EVERTON have today launched a “thorough and far-reaching” search for a new Academy Director and Under-23s Head Coach.

GUY BRANSTON has left his role as PDP Loans Manager at Leicester City to become an agent.

MANCHESTER UNITED have launched a ‘Friends of the Academy’ initiative that will support the “local football ecosystem” by sharing resources and knowledge with coaches, schools, junior clubs and young players across the North West.

SOUTHAMPTON have launched a “unique” Learning Lab that will embed a “research culture focused on modern ecological approaches” in both their club and Academy.

EVERTON Academy Director and Under-23s manager David Unsworth is leaving the club after nine years to pursue his “career aspirations” of becoming a first-team manager.

IPSWICH TOWN Chief Executive Mark Ashton has expressed his ‘surprise’ at Kieron Dyer’s decision to quit his role as Under-23s coach at the club.

GERMANY has launched new regulations that will transform the way football is played by Under-11s in the country.

ASTON VILLA will begin work on their new Inner City Academy next to Villa Park this summer. The new facility is intended to cater for youngsters from inner city areas who might find it difficult to get to Bodymoor Heath.

ARSENAL Academy Manager Per Mertesacker says there is a risk of clubs missing out on a ‘sweet spot of development’ by making scholarship decisions on players at Under-16s.

AFTER 25 years of coaching in other countries, Steve Kean has returned to his native Scotland to become Academy Director at Hibernian - and he and the club have big ambitions, as he tells TGG.

IAIN BRUNNSCHWEILER is to head up a ‘pioneering’ new Technical Development Department that Southampton hope will support their intention to be "the most productive Academy in the country on a consistent basis.”

DYLAN WILLIAMS and Omar Kellyman are the latest Academy stars to leave crisis-hit Derby County. Little wonder that manager Wayne Rooney is demoralised.