Town academy manager Dean Wright says the Blues’ youth set-up is currently going through a staff recruitment process with coaches for the U21s and U18s top of the list, an assistant academy manager and head of recruitment having already been appointed.

Wright himself joined the club in July following Lee O’Neill’s departure at the end of last season and is in the process of adding to the staff.

Among the positions which need to be filled are coaches working alongside U21s coach John McGreal and U18s coach Sam Darlow, Geraint Williams having departed after being asked back to Playford Road to assist with the U18s for a spell in the summer.

“We’re going through a recruitment process at the moment. We've had a number of jobs advertised over the last few weeks and we’re just going through the recruitment process now,” Wright, who works to director of football operations Gary Probert, told TWTD.

“We want another 18s coach, another 21s coach, just to be able to contribute to the type of programme that we want to deliver.

“I’m not a massive one for leads and assistants and all that sort of stuff, what I want is a team of people that just work together, that are passionate about the players and developing players, not so much teams.

“I think if you end up with leads and assistants or managers and assistants, you end up with people that get fixated on teams. I don’t want that, what I want is a smaller group of people where we all just work together, we help out with whatever’s going on.

“We’ve got a day release programme that we run now for our 13s to 16s groups that is something that we’ve started this season and there’s football going on, so we’ll have a younger group in now in the afternoons and that is drawing people.

“So we’ll have John McGreal out around the U16s, we’ve had first-team coaches out around the U14s and again just brings that togetherness. The staff know all the players, the players know all the staff and the key to that for me is about transition, that it’s hopefully a transition from 15s to 16s to 18s and so on.

“That’s what I’m looking to build where people have job titles and you have to have a job description and this is what you’re here to do, but with the understanding that we are here together and we’re here to help each other - it’s not about me and my team and people saying I’ve got my team and they were alright when they were with me and now you’ve got them. I don’t want that at all.

“It should work where the 21s are around the 18s, the 18s are around the 16s, which is all happening at the moment. The programme allows for that. John will come in on a Saturday and will work with his lads earlier in the morning to make sure that he’s done, so he can walk over and watch the 18s game.

“We have midweek games now for 15s and 16s, so if there’s a game going on, you naturally get drawn towards it. If you’re into football, you go and have a watch, even if it’s only for 20 minutes.

“That is all done from my perspective with a plan and there’s a design to that, it’s not just thrown together by accident, there’s a design to the way the week works in terms of when people train and when people play for players to be able to transition, for members of staff to be around more than just their own group.

“And then the way I want to build the coaching department is the same, you should be interested and you’ve got your job to do with your team, but take an interest in the group above you or the group below you and just be around the players and create that culture.

“We’re all here for the same reasons and we’re all passionate about developing young players and that doesn’t matter if that’s a 15-year-old or a 19-year-old, there’s still the same level of enthusiasm that we want.

“I think the best cultures that I’ve worked in at all the different clubs I’ve been at are where you have that core group of staff that are across a lot of stuff that all help out with whatever’s going on and say, ‘There’s game going on tonight, I’ll stick around and watch that’.

“It might just be one thing that that person says to a young player that makes a difference on that day that if they weren’t there, that wouldn’t happen. That’s what I’m trying to create.”

Regarding the additions of assistant academy manager Marvin Williams, who was brought in from Sutton where he had been academy manager, and head of recruitment Alex Kaufman, who was previously working as East Anglia academy scout at Norwich City.

“We went through a recruitment process for those two positions,” Wright continued. “Marvin will be assistant academy manager, so effectively Marvin will be responsible for all the off-field parts of the academy, so operations, education, player care, safe-guarding.

“We’ll have an audit at some point this season, so Marvin will take a lead on making sure we’ve got everything together for that in terms of evidence that you need to provide in making sure we’re set up to get through that properly. And we’ll look at all that stuff.

“I will still be across all of it, but not necessarily managing the day-to-day operation of all of that, Marvin will do that, which then allows me to focus on the on-field stuff a little bit more.

Regarding existing staff, long-serving academy operations officer Helen Broughton moved on in the summer having been at Playford Road since the academy was instigated in the late 1990s, while Wright says Bryan Klug, head of coaching and player development, continues to play a significant role.

“Part of Marvin’s role is to try and replace a little of [Broughton’s job] from an operational point of view,” he continued.

“Bryan’s still with us, still part of what we’re doing. Obviously has a real feel and connection to the club, which is important.

“It’s all well and good me getting people from different parts of the country and stuff, but you have got to have Ipswich people and people who have got a feeling for the club as part of that as well to give that balance.

“And the benefit of his experience of seeing countless numbers of players go through and be successful, not be successful.

“Bryan’s around the coaching programme and supports the coaches with their development, but also probably just generally with his experience of being through the cycle a number of times.”

Under the previous regime, Playford Road was viewed as an academy not just developing players but coaches with alumni Mark Kennedy and Liam Manning having gone on to manage, respectively, League One sides Lincoln City and, until yesterday, MK Dons.

