Sean Scannell celebrates 33 today (17th September 2023) and described his lifetime passion of all things red and blue to cpfc.co.uk back in 2021.
Sean Scannell makes the same statement at the beginning and finish of this interview. “I just loved Palace when I was a kid,” he recalls, before adding, “I still love Palace and I still do to this day.”
Scannell is a young man from Ashburton, near Addiscombe, who would walk the mile from his home to Selhurst Park with other fans and, after representing Palace 141 times, would sit among them to watch his team participate in the Premier League.
He’d get international calls to play young football all over the world, but he’d always “look forward to… going back to my club.”
Scannell dreamed of wearing red and blue as a child, despite the fact that two of England’s best teams, Chelsea and Arsenal, offered him different growth paths. Years later, as a teenager, his devotion to Palace remained unwavering while attention from other behemoths grew, including Manchester United, City, and Everton.
He personifies his boyhood club’s ethos: South London and Proud.
For a football-crazed lad who had tried out for Arsenal and Chelsea as well as Addiscombe Corinthians, Ashburton School, and Brixton’s Afewee Academy, representing the local side was an obvious source of pride, and how Palace made it distinctive is plain.
“It was a dream come true when I ended up playing for Palace as a kid when I was 11 or 12.”
“Because we were young and trained at night, a scout named Derek Millen [father of Keith] used to pick me up from my house, take me to training, and drop me off.” There was a big sand Astroturf right at the back behind the bushes [at the Copers Cope Training Ground], and he’d take me there and drop me off twice a week.”
Millen wasn’t the only Palace figure to back Scannell up off the field, with the now-33-year-old outlining Clinton Morrison’s influence on his budding career:
“Clinton was huge for me; he looked after me my entire stay at Palace… Even when I was in the youth team and training, he would constantly come to check on us – him, Tom Soares, Ryan Hall, [Lewis] Grabban, Lewis Spence.
“Clinton would come and talk to me even when I wasn’t playing well, and he used to pick me up from my house for training.”
“My father adored him because he is Irish.” When I was younger, he gave me a bundle of clothes with nice tracksuits before I started playing first-team level; I was overjoyed and thought to myself, ‘Oh my days. These tracksuits are ridiculous. Is he offering these to me for free or wanting anything in return?!’ He’d basically care after me; if I needed anything, I could go to Clinton.”
Scannell’s Palace debut came in December 2007, at the height of a renowned moment in the club’s Academy history. Lee Hills, John Bostock, Victor Moses, Ryan Hall, Ashley Robinson, Ben Kudjodi, Kierali Djilali, Nathaniel Clyne, and Rhoys Wiggins all made their debuts during the same two-year period.
This remarkable growth prompted the club to install memorable ‘Born in South London’ billboards across Croydon, featuring its most proud graduates. But it required more than a stroke of luck to get there, and Scannell portrays a picture that contrasts with today’s rose-tinted notion of a golden generation:
“John Bostock was the only kid from that group who came through when I first signed for Palace.”
“Every year, people were released, and we received our scholarships.” When I initially arrived at Palace, we were getting pummeled from all sides. We were getting annihilated – we once lost 14-1 to Arsenal and 8-0 to Chelsea.
“Then people like [Academy Director] Gary Issott and Micky Hazard came in, and things started changing.” That’s when the Academy began to improve and become more competitive, and by Under-16s, we were extremely good. We’d be the team hammering everyone else.”
Today, Scannell attributes the high concentration of skill at Palace to the fact that so many players went on to have successful professional careers. After all, Palace’s ’77 FA Youth Cup team contained a full XI of future graduates, teenage Richard Shaw, John Salako, and Gareth Southgate played together in the late ’80s, and Eberechi Eze competed with two professionals in his school year.
With that kind of pedigree, fostering Scannell and company was second nature for the Eagles under Neil Warnock:
“Neil Warnock played a significant role,” Scannell says. “You look at a lot of teams back then, even before I played, and there weren’t a lot of young players.” Everyone simply had competent, sturdy, and experienced squads.
“Neil Warnock came in and began introducing young people… I recall playing at 17 with two or three of us on the field at once. That was nearly unheard of.
