In January 2001, when Steve Avory first stepped out on to the grass at Sparrows Lane as Assistant Academy Manager, the first team squad was managed by Alan Curbishley and the club was consolidating its place in The Premier League.

In the nearly twenty five intervening years there have been no less than nineteen changes of manager, five changes of ownership, four promotions and five relegations. And yet, if you go down to Sparrows Lane as I did a couple of weeks ago, you'll find that Steve is still there. And, what's more, in his new role of Academy Advisor, he's still on the grass. It is a remarkable story of loyalty, longevity and achievement.

Back in the 1970s Steve represented East Derbyshire District and Derbyshire County schools as a left back and an "inside left" and was on the books of Mansfield Town. However, he wasn't offered an apprenticeship and it soon became clear to him that he wouldn't make it as a professional footballer. However, because he had enjoyed his schoolboy football so much, he decided to train as a PE teacher so that he could pursue a career teaching sport. After he qualified in 1978, he came down to London and worked at Hurstmere School in Sidcup before, in 1986 becoming Head of PE at Hazelwick School in Crawley.

He enjoyed teaching and, in particular, he loved the extra-curricular activities like running the school football, cricket and basketball teams. He had gained his "A" coaching licence at Lilleshall in 1985 and he soon found himself in charge of district and county football teams in Kent and later in Sussex. One thing led to another and in 1991 he was offered the (unpaid) job of manager of the England Schoolboys U16 team. He managed the team for three years and, although he isn't one to blow his own trumpet, he does admit to being "as proud as punch" when leading his teams (which included boys like Philip Neville, Danny Murphy, Jody Morris and Mark Gower) out on to the Wembley pitch, against the likes of Germany, Holland, France and Scotland.

His love of coaching and youth development meant that, even while working full time in education, he was always taking on extra duties. For two years, after stepping down from the England job, he was part-time Centre of Excellence Director at Brighton FC. He also  delivered coaching courses for the FA and was an FA Regional Advisor for Centres of Excellence. He had even done some coaching at Charlton's Centre of Excellence in Lennie Lawrence's time. He acknowledges that these extra responsibilities meant he had to make family sacrifices and he has some regrets now that he didn't see his son and daughter competing in school sports as much as he would have liked because of his own commitments in school sport and football coaching.

It was no great surprise, given his growing reputation and the wealth of experience he had amassed, that he was approached in 1998 by Charlton's then Academy Manager Mick Brown who asked him to consider becoming his assistant on a full-time basis. Steve reluctantly turned down the offer as it didn't feel the right time for him. He did however undertake some part-time work with Charlton under 16s and he got to know the environment, the people and the programme so, when Mick returned with the same offer two years later, Steve made the "big decision" to give up the security of his employment as a teacher and join the notoriously insecure world of football.

The Academy he joined in January 2001 was a far cry from what we see today - there were only about nine or ten full-time staff compared to the almost thirty employed there now. Steve's role was to coach and oversee the coaching of all age groups from 9-16. This meant about 130 young players and he went to great lengths to ensure that he really got to know not only all the players but also their parents who he recognised as "vital stakeholders".

Amazingly, as well as dealing with the demanding responsibilities of his role at Charlton, Steve was for six years also the assistant manager of the England Non-League team, which later became known as the England C team. This involved him watching a lot of non league football to guide him on selecting players, predominantly under 23. "I joke with Jim Rodwell about it" he smiled "because, at the time I was watching  games at National League level, he was coming to the end of his career at Rushden and Diamonds. He was a very decent centre half at that level in a very good non league team but he would have been considered too old for selection.”

When Mick Brown left in 2004 Steve applied for the Academy Manager's job and was interviewed at The Valley by a panel of Peter Varney, Alan Curbishley, Mervyn Day and Keith Peacock. He didn't get the job but instead became assistant to the successful candidate - Steve Gritt - and he continued in his role with the 9-16 year olds until Gritt left at the end of the 2009/10 season. Steve has great respect for Steve Gritt: “a very decent man and Charlton legend who always had the Club and Academy at heart.“

"Financially it was not a good time for the club" Steve recalls "and I have to say I was concerned about my job and also the future of the Academy. However, I was informed by David White and Steve Kavanagh at the start of the 2010/11 season that they would like me to manage the Academy". Steve is keen at this point to pay tribute to Damien Matthew with whom he worked closely in those days and who played a big role alongside him.

