Hughes promoted to new Head of Individual Development role by Man City
Darren Hughes: Joined Manchester City from Liverpool in 2014
Written by Training Ground Guru — May 30, 2024
Hughes has worked for City for the last decade, as Under-11s Lead, U18s Assistant and, for the last three years, as U16s Lead. Prior to this he worked for Liverpool’s Academy for seven years and for Wigan for three.
Writing on LinkedIn, Hughes said: “I’m delighted to share that I've accepted the position of Head of Individual Player Development at Manchester City. The challenge of creating and implementing a new methodology, enhancing individual player development is an exciting prospect.
“I am eager to take on this opportunity, knowing that the rewards of seeing players thrive and excel will be immeasurable. The new role will involve building a new department and being part of our Academy Management structure.
“I’d like to express my gratitude to the club for the opportunity and to everyone who has been there for me throughout my journey so far.”
The Head of Individual Player Development role was advertised by City in February. The stated remit was to “ lead on all aspects of strategic planning in relation to individual player development.”
The responsibilities were to “develop and implement a coaching curriculum in line with the Manchester City Football methodology focusing on individual player development for all players and age groups in the Academy” and to “lead, design and plan coaching sessions across Foundation, Youth Development and the Professional Phase.”
The advert added that the successful candidate would “also be responsible for creating continued professional development programmes for all the coaches within the Academy focusing on individual player development.”
As he said, Hughes will sit on the Academy Management Team and work with the Heads of Coaching “to ensure all coaching functions are joined together for new and existing players to provide a seamless football development programme.”
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