Brian Eastick spent a fruitful seven years at Birmingham City as he developed the club's academy from scratch. He has now moved on to pastures new after being wooed by Newcastle United to head up their state-of-the-art Academy system
It will certainly be a change for him to move into a job where everything is in place after arriving at St Andrew's and finding a scene of desolation after a chance conversation at the start of the nineties gave him the opportunity to work in an area he enjoyed.
"Trevor Francis bought me to the club in 1996," said Eastick. "But our relationship started when I was first team coach at Sheffield United and he had just been sacked by Sheffield Wednesday. He came to train with us and I was always picking his brains about his time in Italy and how I would like to work with young players. When he took over at Birmingham he gave me a call and said 'here is your chance'.
"I was surprised to say the least as the youth policy had been disbanded from the age of 16 and below and we inherited 20 apprentices who within a year had all been released. We trained at a nearby rented ground, which had undersize pitches, as the landlords wouldn't let us expand them," recalls Eastick.
"However, I managed to negotiate a one-year lease at Wast Hills, which was part of Birmingham University's grounds because I knew Academies were coming and I then put forward the possibility of obtaining a 100-year lease and Karren Brady okayed it."
Even though Eastick has now departed from the Midlands he leaves the club with a sense of pride at what he has achieved and believes the proof is in the pudding regarding the development of the youth system.
He continued: "There has been a radical improvement in the youth area at the club and while the training ground is not state of the art it is still a respectable facility. I think you should judge people on what they leave behind and Birmingham City now has some credibility in youth development with some competent first class coaches at the Academy. We also have two or three excellent players in every age group from nine up to 20."
Eastick is rightly proud of the young players who broke into the first team during his tenure at the club, but recognises the difficulties now that the Premiership has been reached by the first team.
"Andrew Johnson was the first player to break through," he said. "He has since moved on to Crystal Palace and there was also Darren Carter as well as Craig Fagan, Matt Sadler, Tresor Luntala and Joey Hutchinson, who have also played in the first team.
"Johnson, Sadler and Carter were all England regulars as is Steven Luckett, one of the club's scholars. Tony Capaldi has just signed for Plymouth and Craig Doyle has gone to Bradford so even the players who aren't breaking through are managing to have a career in the game.
"The Academy now needs to go to the next level. If they were still in the first division then there could well be three or four regulars, but the bar has been raised with the club now being in the Premiership. They need to be more competitive in their identification and recruitment of talent and that might take a little bit more financial investment.
"A player like Darren Carter bypassed the reserves, but that won't happen now so it is important that the players receive the right physiological. Psychological and technical information up to the age of 21."
Breaking up is sometimes the hardest thing to do and while Eastick was sad to leave Birmingham he recognized it was probably the right time to leave and bears no grudges to those people he leaves behind.
He admitted: "I have no animosity at all towards Steve Bruce or Karren Brady, but there is no doubt that we had our disagreements over the last 12 months on the principles and philosophies of how an Academy should be run. Seven years is a long time at any club and I probably needed a new challenge as you can become lethargic.
"I have terrific respect for Steve Bruce as he was a terrific player and has done a fantastic job over the last 18 months as manager and I hope the Academy can make the same strides over the next three years like it has over the previous three."
