Carey Confirmed

It’s great to see confirmation today of Paddy Carey’s appointment as Head of Academy Coaching for Waterford FC where he will work in partnership with new Academy Director Johnny Dunleavy. It’s an outstanding appointment and one that everyone wanted. A real coup for the club.

Paddy and his family are synonymous with Southend United locally with plenty of service to the Blues too. He spent many years coaching at an elite level in Reading’s academy where he gained vast experience developing players. He then ran the esteemed FAI/ETB course in Waterford for eight years and has been involved in the Blues academy too in recent seasons.

The best tribute to Paddy’s appointment is the excitement of players to work with him and learn from him. Players always give him the highest praise and he has been a vital formative influence on so many of them over the years and he will have strong backing locally.

It really is an exciting pairing of Dunleavy and Carey in the two new full-time, permanent roles funded through investment from the Department of Sport and the number one aim is to develop high-quality players for our men’s and women’s teams with the potential to go on to international success.

There are some fantastic coaches already in the academy and we have access to incredible facilities at SETU Arena. It will take some time, but the opportunity is there for Waterford FC to really push on by recruiting and developing the best talent in the southeast and for those players to learn from coaches who will give them everything they need in return.