Manchester United appoint Brentford’s Torpey as Academy Director

The appointment reunites Torpey with United’s Director of Football, Jason Wilcox. The duo worked together at Manchester City, where Wilcox was Academy Director and Torpey the Head of Coaching, first for the Foundation Phase and then for the 15s to 23s.

When Torpey was appointed as Brentford’s Academy Director in January 2024, he identified three “unique selling points” he believed could help Brentford become the “most caring and progressive Academy in the world”.

The first was the games programme, to allow Foundation Phase players to continue to participate in grassroots sport. The second was coaching, with a series of high-quality appointments, and the third – and arguably most innovative of all – was the creation of a new Human Development department.

“We feel this is an area we can be world-leading in,” Torpey told TGG. “We want to do it differently, as we typically do at Brentford. That’s not to be quirky, it’s about having a blank canvas as a new Academy, thinking critically and doing things differently to other clubs.”

Under Torpey’s leadership, the Bees became the first club to be promoted two Academy categories in one go when they moved up from Category Four to Category Two status six months after his arrival.

At the time, Torpey said: “Since arriving at the club, I have maintained that I want us to push boundaries and this news is another positive step in the right direction to where we ultimately want to be.”

Their aim was to become Category One by the start of this season and Torpey was leading that process. The Bees had closed their Academy in the summer of 2016, instead choosing to run a B team model. However, after being promoted to the Premier League in 2021, they had to run an Academy under competition rules, so reopened one in 2022.

Brentford have lost several other backroom staff over the summer. Head Coach Thomas Frank joined Tottenham, taking with him First Team Assistant Coach Justin Cochrane, Head of Performance Chris Haslam and Analyst Joe Newton.

Assistant Manager Claus Norgaard also left the club, as did Sport Scientist Matthew King.

Reunited with Wilcox

Torpey’s arrival at United is the latest in a series of backroom changes which have taken place at United this year.

Several staff have left the club, including First Team Fitness Coach Paolo Gaudino, Emerging Talent Lead Scout David Harrison, Head of Performance Analysis Paul Brand, Director of Insights and Innovation Richard Hawkins and Head of Safeguarding Joanna Madyarchyk.

Among the new appointments have been Michael Sansoni, as Director of Data, Michael Farrell, as the club’s first Head of Football Culture and Development, Dan Ransom, as Head of Psychology and Performance Lifestyle, Marcus Hannon, as Head of Nutrition, and Will Carvalho, as Performance Chef.

Cox had been with United for nine years after joining them from Sheffield United in May 2016.

He joined as Academy Operations Manager, working alongside Nicky Butt, and was promoted to Head of Academy three years later and then to Academy Director in October 2022. 

While he worked in that role, 29 Academy players went on to make first-team debuts for United, with 25% of the club’s total first-team minutes going to homegrown players.  

There were also about £100m of sales of Academy players in the last three seasons and United topped TGG’s Academy Productivity Rankings for three consecutive seasons – 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2020/21 – after Cox joined United.

Cox, who was our guest on Episode #15 of the TGG Podcast, was directly headhunted by Everton, who are undergoing a restructure following their takeover by the Friedkin Group last December.

TGG Members; Manchester United staff profiles