Sky Blues chief leads chase for top Albion job

WEST Brom are edging closer to appointing a new academy manager with two men leading the way, the Birmingham Post can reveal.

Richard Stevens, academy manager at Coventry City, is in pole position to replace

Baggies’ stalwart Mark Harrison, who joined Villa this month.

But technical director Luke Dowling is also believed to be considering Chris McGuane, whom he worked with at Watford and Notts Forest.

Whoever takes the job has huge boots to fill. Harrison successfully led Albion’s academy for 13 years after taking over from Dan Ashworth and also helped with first-team affairs at the back end of last season.

During Harrison’s leadership, West Brom’s academy achieved and maintained Category One status under the Elite Player Performance Plan.

And on his watch, dozens of talented players came through the youth ranks, including Romaine Sawyers, Izzy Brown, Jerome Sinclair, Saido Berahino, Kemar Roofe, Tyler Roberts and Rekeem Harper.

Albion had more England youth internationals than Man United and Liverpool last season and the club also boasted a record number (62) of first-team appearances by its academy graduates.

A former assistant academy manager at Blues and coach educator at Birmingham County FA, Stevens was among the former colleagues Jimmy Shan consulted for advice during his run as caretaker manager last season.

Like Harrison, Stevens has a track record of developing youngsters into first-team players with the Sky Blues.

Around 50 players have risen through the ranks to make more than 1,700 senior appearances combined during his 12 years at Coventry.

Ten ex-academy players were involved in both of the club’s recent Wembley successes – in the 2017 Football League Trophy and 2018 League Two play-off final – with three getting on the scoresheet.