July 2019 and has himself worked as a Sporting Director, at Watford.
“I firmly believe that both he (Allen) and Andy will have an excellent working relationship with Russell and his football staff, as well as with all the other football departments,” Winter added.
“Our ownership group have been fully supportive of this decision and we believe Mark is the ideal person to help drive this football club forward and unify all areas of football operations from the academy right through to the first-team.”
Allen, who was Manchester City’s Academy Manager for eight years before joining Rangers, said: “I’m delighted to be taking on this role. It’s a fantastic opportunity.
“There are great people already in place at the football club and I’m really looking forward to working closely with Russell, his staff, as well as Andy and the wider football operations team.
“I feel that myself and Russell have a very good understanding of what we both want and that is a great combination. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the time I’ve already spent at the club and I have no doubt that we can be successful going forward.”
Speaking to the Training Ground Guru Podcast last month, manager Russell Martin explained why he was in favour of the Sporting Director model.
At the time, his former club MK Dons had just appointed Liam Sweeting to the position.
“In this country, it (Sporting Director) is often seen as a glorified Head of Recruitment and it’s not,” he said. “It’s about trying to improve every department.”
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