Charlton Athletic are pleased to announce that Hamza Serrar and Danny Senda have been given new roles in staffing changes within the club’s academy structure.
Hayes had been lead coach of the U23s (now U21s) assisted by Senda.
Academy Director Steve Avory explained: “We are all very pleased to see Anthony Hayes moving to the men’s first team. It's great in terms of the coaching pathway for our academy coaches and I'm also very pleased for him personally.
“The move prompted a review of how we could do things slightly differently at the PDP [Professional Development Phase] level. We have a very talented group of players aged 17-21 we feel and we wanted to look to see if there is anything that needed to be looked at that could be improved.”
Within the new structure the highly-rated Serrar, who led the U18s to much success last season, will become Senior Professional Development Phase Lead Coach, with a key responsibility of overseeing the technical and tactical development of PDP players aged 17-21.
Avory explained: “We decided that Hamza Serrar would be the ideal person for that position. He is already coaching and leading the U18s but he has also worked with the U23s in the past, and has worked in the youth development phase as well. He has good knowledge and good experience from working within the academy for seven years. Once I had talked about this with the owner and he agreed it was a good idea, we put it into place.
“I feel that the role that Hamza has taken will ensure that someone oversees the whole phase, just as at other phase levels in the academy, and ensure that everything is aligned with the coaching and playing philosophy across the 17-21 group. What I would add is that I feel the brand of football our first team plays at the moment is more aligned with our playing philosophy than it has been for quite some time.”
Senda, who has managed the U21s to a perfect start to the season, has been appointed as U18s lead coach and will be supported by Jason Pearce.
Avory said: “I was very conscious that we didn’t want to be losing quality coaches like Danny Senda who has been with us a year now and done a very good job assisting Anthony Hayes. He has done really well in pre-season with the U21s where he has had to take over that group temporarily. He is an excellent coach and I am confident he will do a thoroughly professional job with Jason Pearce supporting him.”
Yilmaz Aksoy will continue as Professional Development Phase Goalkeeper Coach.
Charlton fans can support the academy by signing up to the Valley Gold scheme. Valley Gold enables fans to support the club’s academy in unearthing the talents of tomorrow, as well as giving them the chance to win cash prizes.
For more information on how you can become a Valley Gold member, please click here.