However, at the end of that first season Tony Jiminez and Michael Slater, as the new owners, decided to bring in Paul Hart as Academy Manager. This can't have been an easy time for Steve, but he recalls it with typical diplomacy: "I was relieved of my duty and that was another time when I thought it might be coming to an end but Paul said to me that he didn't want me to leave and that we would "do this together”. We did, and I got on well with Paul and have a lot of respect for him”.  Steve's title changed to Head of Coaching and he had overall responsibility for ensuring that the coaching programme was delivered for the schoolboys. Hart was responsible for the under 18’s but Steve worked alongside him on the grass in the mornings before coaching the schoolboys in the evenings. This was also the beginning of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) era and the categorisation of Academies. Steve remembers this time as a “very intense, hard working period with the coaching that had to be delivered plus the documentation that had to be prepared to fulfil the criteria of becoming a Category 2 Academy and maintaining that status.”

When Paul Hart left at the end of the 2013/14 season Steve was informed that the club would like him to become Academy Manager again and, with no further interruptions, he was to remain in that role until his decision to step back to the Advisory role last October. The achievements of the CAFC Academy in those seasons have been quite phenomenal.

The EFL produce an annual Academy productivity league table by linking player professional appearances to their development years spent in Academies. Measured over the last twelve years the Charlton Academy is in first place as the most productive Academy in the entire EFL (72 clubs) and is also the most productive Category 2 Academy. Even more astonishing is that it is the eighth most productive Academy of all 92 clubs in the EFL and Premier League  - outperforming 21 of the 29 Category One Academies.

In addition, the Academy has produced six full internationals (Jonjo Shelvey, Joe Gomez and Ezri Konsa -England; Karoy Anderson and Tyreece Campbell - Jamaica; Ademola Lookman - Nigeria). Furthermore – through Jordan Cousins, Ademola Lookman, Deji Elewere and Zach Mitchell, it has provided the winner of the EFL Apprentice of the Year award on four separate occasions in the last decade.

However, there can be little doubt that it is the consistent production of players for the Charlton first team that Steve rates as the Academy's greatest achievement. When he greeted me in reception he was quick to point me towards the photo on the wall of the graduate group at Wembley last May. Leaburn, Campbell, Anderson, Maynard-Brewer, Kanu, Mbick, Fullah, Mwamba and Enslin have all broken through, in addition to Mitchell and Asiimwe. Others like Lookman, Grant, Fox, Morgan and Doughty have made their mark and moved on.

Steve is adamant that "you can't teach or coach without discipline so it's been important that we had a disciplined learning environment which at the same time could be challenging and enjoyable. Players have had to understand that they had come here to learn and develop as football players but to develop as young people as well." He stresses the importance of giving both formal and informal time to players and to "really listen to them”. He describes the culture of the Academy as being one where "all staff buy in to all the players" and "are ready and willing to go above and beyond".

There can be no doubt that Steve's length of service to The Academy plays a big part in the creation of such a culture. His loyalty and commitment inspires the same in others and he is quick to pay tribute to colleagues such as Joe Francis (Head of Education), Rhys Williams (Head of Coaching) and Bert Dawkins (Head of Recruitment) who have been there long term alongside him. Young players and their parents see this continuity and they value highly the stability it nurtures. It also means that a consistent approach can be maintained where learning takes place and  values and beliefs come to life. Steve outlined the importance of what he calls the ‘Charlton Way’ of coaching: "It has to be challenging, demanding and enjoyable. Our coaches have to coach detail and, in order to do that, they have to be able to observe well, diagnose, communicate and correct. Elite young players want to improve, we have to ensure that service is there for them.”

The introduction in 2012 of the Elite Player Performance Plan was probably the biggest change during Steve's tenure. Charlton were placed in Category Two and, although it was disappointing three years ago when the club's application for Category One status was turned down, Steve is positive about the benefits of EPPP:

"It has its faults but it has absolutely raised standards and provided investment in youth development. The rules of EPPP mean that you have to provide a certain number of hours to players so, for example, our 14-16 years olds are here for four training sessions per week plus the game. All age groups get a minimum of three sessions so we are devoting more time to coaching and more time to developing the players".  He explains that funding from The Premier League is contingent on funding put in by the clubs themselves and that Charlton have done so, including in some very demanding times such as the COVID year. "Resources, facilities and the programmes have got bigger in terms of staffing and we could not have thirty full-time staff without the Club support and alignment with Premier League funding."

