Key Academy Appointments Confirmed

Bolton Wanderers are delighted to confirm the appointment of Dave Gardiner as the club’s new Head of Academy.

The long-serving Gardiner – who has held a number of key coaching and development positions in Wanderers’ youth set-up in almost 15 years with the Whites – takes over following the departure of Mark Litherland earlier this month.

Wanderers have also appointed Matt Craddock as the club’s new ‘B’ team Head Coach as part of key changes within the club’s Academy and football department.

Craddock steps up from his role as the Head of Coaching at the Whites’ Academy.


Top trio: (from left) Julian Darby, Dave Gardiner, Matt Craddock

And former Wanderers’ midfielder Julian Darby – whose coaching career has also included spells with Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and Preston North End – moves up from the U16s to replace Gardiner as the club’s U18s’ (youth team) coach after close to six years back at Bolton.

“There have been some big decisions behind the scenes and what we’ve tried to do is promote from within – people that know the club, the community and the town. I’m a big believer in giving people opportunities,” said manager Ian Evatt.

“Dave deserves this opportunity. There’s no-one better than Dave for knowing the Academy, how it runs, what’s working and what’s not.

“Matt came in as Head of Coaching last season. We feel his relationship with Dave is an important one and he is very much a modern-thinking coach who believes in our brand and our identity and can really help develop those players in the stage between U18s and first-team football.

“Julian is another Bolton man and experienced coach and I’m really pleased with those three taking up those important roles.

“The club is moving in the right direction. That’s the most important thing.”

Wanderers are working hard to revive the club’s Academy system – which currently has Category Three status – under the ownership and management structures now in place, with Gardiner, 42, delighted to be leading the way.

“I’m excited by the challenge. The club is really going places and now it’s about making sure the Academy goes forward with that vision,” Gardiner said.

“We’re excited to really get things going and align everything.

“We have a great infrastructure in place, we’ve got some fantastic youngsters in the Academy and some great staff.

“It’s now about making the most of the potential and being ready to move forward in the future as we do step up as an Academy.”

The new appointments will see Wanderers aim to improve and develop the pathway of its young players, with the newly-established ‘B’ team having a key part to play under Craddock.

The 37-year-old, previously Head of Coaching at Preston North End and with experience of working for the FA, will head up a specific squad which will compete in the Central League and also play frequent other fixtures against a variety of opposition.

“I’m really thankful to the people who have put their trust in me because it’s a real opportunity for me,” said Craddock, who will also work closely with Evatt and his senior staff.

“It’s something I think I’m ready for and what has struck me over the last few days from the conversations I’ve had is that there are a lot of people working in the same direction.

“We are all aligned and I think when you get a lot of good people going in the right direction you can do so some really good things and I’m really pleased to be part of it.”

The ‘B’ squad will be made up of a core of Wanderers’ existing young players and some new arrivals this summer, with Craddock hoping to propel them towards a first-team career.

He added: “The first team is getting better and better and, like the manager has mentioned this year, the U18s are doing a really good job but the Boris Johnson between the two is getting wider and wider as the first team progresses.

“The role of the ‘B’ team is to try and bridge that Boris Johnson so that we can give some more time and dedicated effort to the players who are showing promise that maybe aren’t ready for the first team now, but we think have potential to impact the first team at a later stage.

“That’s what our job is going to be – to support those players, give them an opportunity and really specific training so we can develop them to hopefully get closer and be ready to be called upon as and when they’re needed.”

https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2022/may/key-academy-appointments-confirmed/

‘ the Boris Johnson between the two is getting wider and wider’?

Weird.

Cajunboy wrote:Weird.

I'm finding it difficult this time to work out Bob's comment as well.

I think it has something to do with what Johnson says and the truth and relating this to what FV have said on this and what the actual truth probably is.

For instance there's a lot of 'trumpeting' about 'promoting' from within and 'Bolton centric' "they all know the club/town/community/what we are building", etc, etc.

This certainly doesn't fit in with all the top backroom staff appointments FV have made in the last couple of years and strongly harps back to when FV first took on the club when we had no money and brought in Hill, Flitcroft, that local coach and any random others who had a Bolton connection and who would work for buttons (because that's all FV had at the time).

