Steve Eyre appointed Development Coach at Town

Huddersfield Town have appointed Steve Eyre as the Club’s Senior Professional Development Coach.

Eyre, was recently dismissed from fellow league one side Rochdale in December after being appointed only last summer.

Eyre has also spent time with Manchester City as thier youth team manager overseeing the likes of Micah Richards, Daniel Sturridge and Shaun Wright-Phillips amongst others.

Eyre will work with Academy Manager Mark Lillis and First team boss Simon Grayson as he ehelps to bridge the gap between academy and first team. His role will also involve taking charge of the development matches.

To keep him busy Steve will also keep an eye on emerging talents out on loan at other clubs such as Jimmy Spencer at Cheltenham, Liam Ridehalgh at Chesterfield and Matt Crooks at Halifax.

Town Chief Exec nigel Clibbens explained the appointment to htafc.com:-

‘Steve’s role is critical to the Club, as he will take the central role in working with our Academy graduates in the later stages of their development as footballers as they make the tough transition from under-18 football to the senior setup.

‘Steve stood out as the correct candidate not only because of his enthusiasm for developing young footballers and his work rate, but also because of his extensive football knowledge and reputation as one of the best coaches around.

‘His footballing ethos fits the Club’s and his CV reads brilliantly – this is a real coup for us. He has a tremendous track record of bringing players through the system.’

Steve Eyre was naturally delighted to be back in football and he also spoke to htafc.com about his appointment and the role he is to fulfill:-

‘Supporters enjoy seeing home-grown players progress and get into the first team and it helps the Chairman with his funding of the Club if we can develop our own players; it will allow him to invest in the Club elsewhere if he knows we have players being produced for the first team.

‘I hope to bring experience of my young playing career, coaching experience from over two decades at Manchester City and my relatively short spell as a manager, as well as lots of enthusiasm and encouragement.

‘Obviously I have my own things to bring to the table, but I’ll be working closely with the manager. I’ve admired Simon both as a player and a manager – he has promotions on his CV – whereas Mark (Lillis) was a terrace hero at Manchester City and here.’

I have a lot to bring to the players at this Club, but we already have a fantastic set of people to work alongside here – from the Chairman, Dean Hoyle, to all the coaches and players – and a new set of people for me to learn from.

‘I would like to thank the Chairman and the Board of Directors for this opportunity; I can’t wait to get started.’

It’s an exciting opportunity and hopefully this move will see some of our emerging talent make the first team and stay there.

We have had some decent players come through the ranks but they seem to somewhat stagnate or we let them go before we realise their potential.

Good luck to Steve in this new role and congratulations to Dean Hoyle & Nigel Clibbens for securing his services.