With loyalty in football diminishing, it’s rare to come across someone, player or staff, that remains at one club for a long period of time.
However, the same can’t be said for Sean Wood, who’s been at Swindon Town for the best part of two decades in numerous different roles.
“I knew I wanted to go into coaching when I was about 14, 15 years old,” Wood said.
“I was someone that used to watch any league, any game, every single evening. I always had a passion for it, and started to work at a couple of local companies.”
Shortly after, his career with the Robins began: “I went into Swindon as under-9s coach part-time at 18 years old, and at that time, Paul Bodin was the under-18s manager. I was lucky enough to be around the under-18s on a full-time basis, coming in and observing.”
That relationship with Bodin (pictured below, left), a Swindon Town legend as a player, has stuck with Wood through his career: “He’s one of my big role models. I still speak to him daily.”
Shortly after joining, Wood entered his first full-time role with the club, and has worked his way through the ranks ever since.
“I spent a couple of years as a technical skills coach, then went in as foundation phase lead for ages seven to 12 for seven seasons.
“I then moved across to youth development phase lead for ages 13 to 16 for six years, and currently I’m with the under-18s.”
Now in his 18th season with the club, there’s been plenty of ups and downs for the 35-year-old, but perhaps the biggest achievement came just last season.
“Last year was a big one with the FA Youth Cup run, and the games that we went on in that run as well.”
The most impressive result en-route to the quarter-finals came against arguably the biggest club in world football, with Wood continuing by saying: “The win against Man United I think will go down in history for a while, because of how well they’d done as an age group across the year as well.”
A memorable result as our #STFC U18s beat the 11-time winners and progress to the fifth round of the FA Youth Cup! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/9bl19qgnMl
— Swindon Town Football Club Academy (@academystfc) January 16, 2024
Wood has managed almost every age group in youth football at the Wiltshire club, and his standpoint on taking charge of a senior team has changed over the years.
“I never really aspired to be in a first team environment through the younger age groups,” Wood stated.
“I’ve seen a lot of managers and a lot of environments where there’s certain things and certain ways that different people act. I’ve thought, it’s not for me.”
However, the last few seasons have made him rethink the possibility of making that step.
“Now I’m closer to seeing the older players that are closer to professional contracts and working across age groups at the top end of the academy, potentially I would.
“It’d be interesting to see my beliefs and values within football, and how that would then look in a first team environment.”
