Sport
IS OWEN REALLY GONNA LEAVE STOCK CITY? Gareth Owen’s final decision
Academy director Gareth Owen is staying at Stoke City.
The 41-year-old had been expected to leave at the end of this month to pursue other opportunities in the game but, having stayed on through the summer to help guide the club’s youth set-up through a period of transition, has now agreed to remain.
There has been a lot of change behind the scenes at Clayton Wood over the last few months, with Kevin Russell and Rich Walker leaving their roles as head coaches for the under-21s and 18s respectively, as well as youth coach Danny Pugh and head of coaching Jimmy Hunter. Alex Morris has joined from Crewe Alexandra tasked with helping bridge the gap between youth and senior football while Dave Hibbert has taken over the 18s, assisted by club legend Ryan Shawcross.
The last few weeks have seen the emergence of hot talent including 16-year-old Sol Sidibe, who is now regularly training and travelling with the first team, while there are high hopes for strikers Emre Tezgel and Nathan Lowe, who have turned 18 this month. England youth keeper Tommy Simkin is getting his first proper taste of regular men’s football on loan at Solihull Moors.
Technical director Ricky Martin said: “The fact that Gareth’s recent experiences within the club – and the direction in which he sees things travelling – have influenced his decision to stay with us is credit to his colleagues and testament to the potential that exists within our age group squads.
“We will continue in our pursuit of developing the best possible players through our academy pathway. That, of course, is an exciting project and an area we must continue to strengthen and support as we seek to increase our production of homegrown talent.”
Owen came through the ranks at Stoke as a centre-half and returned as a youth coach in 2013, taking over as academy director in 2019. The academy was given a three-year licence at elite category one level by Professional Game Board auditors last year.
Tezgel became the club’s youngest ever player in January 2022 and, although his progress has been stalled a little by injury, he is now fit and will be building up his sharpness with the under-18s over the next few weeks ready to stake his claim again.
Last month, Sidibe became the club’s third youngest player – and second youngest in a league match – and he has also impressed for England under-17s.
Owen said: “Although the process we worked through in recent weeks was intended as transitional, it helped me take stock regarding the scale of the opportunity for the academy, and the immensely talented players within it, in the future.
“Following positive conversations with Ricky in particular, our assessment was that for me to stay is in the best interests of the football club. Having been part of Stoke City for the majority of my footballing life on and off the field, to me, that really is the most important thing.”
