Brazil takes beefed-up role as Forest seek Category One status
Brazil has been Academy Manager at Forest since February 2013
Written by Simon Austin — October 24, 2020
NOTTINGHAM FOREST Academy Manager Gary Brazil has taken on the beefed-up role of Director of Football Development as the club look to move into Category One next season.
Forest recently submitted an application to be promoted to Cat 1 and aim to become the 27th team in the top tier. Burnley and Leeds United were promoted last season, while Swansea dropped down to Cat 2.
In his new role, Brazil will “contribute to the development of the club's football philosophy”, as well as overseeing the Academy programme, the domestic scouting and the loan programme of the club.
The former midfielder, who played more than 500 senior games, has been Forest’s Academy Manager since February 2013 and was previously Club Support Manager for the Premier League and Academy Technical Director for Fulham.
Speaking to BBC Radio Nottingham, he said: “I’m not distancing myself from the Academy at all. The other role is being involved in domestic recruitment for the first team, working with Chris (Hughton) and making sure we’ve got a group of scouts who are going out and really looking at the domestic market, knowing that when we get towards the next window we’re offering possible solutions for Chris.”
The other new part of his role is overseeing loans and Brazil added: “We won the 23s league last year (Professional Development League North) very comfortably, but if they can’t make the first team here at Nottingham Forest we must expose them to first team football.
“We’ll be out on a Saturday watching our young players developing at other clubs, communicating to make sure their loading is strong and that they’re continuing to develop, so that when they come back they’re in better shape to really push into the first team in the future.”
Category One application
Brazil said: “We’ve made an application for Category One. We spoke with Gareth Prosser (General Manager of the Professional Game Academy Audit Company), who leads the process, in terms of us being internally audited to see if we can meet a criteria.
“We already give Category One outcomes for the club and have always been a very very good Category Two club. But for us to move forward we need that status.
“We need that games programme to challenge the players we have and also to try and recruit a higher level of player. We would also look at improvements in facilities and if our staffing levels are good.
“We have to have everything in place by June next year for the audit and can start performing at Category One next season.”
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