 Wednesday, 30th May 2012 22:09 It should come as no surprise that Connor Wickham and Jordan Rhodes are the two Playford Road alumni that departing Academy manager Sammy Morgan singles out from his time with the Blues - both are strikers just as he was during his playing days. The 65-year-old is set to leave Town at the end of the month after eight years, initially as head of education before taking on his current role in 2009. Morgan told TWTD that when he joined the Academy Wickham, now 19, was at a pivotal point in his development: “I arrived here eight years ago when Connor Wickham was playing U12 or U13 football and at that time, on the admission of his dad, he had fallen out of love with the game. “I’m not an arrogant person, but I’d like to think that if you rang Connor Wickham up he’d pay testament to what I did for him.” Wickham did precisely that in a tweet: “Sad to see ITFC Academy manager Sammy Morgan stepping down! Huge respect for this man was a massive influence on me at the club. “Got me through everything! Sure he'll walk straight into another club! Fantastic guy and really deserves a chance to help youngsters like me.” Wickham broke into the first team at 16 before moving on to Sunderland last summer for an initial fee of £8.1 million, which could climb beyond the £12 million mark if various clauses are triggered. The former Northern Ireland international says he anticipated Rhodes, who was controversially sold to Huddersfield by Roy Keane in the summer of 2009, making the breakthrough just as Wickham was starting to make his mark: “When Connor was flying high, I went down to a function for the sponsors and they asked me about Connor and I said ‘there’s the next young man across there’, and that was Jordan Rhodes because he was a year or so older. “He was on crutches at the time and I had great hopes for young Jordan and the young fella’s done very well. “There are loads of lads that have come through. We brought young Josh Carson over [from Northern Ireland] and like all the members of the staff I’ve contributed. “I’ve just been an incumbent in the position for the last period of time. All I’ve done is to try to build on what Bryan Klug and Tony Humes had done to the best of my ability. “But if I’ve contributed to anybody in particular it probably would be the big number nine [Wickham] and Jordan because I was a number nine, and I kick the ball through them - I play the game through the number nines.” He is in no doubt that Wickham will prove to be a success with Sunderland, despite a quiet first season at the Stadium of Light: “The big lad will come good. I’ve got nothing but confidence in the big fella and I sincerely hope he’s back banging the goals in next season.” The former Aston Villa, Port Vale, Brighton, Cambridge, Sparta Rotterdam, Groningen and Gorleston frontman says it has been a privilege to run the youth systems at both the region’s biggest clubs: “I’ve been very honoured to be the Academy manager at the two top teams in East Anglia, namely Norwich and Ipswich. “I’m very proud to have played a part in the development of a lot of young players. I’m equally proud of those lads who haven’t quite got there in the professional ranks but have maybe gone on to university and have forged other careers and are still playing football at non-league level, still enjoying their football. That means a lot to me as well. “A couple of years ago I went to Wembley to watch Lowestoft in the FA Vase and the majority of the kids that were playing for Lowestoft were lads that I’d had at Norwich, was involved with in schools football or were at Ipswich. That in itself gave me a huge kick. “I finished playing in 1980 and I’ve been in youth development since then. I did the Norfolk schools, Great Yarmouth schools, representative sides and the Bobby Robson Soccer Schools. That’s 32 years, I’ve given it a fair crack and I love my football as much now as I ever did.” Morgan believes his time as a maths and PE teacher in Norfolk was beneficial to him in youth football: “Teaching for 17 years gave me the wherewithal to work with parents and that side of it, and I couldn’t have done the Academy manager job as well as I did it if I hadn’t have had my teaching background. “I had my football background and I had my teaching background and together they’re ideal for Academy management.” He says he has no plans to retire — “I just feel it’s time to step down at the present moment“ - although he’ll will be looking for a new role which isn’t quite as time-consuming as his current 24/7 position. An international team-mate of George Best in his playing days, Morgan says there are plenty of talented young players at Playford Road aiming to emulate the success of the likes of Wickham and Rhodes, including next season’s first-year scholars: “We’ve got a really, really good group of U16 players, Byron Lawrence is in there. “And we’ve got some other younger players already in the system for whom we’ve got high hopes.” He says they may make an impact under his yet-to-be-appointed successor as players who started at the club under his predecessors Bryan Klug — who TWTD revealed was sounded out about a return to Playford Road in February — and Tony Humes came through during his time in charge. “They may blossom when somebody else is here,” he said. “To be fair to Tony Humes and Bryan Klug, people will have blossomed in Tony’s era that Bryan nurtured. Connor blossomed when I had him when he came in with Tony and likewise some of the ones I’ve got may blossom with whoever comes in. It’s an ongoing process.” In addition to Wickham, several other former Academy players tweeted their respect for their one-time mentor after his exit was announced earlier today, Northern Irish defender Rory McKeown, who joined Kilmarnock after leaving the Blues last summer, amongst them: “Sammy Morgan leaving Ipswich is bad news. The man is a legend and did a lot for me when I was there, hope it all works out for him.” Striker Caolan Lavery, who is set to sign for Sheffield Wednesday after leaving Town in October last year, added: “The man is a living legend. He was the only one at that club that you could truly trust. A top man, wish him the best.” Looking back over his eight years Morgan himself feels he’s done the job as well as he could: “All you can do is say to yourself, ‘have I done my best?’, and the answer is yes. ‘Have I worked hard?’, and I have. “I’ve been privileged to work with young people, very privileged. It’s kept me young, kept my passion and kept my enthusiasm going. One thing you could never accuse me of is not having any enthusiasm or passion for the game, and that will remain. “I don’t know in what capacity I’ll kick on again, but you can’t keep a good man down!”
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