Cardiff City Academy Manager Hughes joins Manchester United
Hughes played seven times for Aston Villa and was later their U18s Lead
Written by Simon Austin — July 26, 2022
CARDIFF CITY Academy Manager David Hughes has joined Manchester United as a Professional Development Phase coach.
Hughes will work predominantly with the Under-21s but also have responsibilities across the whole phase. United have revamped things following the exit earlier this summer of both U23s Lead Neil Wood, who was appointed manager of Salford City, and his assistant Neil Ryan, who joined the Football Association as an England youth coach.
Mark Dempsey has taken over as U21s Lead (the Premier League has changed competition from U23s to U21s) with Paul McShane as his assistant in what United describe as a 'flexible new structure'. Hughes, who came through the youth ranks at Aston Villa and later made seven first-team appearances for the club, will add further support.
After retiring because of injury at the age of 26, Hughes became Head of Youth at Shrewsbury (2009 to 2011), a coach at Watford's Academy (2011 to 2014) and Wales FA intermediate teams assistants (2014 to 2016) before returning to Villa in November 2016 as U18s Lead.
He has also been Head of Player Development at Southampton. In November 2020 he was appointed Head of Academy Coaching at Cardiff, before being promoted to Academy Manager last October when James McCarthy departed.
Meanwhile, Bradford City Head of Coaching Martin Drury has been appointed as United’s new U15s Lead Coach. He has been with the Bantams since 2016 and was previously their U14s to U16s Lead, U18s Coach and first-team assistant.
His first day at United will be Monday 8th August.
In further news, Adam Lawrence has been appointed Interim Head of Player Development and Coaching for the U14 to U16 age group after Travis Binnion’s promotion to Head of Player Development and Coaching earlier this summer.
United will make a permanent appointment shortly.
