New direction: Sean Scammell arrives at the Arena with huge experience at all levels
Former Crystal Palace midfielder Sean Scannell has been appointed as Croydon FC’s new director of football.
Croydon-born Scannell, 35, played 130 games for the Eagles between 2007 and 2012, and has continued his playing career until very recently, including spells which have helped his sides win promotion into the National League.
He has recently been playing in Gibraltar, and he finished last season at Greenwich-based Cray Valley Paper Mills in the Isthmian League Premier Division.
The Isthmian Premier is Tier 7 of England’s football pyramid. Croydon have laboured in Tier 10, in the Southern Counties East first division, for a decade.
After a couple of play-off near-misses, the arrival of Scannell at the Croydon Arena is hoped will make the difference in achieving the Trams’ first promotion in almost 20 years.
The community-rooted club is undergoing something of a re-boot: Gavin English stood down as chairman last month, replaced by long-standing club sponsors Tony Blencowe and Liam Blencowe as co-chairmen.
Today, Liam Blencowe said, “It is fantastic to welcome Sean to the club as our new director of football.
“It is a very exciting appointment. Having Sean on the board matches the ambition we have to take the football club to the next level and we cannot wait to see what the future holds.”
Scannell said that he wants to push the club “as high as it can go to”.
“It is an honour to be involved with the football club that I grew up next to.”
Croydon, which plays its games at the council-owned athletics stadium off Albert Road, is the borough’s oldest non-league club. In recent years it has been overshadowed by Croydon Athletic, the phoenix club in Thornton Heath bought by rap star Stormzy and former Eagles striker Wilf Zaha.
The Rams, who play in the Isthmian League South East Division, have another former Palace favourite, Andrew Johnson, as their director of football.
Under joint managers Alex White and Ryan Watts, Croydon finished fifth in their division this season, making the play-offs for the second successive year, but where they lost 2-0 to bitter rivals SE Dons in the semi-final last month.
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