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NOTTS County have appointed Alex Clapham as their new first-team coach.
The 32-year-old has held senior coaching roles in academies in the UK and overseas.
He was under-19s manager for Spanish side Getafe during the 201920 campaign before leaving in March 2020 to join Swedish side Ytterhogdals IK.
His Magpies role will see him lead the approach to set pieces and contribute to opposition analysis.
Clapham will support head coach Ian Burchnall and Michael Doyle with individual player development plans and coaching and will also provide tactical and technical advice on match days.
The newly appointed first-team coach attained UEFA’S highest coaching qualification, the Pro Licence in Spain.
Burchnall said: “In Alex we have found someone who’s dedicated themselves to analysing and coaching set pieces, which isn’t easy as specialised coaching remains a relatively new thing in football – especially at our level.
“The fantastic infrastructure we’ve got at the club means we have access to a mass of data surrounding opponents and set pieces and, working closely alongside our head of performance analysis Joao Alves, Alex will be using his analytical skills to drill into the numbers before devising and delivering coaching strategies to the players.”
Among several candidates for the role, Burchnall revealed Clapham stood out the most as he passionately expressed his ideas of how to take the club to the next level.
Burchnall continued: “We were fortunate to interview several strong candidates for this role but Alex really impressed us with the depth of detail he went into and his ideas about how we can get better.
“It’s important to stress that we won’t see overnight improvements and that Alex is very much part of the wider coaching team – we share responsibility for all aspects of the team’s performance.
“But we do feel he will be a huge help to us in an area where, while being a long way off the worst in the league, we were behind many of our direct competitors last season.”
The Magpies get their new National League season under way on Saturday when they travel to Barnet.