Former-Blues star returns to his roots as Club Academy Manager
Former-United favourite Darren Edmondson has made a welcome return to Brunton Park to take post as the Club’s Academy Manager ahead of the 2016/17 season.
Edmondson, 44, is no stranger to the Club having come through the youth ranks himself to go on to make over 250 appearances in a seven-year professional career with the Blues.
His consistency caught the eye of Huddersfield Town and he made the move to the Terriers for a reported fee of £225,000 in March 1997.
He played for Plymouth, York, Chester, Barrow and Workington as he worked towards gaining his coaching badges in the later years of his playing career and he had a brief spell as caretaker-manager at Barrow in 2005 following the departure of Lee Turnbull.
That whetted his appetite and he was appointed manager of Workington in his own right, following a brief spell as caretaker, when Tommy Cassidy resigned to take the job at Newcastle Blue Star in 2007.
He returned to manage Barrow in December 2013 and led the side to the Conference North title and promotion to the Conference at the end of the 2014/15 campaign. He also managed Bradford Park Avenue for a short period when Martin Drury left the club in March 2016.
Whilst playing for Carlisle he enjoyed trips to Wembley, and two memorable FA Cup clashes with Sunderland, as well as promotion and relegation campaigns through an intriguing and interesting period in the club’s history.
Academy Manager Darren Edmondson said: “I’m obviously really happy to be back at the club and I’m looking forward to the challenge of the new job.
“It’s an extremely important role and it’s clear from the conversations I’ve had with everybody at the club that we are all of the same mindset. We’ve seen in the past that we have good young players here in Cumbria and I see it as my job to identify them, work with them and try to bring them through.
“There’s a lot to do but I’m looking forward to meeting the lads next week and, alongside Dave Wilkes, working hard to identify and develop some good young players as we try to put a programme in place which will support the manager in what he is trying to achieve.”
Chief Executive Nigel Clibbens said: “The appointment of Darren is the first of a number of changes we are making to the Youth Development programme at the club.
“Darren will bring a new passion, pride and drive and he will reinvigorate us and help us to improve.”
We’ll have full reaction from Darren Edmondson to his appointment on the official website on Saturday morning.