Maybe I'm wrong but it seems odd to me that we had big announcements about setting up the academy again, yet the bloke who was heading it (and took over from Jimmy Phillips) suddenly left with no apparent job to go to and three blokes who were already there all just got promoted up in to the next job higher in the chain of command.

Seems to be all done to save money to me and not pick the best talent that's out there.

No disrespect to the three blokes appointed, and good luck to them also, but FV has hardly pushed the boat out financially to find the best possible candidates out there have they?

Perhaps they haven't got a boat, just a very small dinghy!

Whatever it is I think Bob reckons that it has already run aground and starting to leak badly!

Why has the word Boris Johnson been replaced by Boris Johnson? Is Boris Johnson now a banned word?

edit - the word has been banned! Typed it and it's been replaced by Boris Johnson, who's playing silly buggars on here?

G.A.P.

so the ward g.a.p has been banned altogether? That's going to cause some confusion!

Norpig wrote:so the ward g.a.p has been banned altogether? That's going to cause some confusion!

Blame Wanderlust not me.

Look, I don't mind the odd outburst, even childish ones, but he carried it on.  I simply asked him to pack it in but he deliberately didn't.

I simply put his childishly (and for the record factually wrong statement - that was NOT what Cameron said about Johnson) abusive statement into the sites censor facility to change what he posts in to Johnson's name.

Once Wanderlust saw what was happening he didn't stop, he deliberately decided he was entitled to do what he wanted and started to find ways around saying the phrase.

So I put them into the word censor too.

So he decided to find another way, then another way...

Just as he did over his ethnic slur against the Welsh in which I asked him not to do SIX times before banning him when he did it for the seventh time.

I'm not the obsessive here - both in terms of his obsessive hatred of Johnson in the first place AND his obsessive behaviour not to backdown from a simple request asking him to pack it in.

I've previously gone down this route with him before over the ethnic Welsh slur that he absolutely refused to backdown on so I knew full well where this was heading to!

I know in your eyes I'm ALWAYS wrong in whatever I do or say in respect of Wanderlust and that you and others think he does this simply to wind me up but this simply isn't the behaviour of a prankster teasing someone, this is a seventy year old bloke who displays clear obsessive behaviour both in his views (Brexit, Tory Government, Boris Johnson, etc, etc), and towards me (this, the Welsh ethnic slur, the Sue Gray Report, Civil Servants and 1001 other things too!).

I thought using the site's word censor (and let's face it I've used it in a clearly reasonable and responsible way) would have avoided such further confrontation but once again you were on my back and not a word said about Wanderlust and his behaviour that started all this in the first place.

If the penny hasn't dropped with you yet, Wanderlust is the obsessed angry one on here - not me!

And yes I know your last post was meant in fun but you never seem to understand or give a thought as to why I attempt to deescalate much of the hatred and obsessiveness of your bessie mate's behaviour on here - you always go straight in as though I'm the problem - each and every time...

Anyway, we move on.

Sluffy it was merely a question why that word was being censored and that it may cause confusion in the future, i can't even remember what the G.A.P stood for in reference to BoJo.

I'm not sure censorship is the right way to deal with this but it's your site.

Norpig wrote:Sluffy it was merely a question why that word was being censored and that it may cause confusion in the future, i can't even remember what the G.A.P stood for in reference to BoJo.

I'm not sure censorship is the right way to deal with this but it's your site.

It's not censorship per se - all I'm doing is changing a childish abusive reference to Johnson and directly replacing it with Johnson actual name.

I'm simply using the facility to edit out unnecessary abuse AFTER I'd directly requested Wanderlust to stop doing it in the first place.

I believe that to be a fair and reasonable use of the facility, don't you?

I'm staying out of your feud with Lusty from now on , i'm too involved already 

Norpig wrote:I'm staying out of your feud with Lusty from now on , i'm too involved already 

I'd be very pleased if you did!

I've always thought you started from the point that I was always in the wrong and it's always been extremely difficult for me to change your views no matter what I'd say, thereafter.

Anyway, upwards and onwards!

I've said this before but you are as bad as each other and the site does suffer for it. My lips are sealed from now on and you can go at each other to your hearts content 

Cajunboy wrote:Perhaps they haven't got a boat, just a very small dinghy!

I don’t know what’s going on but I think that FV are fibbing by blaming COVID for the absence of the accounts.