{"id":309670,"date":"2025-08-01T16:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T16:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/309670\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T16:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T16:14:14","slug":"liverpool-deal-manchester-united-blow-as-they-appoint-highly-rated-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/309670\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool deal Manchester United blow as they appoint highly-rated coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool have appointed Simon Wiles as their new Under-18s head coach\"ManchesterManchester United academy coach Simon Wiles(Image: Simon Wiles, LinkedIn)<\/p>\n

Liverpool have appointed Simon Wiles as their new Under-18s head coach after luring the highly-prized coach away from Manchester United. 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

Wiles started work at the Academy on Friday and will work closely with newly-appointed Under-21s head coach, Rob Page, with the pair helping to form a key bridge from academy to first team football.<\/p>\n

He will also be supported by assistant, Anthony Ryan, who has taken charge for the Under-18s in pre-season to date after being promoted from his role with the Under-15s.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Liverpool make opening bid for Alexander Isak as Newcastle United respond<\/a>READ MORE: Anthony Gordon lifts lid on collapsed Liverpool move and sends Alexander Isak message as bid rejected<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Scott Mason will focus on individual player development.<\/p>\n

Wiles is a highly-regarded young coach, boasting a skill set across youth age groups and across development and senior football.<\/p>\n

He only joined Man United as Lead Academy coach of their Under-14 side last September, adding category one academy experience in the process after leaving his 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

Following Wiles\u2019 appointment, Liverpool <\/a>academy director Alex Inglethorpe told the club: “Simon is a highly regarded young coach and I’m delighted he’s agreed to take a key role within the Academy as lead for the U18s group.<\/p>\n

“It is a crucial phase in development for young players towards a professional career and I believe Simon’s experience made him an outstanding candidate for the role.<\/p>\n

“He has worked across the age groups at Fleetwood and Blackpool, with plenty of experience of senior football at Salford as well \u2013 most recently working in a Category One academy at Manchester United.<\/p>\n

“That skillset is ideal for us as we look to allow our players to reach their full potential and hopefully transition towards the upper levels of the game.<\/p>\n

“Simon will work closely with our new U21s head coach Rob Page, while Anthony Ryan will continue as his assistant coach following his recent move from the U15s.<\/p>\n

“All of us at the Academy are excited about working with Simon and look forward to helping him develop players capable of bridging the gap to elite first-team football.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool have appointed Simon Wiles as their new Under-18s head coachManchester United academy coach Simon Wiles(Image: Simon Wiles,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309671,"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-309670","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\/114954401611892887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309670","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=309670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}