{"id":3555,"date":"2025-07-16T18:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/3555\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T18:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:05:09","slug":"liverpool-set-to-hire-man-united-coach-in-key-role-liverpool-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/3555\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool set to hire Man United coach in key role – Liverpool FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool are close to appointing their next U18s head coach, with a highly rated coach from Man United<\/a> set to fill the void left by Marc Bridge-Wilkinson\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

Bridge-Wilkinson departed Liverpool at the end of the 2024\/25 campaign and the club have been searching for his successor in the months since.<\/p>\n

While a swift decision was made to replace U21s coach Barry Lewtas<\/a> with former Wales manager Rob Page, the hunt for a new U18s head coach has run into pre-season.<\/p>\n

But according to The Athletic<\/a>\u2018s James Pearce, Liverpool are set to hire Man United<\/a> youth coach Simon Wiles in one of their most crucial academy roles.<\/p>\n

Wiles, a former midfielder for the likes of Blackpool and Barrow, is in \u201cadvanced talks\u201d with the Premier League<\/a> champions and his arrival is expected to be announced in the near future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He will move after less than a year at Man United<\/a>, having led their U14s and U15s last season after joining from Salford City.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old \u2013 who has been coaching for over a decade \u2013 has senior experience from first-team coach roles at Fleetwood Town and Salford City, while he sat in the dugout on an interim basis for both clubs.<\/p>\n

If he joins Liverpool as anticipated, Wiles will work alongside new assistant Anthony Ryan, who has been promoted from the U15s staff.<\/p>\n

Liverpool U18s began pre-season earlier this month and beat Connah\u2019s Quay Nomads 6-1<\/a> in their opening warmup friendly, with six different goalscorers including 14-year-old Josh Abe.<\/p>\n

There was a sense that the youth setup had grown stale under two long-serving coaches, despite admiration for the work of both Lewtas and Bridge-Wilkinson, with the latter seen as a coach who embraced more traditional player types.<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

With the long-term goal to smooth the pathway from academy to first team, Liverpool will be hoping the appointment of Wiles can aid the development of their technically gifted youngsters.<\/p>\n

Last season the young Reds finished 11th in their 13-team league, as well as being knocked out of the third round of the FA Youth Cup by Preston and semi-finals of the League Cup<\/a> by Reading.<\/p>\n

Wiles should also take charge of the U19s in the UEFA Youth League, potentially alongside Page, with Liverpool already qualified for the tournament beginning September 16.<\/p>\n

In other news, Liverpool are set to sign 17-year-old striker Will Wright<\/a> from Wiles\u2019 former club Salford City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool are close to appointing their next U18s head coach, with a highly rated coach from Man United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,134,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-3555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}