'The next Marlon Pack would be taken away from us': Portsmouth boss on how ex-West Ham, Charlton and Arsenal starlets are filling Academy gap

Future Marlon Packs would be plucked from Pompey’s Academy by Premier League clubs, according to Danny Cowley.
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And the fact the Blues’ promising talent is presently represented by Jay Mingi and Zak Swanson, underlines the difficulties facing Category 3 clubs in the EPPP era.

Mingi came through academies at West Ham and Charlton, while Swanson was at Arsenal, before the pair arrived at Fratton Park to fulfil their Football League debuts.

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The 22-year-olds were recruited to fill the gap between Pompey’s Academy and the first-team, with the production line slowing in recent years.

Cowley is convinced Greg Miller and Zesh Rehman are appointments which can reinvigorate the Blues’ stalled youth set-up.

In the meantime, Mingi and Swanson, made elsewhere, continue to blossom in the first-team.

Cowley told The News: ‘We want to be in a position where we can play 3-4 of our young players at Ipswich in the Papa John’s Trophy.

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‘It wasn’t ideal to play some of the first-team players, but it’s our duty of care to the young players to set them up for success.

Marlon Pack came through Pompey's Academy before released in the summer of 2012 - now he's back. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImagesMarlon Pack came through Pompey's Academy before released in the summer of 2012 - now he's back. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages
Marlon Pack came through Pompey's Academy before released in the summer of 2012 - now he's back. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages

‘We can’t put them into games, they are not ready for them, it wouldn’t be right to do that.

‘My dream is a Pompey boy who comes through the Academy and plays in the first-team. To find the next Marlon Pack.

‘The biggest challenge to Category 3 Academies is that the next Marlon Pack probably gets taken away by Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal as a 12-year-old.

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‘This is what could happen now with the EPPP rules, which means it's much harder.

‘We are quite aggressive with our recruitment at ages 16-18 in the Academy, we’ll only bring players who are better than we already have.

‘In our first-team at the moment we have Jay and Zak, who are young lads. Not many players at 16, 17 or 18 can come in and play first-team football.

‘If you ask me to name the 18-year-old or younger players appearing in League One at the moment, you can probably count them on one hand, there’s not many at all.

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‘Adam Mayor at Morecambe is a second-year scholar, beyond that no-one else springs to mind, although I know there’s another couple.

‘The last group we had were Jack Whatmough, Ben Close and Conor Chaplin, a very good group, but they probably came from the Premier League years.

‘Whereas now it’s a very different challenge, the landscape for academies has changed a lot with EPPP.’

Pack came through Pompey’s ranks to make two first-team appearances, before released by Steve Cotterill in the summer of 2011.

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Pompey’s under-18s are presently unbeaten in eight matches and on Wednesday entertain Cambridge United in the FA Youth Cup (7pm).

Cowley added: ‘Others have unbelievable financial resources, unbelievable human resources and brilliant facilities, but that’s not to say it’s impossible, because it’s not.

‘It can be achieved with the right model and the guys are working incredibly hard.

‘Zesh Rehman often says to me “Better than yesterday” – and I like that phrase.’