It has been a turbulent year and more for football. But it has been the role of our Academy staff to guide hundreds of young aspiring professional footballers through what has been a challenging period for all Academies across the country.
So it is time to shine the light on a few new faces and number of established names who are in a good place to take our Academy forward once more.
Joining the club as Head of Coaching is Anthony Ferguson. Ferguson’s playing career came to an end at an early age after a car accident, but he took up coaching more than 25 years ago and has been involved in the professional game since 1997 working with youth and professional development teams at Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, AFC Wimbledon, with the FA’s national teams and the Bangladesh Football Federation.
"Our Academy continues to identify, embrace and nurture talent at every age level and at the heart of the process of developing players for our first team and preparing them for a professional career in football are the people."
Michael Gilkes
Academy Manager
Having grasped opportunities to coach, teach and mentor in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean, he has lectured at London Southbank and Kingston Universities, held the position of Director of two large conflict resolution charity organisations in the capital and has been the FA County Coach Developer responsible for London. And in acknowledgement of his contribution to football and community, Anthony has rightly been recognised for his work with an award from the prestigious Football’s Blacklist.
“I am looking forward with excitement to working with our widely diverse group of people here at Reading Football Club who have great levels of knowledge and specialist expertise,” he said.
“We share a common vision for maximising potential of all those around us through dedication, smart work, empathy and integrity.
“It has been great spending time with the management, staff and players in recent weeks – and it is obvious that we have the resources and rigorous processes in place to achieve more long-term success in developing the players within our care.”
Meanwhile, Mehmet Ali has been managing our Under-23s throughout the disruption caused by this pandemic, and he will continue to do so after his appointment to the position of Senior Professional Development Coach.
Peter Scott has been officially appointed as his Under-23s Assistant Coach, while Mykee Jenkins and Harrison Gilkes have also joined our coaching ranks within the last year.
In the physio room, Head of Academy Sports Science & Medicine Steve Cottrell, has been joined by Pippa Inwood, Alex Meredith and Cian Dunne who are ably assisted by part time therapist Rachel Mayler, while player care has been at the very top of our agenda during these strange times and Jacquie Howe (Lead Player Care) and Gillian Thomas (Psychologist) have joined the club working with Ben Marks, Head of Academy Operations & Psychology.
Academy Safeguarding Officer Celeste Stevens has been working across all age groups throughout the pandemic and, of course, performance is the end product - so we’d like to welcome Mollie Derhun and Farahan Shabbir to our Academy Analysis team, while David Kennedy fills the important role as our Academy’s Kit Assistant this season.
Academy Manager Michael Gilkes said, “Our Academy continues to identify, embrace and nurture talent at every age level and at the heart of the process of developing players for our first team and preparing them for a professional career in football are the people. We are fortunate to work every day with some of the very best staff in the sport and, despite the difficulties we have all faced during the pandemic, our Academy staff have worked tirelessly to continue to safely provide an environment in which our young players can improve on the pitch and off it. And that hard work never stops.”
