![\"Manchester](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_1731719185074jpeg.jpg\")
Manchester United academy coach Simon Wiles(Image: Simon Wiles, LinkedIn)<\/p>\nLiverpool are closing in on the appointment of Manchester United academy coach Simon Wiles as their new Under-18s head coach<\/p>\n
16:02, 16 Jul 2025Updated 16:07, 16 Jul 2025<\/p>\n
Manchester United academy coach Simon Wiles(Image: Simon Wiles, LinkedIn)<\/p>\n
Liverpool are closing in on the appointment of Manchester United academy coach Simon Wiles as their new Under-18s head coach. The Reds have been on the lookout for a replacement for the long-serving Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, who stepped down from his post at the end of last season and has since joined the first-team coaching staff at Huddersfield Town.<\/p>\n
The managerless Under-18s started their pre-season campaign on Saturday with an emphatic thrashing Welsh outfit Connah\u2019s Quay Nomads.<\/p>\n
Under-18s assistant coach Anthony Ryan, who has been promoted from his role with the Under-15s, took charge for last weekend\u2019s match in Kirkby<\/a>.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Darwin Nunez might have new transfer option after Napoli end interest in Liverpool striker<\/a>READ MORE: Liverpool locked in transfer talks for 50-goal wonderkid also wanted by Man City and Arsenal<\/a><\/p>\n Goals from Joe Bradshaw, Lenix Conde, Lucas Clark, Josh Sonni-Lambie, Josh Abe and Haydn Murray-Holme clinched a 6-1 win for the hosts.<\/p>\n And it is now looking likely that Ryan will be joined in the dugout by Wiles.<\/p>\n Liverpool <\/a>are advancing on a move for the 40-year-old to take over as Under-18s head coach, as first reported by the Athletic<\/a>, calling time on his time in the Red Devils academy set-up after less than a year.<\/p>\n While a deal is not done yet, there is a confidence that Wiles will be named as Bridge-Wilkinson\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n He only joined Man United as Lead Academy coach of their Under-14 side last September, having left his role as first-team coach with League Two Salford City to make the switch to Old Trafford.<\/p>\n He had previously also briefly served as caretaker manager at Salford following the sacking of Neil Wood in December 2023.<\/p>\n Prior to joining Salford, the former Blackpool midfielder spent four years with Fleetwood Town as Under-18s manager. He also enjoyed a stint as first-team interim manager following the sacking of Joey Barton in January 2021.<\/p>\n Wiles has also spent time as an academy coach at former club, Blackpool, and both first-team coach and assistant manager at non-league side Bamber Bridge.<\/p>\n As well as starting his senior playing career with Blackpool, he also spent time with Macclesfield Town, Dunfermline Athletic, Barrow and Salford before his career was cut short by injury.<\/p>\n Wiles would follow former Wales manager Rob Page in taking a head coach role at Liverpool\u2019s academy.<\/p>\n Page was named as the long-serving Barry Lewtas\u2019 successor as Under-21s head coach earlier this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool are closing in on the appointment of Manchester United academy coach Simon Wiles as their new Under-18s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,763,2465,423,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-267073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool-fc","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-united-fc","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114863973644888305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}