Looking not a minute older and fit enough to still be playing former striker Tony Ellis talks about his new role within the Keith Hill "revolution"

"The official start date for me is the 2nd July and I have come in as Director of Youth Football at the club to run the Centre of Excellence with Hilly and Flicker and in close proximity to Chris Beech. The main role is to getting everyone pulling in the same direction. Youth football is massive and there are a lot of kids in the surrounding areas who would want to play professional football. Our job is to tap that resource. With the young people it is not all about winning it is about developing them for the first team and maybe to sell on in the future"

Ellis has left his role as Assistant manager at Hyde United and values his time there

"We had a few ups and downs in the beginning but we did well, won a few trophies and got some good players in and I enjoyed my time there. I would like to thank Steve Waywell the manager there who I learned a lot from and hopefully I have left them in a good state"

The appointment of Ellis underlines the fact that the Board at Spotland see the production of our own players of paramount importance

" I have met with Mr Andrew Kelly,one of the Directors and he has a real passion about the Youth set up and really wants it to work. I am desperate to make it work too and  will be putting the hours in and making sure that everyone is doing there jobs and pulling in the same direction so that we can get footballers for this club. When you have that backing and when you are working for people that you trust like Keith Hill, Dave Flitcroft and Chris Beech it is a massive plus. It will be a pleasure to come into work."

Hopefully Tony can also pass on some of the expertise that he showed in a career that netted him more than 200 goals to our very promising first team strikers Glenn Murray and Chris Dagnall

" I will be popping in to training sessions as well as working on match day as the Eye in the Sky so I will be having contact with them.I have been told not only what good players they are but they are always willing to listen and learn which is a big plus"