Stoke City have been exploring bringing in an experienced former player for their under-21s set-up at the same time as they look to announce a new academy director.
Stoke have important vacancies to fill this summer following the mid-season departures of Gareth Owen – academy director and then academy technical director – and Dave Hibbert, who left the 21s to join the first team group at Wycombe Wanderers.
Stuart Harvey has joined as technical director and it has been an open secret that Stoke are set to unveil Jack Higgins, from Fleetwood Town, as the head of the youth set-up. The move is likely to be confirmed soon.
It will be part of a re-structure that will also try to help bridge the gap to the first team, using a ploy that has been adopted by clubs including Brighton – who have used old boys Ben Barclay and Andrew Crofts – and Manchester United (Tom Huddlestone).
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Sporting director Jon Walters said: “Go back to last year and Gareth moved into a role and things happen in football, things don’t quite work out. We appointed Sam Stockley in an academy manager role with an idea, coming from America, to learn from Gareth in a lot of areas.
“We were trying to then figure out (the best structure). Hopefully we’re in a position to announce things very soon. We’re working on a whole structure for the academy and PDP department and other areas as well.
“The owner (John Coates) wants people through the academy. We’ve got a lot of resources, we’re doing as much as we can, you’ve just seen the new building… there is a whole raft of improvements for the academy building, with £3m-£4m being spent on that to give them the best facilities. We’re doing everything we can to improve everything.
“The structure is a big part of that. We want to get players through the academy to our first team. We want that identity. There’s nothing better than having someone come through from nine years old to play for the first team. I need to get the structure right with coaching and development right with players.
“The last time we had real serious players through would have been Harry Souttar, Nathan Collins, Tyrese Campbell. We probably had a period when we recruited at a certain age, spent a little bit of money. I want to be able to do that as well. You want to give them the best chance and you need the right coaches, the right individual development programme. We’re in the process of doing that and I want the right coaches in place (and there will be a) new person coming in.
“One area I would like (to improve) is bridging the gap between under-21s and first team. You want to get people on loan who need that experience of first team football but there is still a development plan. How do we get those young players coming up?
“Last year we had a 15-year-old train up with the first team for a little bit, with rondos and possession. I want that first team environment around them. We want that pathway. I want to leave spaces in the first team squad for people to get in. To do that you need the right players as well, the right plan, the right coaching strategy, the right identity, the right periodisation model so it plans in.
“One of the areas to bridge a gap, and I’ve seen it done at Liverpool and Man Utd, is to have an ex-player with the 21s. I’ve spoken about with the soon to be announced structure. How do we get that experience of a really good pro in that group that can really help with a young midfielder, young striker, young centre-half – to share that know how and what it takes to be a professional footballer. First of all, can you get someone in who’s been at Stoke? Secondly, can you get someone in who has had a top career at the top level? We’re also working on that.
“All these processes have been going on through the summer and we’ll be in a position to announce that quite soon.”
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The Sentinel's Stoke City writer, Pete Smith
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