Brentford Football Club is fully committed to the Youth Department and recognizes the importance of developing youth, with the ultimate aim of supporting the needs of the first team manager.
Academy Vision Statement
Your Dream. Our Passion.
Our vision is to offer ALL players a challenging and enjoyable experience that will ensure they remember their time with Brentford FC as a positive one.
We strive to become and be recognised as a top 10 professional football Academy, to be recognised for innovation and excellence, to produce players with the necessary skills to play at the highest levels of the professional game.
Our ultimate aim is to recruit, retain and develop players who will eventually go on to play for the Brentford FC First Team.
Set up in 2010 the restructured youth development programme is made up of six departments that work closely to ensure a holistic approach to player development.
1. Technical - with the ultimate aim of maximizing individual potential, our technical programme is delivered by a number of highly trained youth coaches.
2. Recruitment - we have a team of scouts who work towards identifying and selecting young talented players that have the potential to play in the Brentford first team
3. Medical - in addition to providing emergency aid cover, the medical staff ensure that players that get injured are rehabilitated back to full fitness as quickly as possible
4. Sport Science - our team of strength & conditioning coaches maximize the athletic abilities of the players, implement injury prevention strategies and provide players with nutritional / hydration advice. Within this department our team of performance analysts provide video analysis of individual and team performance.
5. Education and Welfare - in addition to ensuring that all our staff members are fully CRB checked, the education and welfare department is responsible for dealing with any welfare issue that may arise during the players time with Brentford FC. Support from this department is also at hand to ensure that the training demands placed on our players does not impinge on their educational potential
6. Operations - responsible for the finance and administration. Supports all other departments towards ensuring appropriate systems are in place to facilitate the smooth running of the programme.
Each department is fully staffed with highly qualified and experienced people.
Youth Development Staff
Ose Aibangee - Academy Director
Technical Department
Jon De Souza - Senior Professional Development Coach
Jeremy Steele - Professional Development Phase Lead Coach
Henry Newman - Professional Development Phase Coach
Gabriel Flores - Youth Development Phase Lead Coach
Stuart English - Foundation Phase Lead Coach
Anthony Hayes - Foundation Phase Coach
Academy coaches
Azeez Akinbolu
Danny Buck
Justinas Gasiunas
Josh Hinckson
Oliver Hinckson
Robin Mallinson
Alex Nichols
Maxwell Opondo-Mbai
Joe Sutton
Recruitment
Shaun O'Connor - Head of Recruitment
Miguel Rios - Assistant Recruitment Manager
Medical
Richard Clark – Head of Sports Science and Medicine
Lewis Johnson – Senior Academy Physiotherapist
Sivanadian Mani-Babu - Doctor
Sports Science
Darren Stern – Lead Sports Scientist
James Purdue – Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach
Alistair Pearson - Performance Analyst
Ian Guyah-Low - Psychologist
Education and Welfare
Stuart O'Leary - Head of Education
Operations
Ron Dangerfield – Operations Manager
Xarius Desai – Academy Secretary
Brentford Youth Development programme caters for approximately 140 young players between the age of 7 -21, who fit within our 5 tier development model. During each stage an age appropriate programme is delivered to cater for the technical, tactical, physical and psychological needs of the individual players.