Steve Avory has announced that, after nearly 25 years, he is standing down from his post of Director of Charlton Athletic's phenomenally successful Academy. The blow is softened slightly by the fact that he will still be involved part-time in an advisory capacity.
CAST has had the privilege of getting to know Steve very well in recent years. He kindly agreed to be guest speaker at our 2018 AGM and he has since joined us on two occasions for Q&A webinars alongside some of his young charges - Aaron Henry, Charlie Barker, Daniel Kanu and Zach Mitchell. He has also been involved in nominations for and presentations of the Steve Clarke award.
We have learned a lot from his extensive knowledge of football and youth development and from his insistence that all the Academy's work should be underpinned by the right values - humility, discipline, respect, a strong work ethic, pride in the badge and "going above and beyond". These, of course, are values which he espouses and models every day.
We have gathered together some of the best quotes from his meetings with us:
"What makes the Charlton Academy so successful ? You have to get the recruitment and the coaching right, but what we do very well is promoting values and beliefs. This is a hard-working environment, and it can be cruel at times, for sure, but the players will see that they can succeed here if they put in the hard work. The Academy is also good at empowerment and giving players strong personal responsibility and spending a lot of time with the players and their parents off the pitch. We want to be approachable for the parents. Strong work ethic is something that I’m very big on, and having people who are structured and organised, and can contribute to this wonderful environment that we’ve got and have built over many years.”
“Football clubs should be serving their communities with a youth development programme with players who, in the main, come from that community.”
“I’m a strong believer in having longevity – I know I’m an extreme example!”
"Ademola had not previously been at a formal academy, and we picked him up at a London FA game. It took five minutes to recognise him, and all of my staff claim the credit!”
“I’m saying thank you to each and every Valley Gold member, past and present, for the experiences they’ve given every single player in attending tours and tournaments, at home and abroad, year on year.”
“I find it unfair to name one player. Of course you’re always delighted when they play at the highest levels, as in Joe Gomez’s case at international level but I get as much satisfaction from players in other leagues, like Regan Charles-Cook playing for Ross County in the Scottish Premier League"
“One thing the lads will all have heard me say is that they’ve all got talent, which is why they’re here. But talent isn’t enough. That’s a message I’m even more keen to get across to the young pros. Just because they’re young pros does not mean they’ve made it. When I think about Shelvey, Lookman, Gomez, Aribo, Konsa – Aaron and Charlie come into this category, too – they all had a love, passion and dedication to the game. They want to be around football every day. You try to get a football off Ademola Lookman! They also had humility, which is important as well.”
"You’ve got to have discipline, above all else. Whether they are a young nine-year-old who might drive you up the wall as nine year olds can do or an older player, they have to want to learn."
"When I came into football full-time twenty years ago, having done twenty years of teaching before that I felt I needed to bring the structure I had as a teacher, to be organised, to be a good communicator, and to have an ability to observe and diagnose some of the key faults and areas where you feel you can help players. I think I learned that in teaching. The one thing I definitely felt I had, which is important with young people, is an enthusiasm about myself that I carried over into my football coaching career. That was just something that came out because I love doing what I do.”
"When I was teaching one of my pupils was Gareth Southgate. I advised him to stick to cricket"
The formal CAFC announcement of Steve's stepping down includes an in depth interview with him:
https://www.charltonafc.com/news/steve-avory-steps-down-academy-director