Southampton will appoint Aston Villa’s Under-18 coach David Hughes as Head of Academy Player Development, according to Training Ground Guru.
Saints have recently made big changes in the boardroom as well as a major overhaul of the backroom staff.
Hughes will take up the newly made position which is seen as being key as he focuses on individuals, identifying what they need in order to improve.
Hughes came through the youth ranks at Villa in the 1990s and went on to make seven appearances for their first team. He also played for Shrewsbury and Cardiff.
After injury forced him to retire at the age of just 26, Hughes moved into coaching and became Head of Youth at Shrewsbury and later became a coach at Watford’s Academy. In November 2016, he returned to Villa Park to become U18s coach.
He will reunite with Ross Wilson, who in the shake-up became Director of Football Operations at St Mary’s. The two worked together at Watford when Hughes was a youth coach and Wilson was Business Director.
‘Hughesy’ took to Twitter and stated that he was looking forward to the challenge of developing the young talent at the south coast club.
