West Brom are edging closer to appointing a new academy manager with two men leading the way, the Birmingham Mail can exclusively reveal.
Richard Stevens, academy manager at Coventry City, is in pole position to replace Baggies stalwart Mark Harrison, who joined local rivals Aston Villa this month.
But technical director Luke Dowling is also believed to be considering Chris McGuane, whom he worked with at Watford and Nottingham Forest.
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Whoever takes the job has huge boots to fill. Harrison successfully led Albion’s academy for 13 years after taking over from venerable talent spotter Dan Ashworth and also helped with first-team affairs at the back end of last season.
During Harrison’s leadership, West Brom’s academy achieved and maintained Category One status under the Elite Player Performance Plan.
And on his watch, dozens of talented players came through the youth ranks including Romaine Sawyers, Izzy Brown, Jerome Sinclair, Saido Berahino, Kemar Roofe, Tyler Roberts, Rekeem Harper, Sam Field, Nathan Ferguson, Louie Barry and Morgan Rogers.
Albion had more England youth internationals than Manchester United and Liverpool last season and the club also boasted a record number (62) of first-team appearances by its academy graduates, with six different players chipping in.
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A former assistant academy manager at Birmingham City and coach educator at Birmingham County FA, Stevens was among the former colleagues Jimmy Shan consulted for advice during his run as caretaker manager last season.
Like Harrison, Stevens has a track record of developing youngsters into first-team players with the Sky Blues.
Around 50 players have risen through the ranks to make more than 1,700 senior appearances combined during his 12 years at Coventry.
Ten ex-academy players were involved in both of the club’s recent Wembley successes - in the 2017 Football League Trophy and 2018 League Two play-off final - with three getting on the scoresheet.
The Sky Blues have also enjoyed a significant return on academy investment through the sale of homegrown products, while Stevens has experience in writing successful academy performance plans and has twice completed the EPPP Audit process with ‘outstanding’ feedback.
After spending six years in the academy at MK Dons, McGuane joined the Hornets in March 2010 as technical skills coach before being promoted in October 2012 to academy manager, a role he held until May 2018.
The 36-year-old, who has the illustrious claim to fame of having developed England international Jadon Sancho from the age of 9 to 14, is assistant academy manager at Forest having joined the club in July last year.
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McGuane holds a UEFA A Coaching Licence, an LMA Diploma in Football Management and a wealth of experience in the game.
West Brom’s academy is undergoing a makeover after several key personnel left during the summer.
Former shot-stopper Boaz Myhill returned to the club last week to replace Mark Naylor as academy goalkeeping coach while ex-first-team player, coach and caretaker manager Michael Appleton has rejoined as Under-23s boss.
Naylor and Ryan Maye, Albion’s former head of academy coaching, will reunite with Harrison in Villa’s youth setup.
Former Spurs and QPR defender David Kerslake is rumoured to be among the candidates to succeed Maye.
Appleton filled the vacancy left by Jamie Smith who linked up with ex-Baggies player and head coach Darren Moore at Doncaster Rovers.
Shan, who so nearly guided the Baggies to the Championship play-off final last term, ended a 13-year association with the club when he departed in June.
Mike Scott, another long-serving staff member who guided the Under-18s to the FA Youth Cup semi-final last season, left after 11 years last month to join Derby County as their academy chief.
There has also been a major change on the physio side with Andrew Leaver vacating his role as head of sports science and medicine.
Leaver, who joined the Baggies in 2012, was a valued member of the Albion department that won the Premier League’s Medical and Science Team of the Year award in 2017.
He was asked to head up the medical department last September following the departure to Forest of Director of Performance Dr Mark Gillett.