Barnden appointed Head of Sports Science by Nottingham Forest
Barnden worked for Brighton for seven years
Written by Simon Austin — January 24, 2021
TOM BARNDEN has been reunited with manager Chris Hughton after being appointed as Head of Sports Science at Nottingham Forest.
The duo worked together at Brighton for five years when Hughton was boss and Barnden was Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach.
In September 2019, the practitioner was appointed fitness coach at Manchester City after seven years with the Seagulls. At the Etihad he worked mainly with City's Under-23s before a stint with the first team towards the end of his tenure.
"I had a wonderful time at Manchester City during a hugely successful period in which we won the FA Youth Cup and saw a number of Academy players make first-team debuts,” Barnden told TGG.
“I worked with some great people and have to give special mention to Mark Bitcon (Academy Head of Performance Services) and Jason Wilcox (Academy Manager), who were superb.
“The opportunity to take the department forward at Nottingham Forest and develop good people and processes was just too good to pass up on.”
Barnden started working with Forest at the end of November and added: “It’s been brilliant to work with some familiar faces, like Chris, and some new ones, like Steven Reid, who's a very forward-thinking coach.”
Barnden takes over from Chris Thorpe, who followed manager Sabri Lamouchi to Al-Duhail in Qatar when the manager was sacked by Forest in October.