Steve has described his decision to step back last Autumn as a very difficult one but he has no doubt about it having been the right decision. He realised that he "needed to have that little bit more space in my life" so he had "an open conversation" with Jim Rodwell and Andy Scott and made it clear that he didn't want to step away completely because he knew he would miss it too much. "Jim was excellent and suggested I write a job spec" he says, and in his role of Academy Advisor he has been able to forge a new work life balance.  He has two grandchildren living in Italy and he felt he wasn't seeing enough of them. He is a golf club and gym member and he relishes the opportunities to travel more and go to concerts with his wife. He is a big Pink Floyd / David Gilmour fan.

Nevertheless, although contracted for three days a week he regularly drives the one hundred mile round trip from home to Sparrows Lane and back at least four times a week, especially as he likes to watch the players perform at the weekend.  "Thank goodness for the automatic gearbox"  he laughs.

He acknowledges that his new role has been a big change but he has adjusted to no longer being in a leadership role. He has a good relationship with Tom Pell who has replaced him as Academy Manager and the changeover in leadership has been very smooth. He is clear that he doesn't expect to be invited to leadership and management meetings. His main task in his new role is to support Head of Coaching, Rhys Williams in ensuring that all the coaches have support in their development and that they are delivering "our syllabus" with a coaching methodology that is "the Charlton Way."

He admits that he still "hankers after wanting to coach" but acknowledges that "we've got a good coaching structure and team in place" He also recognises the inevitable limitations that come with passing sixty. "I feel fit, but your movement is not what it once was. If I had to demonstrate a thirty yard pass I'd be concerned I'd pull a hamstring. In recent years I've become an expert in the fifteen yard ground pass".

When he is formally observing a coach he concentrates fully on the coaching so as to be able to give appropriate feedback, but there are plenty of occasions when he can watch a session and enjoy watching the players. "What I've made a big effort to do in the last six to nine months is to ensure that, from the ages of thirteen through to our under 21s, I get to know the individuals' strengths as well as areas of their game that they need to develop". He is clear that it is youth development which still drives him forward. "I don't think I could have carried on doing this if I wasn't involved with players and without sounding arrogant, after so many years around young players, I think I have a decent eye for talent and potential “

So, it would appear that personally and professionally everything is going swimmingly, but Steve's face clouds over when we touch on the subject of player retention.

"We are under the greatest threat of all my time from other clubs looking to sign our players. The rules allow it and it has increased post Brexit because Academies can no longer sign under 18 players from abroad so Cat 1 academies in particular are looking to recruit domestically lower down the age groups"

He feels really passionately about the issue. Schoolboy players are signed for a year at a time from 9-12 and two years from 13-14 and 15-16. He acknowledges that "In the last dozen years or so we might have lost the odd one here and there but what's happening more and more is that families are exercising their right at the end of their registration period to explore other opportunities.” He continues: "Although a club is entitled to compensation if a player leaves - depending on the number of development years - that is not a model that I've been used to and its not a pattern that anybody here wants to continue, so we have to be looking at strategies and processes to improve what we can do to retain players. If I'm talking to parents now who want to look elsewhere, I'll be talking about the pathway to the first team and to the boy's long term development. I'll talk about our productivity and I'll take them into the classroom to see images of all our young players who have come through since 1998 up to the present day. It is impressive!  But what we are increasingly finding is that that is probably not enough, so we need to look at even more gains, no matter how small “

External influence is clearly at play and the club suffers. Steve is adamant: "Let's get real here. While we might get what appears to be a good compensation figure when a young player moves from Charlton to somewhere else - how does that compare with the value of that player if he was to get into our first team and play 30-50 games?”

He acknowledges how demoralising it can be for coaches when a promising young player they have been working with for five years or more is poached by a better resourced club. However, he feels that "the game as a whole has to be more concerned about it because it does not seem right to me for a player at fourteen years of age or even younger to be moving around the country, because the rules allow it, to go from one club to the next when the reality is that the player is not unhappy". Steve has raised his concerns with Darren Wassell who is Head of Youth development at the EFL. Steve reports that Wassell, an ex Academy Manager himself, “empathises with the problem and has promised to at least look at discussing this ever-increasing youth development concern.”

Steve hopes to continue in his Advisory role as long as the club are happy for it to continue and, although he has no managerial responsibilities, it is highly likely that the club will be tapping into his experience and wisdom when it comes to the thorny subject of strengthening player retention.

However, at this moment he is excited about how many graduates will be taking the field at The Valley in the Carabao Cup against Stevenage in the evening. And outside, the sun is shining and the under 21s are about to kick off against Sheffield Wednesday. He can't wait to get out on the grass and enjoy watching the next crop of exciting talent emerge.

 

If you are not already one of the 2500 Addicks who are members of CAST you can join here for just £5 per year:

https://www.castrust.org/join/?v=7885444af42e