Will that still be an aim? “Hopefully. I think people develop within what we’re doing to provide value to us and with the understanding that if people start to come for our players or our staff and they get opportunities, that’s probably a credit to the work that’s going on in the academy.

“The people that you’ve mentioned there, it’s a credit to the work that’s gone on in the past that has given these people a grounding to go and do what they’re doing now.

“That links with what I said earlier about there being good stuff going on here. I think what I’ve tried to bring is a direction and bit of enthusiasm and energy and say, ‘Go on, let’s do this again, let’s keep doing this again and again and again with players, with staff’ and get back to being known as a club that produces staff and contributes to the wider game, hopefully here, but if not here then with the wider game.”

Regarding facilities and buildings, Wright added: “There’s loads of stuff that they’re talking about, linked with how we can be the best that we can be.

“One of the first things when I started was to try and remodel the offices a little bit to create a better working environment.

“Because of the layout of the building, we had different people in different areas and the general crossover wasn’t great in terms people who needed to speak to each other being in different parts of the building, so that wasn’t naturally happening.

“We’ve redesigned that in a way that particularly the football people, the people who coach, the people who do analysis and the people who recruit, are all sat in the same room now.

“All football clubs have the whiteboards now where they have magnets with the player names on, so we had three or four different offices with these boards on, so the same player might be on a board in four different rooms around the building.

“That to me, there’s a conversation happening about that player four different times, rather than once with everybody in together.

“And that’s what we’ve tried to create now, everyone is together, there’s a natural crossover of people.”

He says that crossover includes the senior players: “The first team moving across to the new training pitches that they’re on now is really good because they have to walk through the academy to get to where they train, which is great because they’re naturally around us all the time as opposed to walking across the road where if you don’t purposely go over to see them you might not see them.

“When they’re training where they are now, they’re in and around, so the 18s, 21s, all the staff are around all the staff and players of the first team all the time.

“There are obviously professional boundaries and we’ve got to be respectful of them that we’re not all sat in the canteen when the first team are coming in to eat or anything like that, but there is a genuine crossover, which, to be fair, is as good as I’ve seen at any of the clubs I’ve worked with.

“There is that togetherness around the training ground, which can only be positive for everyone really.

“We can support the first team as best we can, they support us wherever they can and just probably their presence and people seeing that visibility of people is important, it gives players that sense of belonging and being a part of something.

“It’s not like the first team are some mythical entity that are over there and we hear them every now and then but we don’t ever see them, it’s the opposite of that now, there’s a genuine crossover, which is really positive and creates a really good atmosphere and environment for everybody.”

Further instalments of TWTD's in-depth interview with Wright can be found here, here and here.

Photo: TWTD

Chrisd added 11:47 - Dec 13 Have the club got or considered a role for ‘Player Care' for their Academy players? Not just developing them as players on the pitch, but someone that can help them off it and develop them as people by enhancing their life skills and personal development? Just a thought.
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ButchersBrokenNose added 13:22 - Dec 13 ChrisD: Great point. I talked to Simon Milton at a youth game several years ago and asked him the same question. He assured me they did, but couldn't offer specifics. I think you're spot on. We take these kids and train them for several years while paying them next-to-nothing, and when they get a professional contract, we put them on a grand a week. That's a shock for an 18 year old. We need to prepare them for that transition, or for the one where they're shown the door.

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Blue_badge added 14:26 - Dec 13 I reckon that's covered by "Marvin will be responsible for all the off-field parts of the academy, so operations, education, player care, safe-guarding" - not explicit but academies are certainly going to be challenged and audited on that aspect as well as doing the best for them on field.
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MoscowBlueMule added 14:29 - Dec 13 Yes, would seem that Marvin will take the lead on that.... “We went through a recruitment process for those two positions,” Wright continued. “Marvin will be assistant academy manager, so effectively Marvin will be responsible for all the off-field parts of the academy, so operations, education, player care, safe-guarding.
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Runner added 14:56 - Dec 13 I think this 'flow' that he is talking about is what KMc was talking about some time ago, September/October time.
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Chrisd added 15:34 - Dec 13 Also, the flipside ButchersBrokenNose. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the beast they aren't all going to make it as professional footballers and have long and prestigious playing careers at the highest level or even at L2, but helping them arrange trials at other clubs or signposting them into other careers would probably provide a smoother exit strategy than simply telling them they aren't good enough or won't be offered a professional contract due to reasons X,Y and Z. Furthermore, checking their progress and seeing if they require additional support after they've left the club. Feel all clubs should make a point of doing this, it's a huge disappointment getting released and challenging to overcome initially, it would provide the club with greater kudos, highlighting they are looking after the welfare of these young players both on and off pitch.

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Razor added 10:48 - Dec 14 Crikey this guy has a lot to say-------just hope his actions speak louder than his words. Progress in the F A Youth cup would be a tangible sign.
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