Carss leaves Blackburn to become Aston Villa U23s boss
Carss has been "fundamental to our work within the Academy," Blackburn said
Written by Simon Austin — June 15, 2022
TONY CARSS is leaving Blackburn Rovers after five years to become Under-23s Head Coach at Aston Villa.
The Pro Licence Coach, who signed his first pro contract as a player with Blackburn, was appointed Head of Academy Coaching by the club in August 2017.
Head of Academy Stuart Jones said: “I appointed Tony as Head of Academy Coaching five years ago and he has been fundamental to our work within the Academy in the development of both players and coaching staff.
"Personally, I would like to thank Tony for his support and commitment over that time, in what has been a successful period in transitioning players into our first team.
"I know he found the decision to leave difficult, however, he will soon move on to a new challenge and opportunity at a Premier League club and I, along with with everyone at the Academy, wish him all the very best in the next step of his career."
Carss, who will begin his new role at the end of the month, replaces Mark Delaney as U23s boss at Villa. The Welshman left the club four weeks ago after 15 years of coaching at Bodymoor Heath.
Delaney joined Villa’s Academy in 2008, having made 193 appearances for the club as a player, as well as winning 36 international caps for Wales. He had been in charge of the U23s for the last two seasons, working with players including Jacob Ramsey, Carney Chukwuemeka, Cameron Archer and Louie Barry.
In addition:
- Gerrard Nash has been appointed Lead U18 Coach at Villa. He has been High Performance Coach with the Football Association of Ireland for the last year, having previously spent 19 years at Ipswich Town, where he was both U18 and U23 Lead.
- Adem Atay has been appointed U18 Professional Development Coach. He joins from Ipswich, where he was U18s Head Coach and Assistant Academy Manager.
- They will work alongside Karl Hooper, who is Assistant Professional Development Phase Coach.
- Assistant Academy Manager Sean Verity is taking on the additional role of Assistant Head of Coach Development (Ryan Maye is Head of Coaching & Development).
Academy Manager Mark Harrison said: “We are delighted that Tony, Gerrard and Adem are joining us after a thorough recruitment process. They will bring with them a wealth of experience in player development and their appointments will also strengthen our player development coaching strategy.
“This will allow us to support individual player development further as we will now have three outfield coaches at both U23 and U18 level. These appointments underline again the central importance which the Board place on the constant evolution and development of our Academy."
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