We have appointed Tom Weal as our new goalkeeper coach.
Tom joins us from Norwich City, where he was head of academy goalkeeping, following Jake Kean’s departure for Burton Albion.
And, having also coached goalkeepers in Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest’s academy, he is excited to take his first senior role with us.
“I’ve had some great times in academy football and have been privileged to work with some brilliant young goalkeepers and backroom staff, including Norwich’s first-team goalkeeper coach Ed Wootten," said Tom.
“This is a massive club that you can see is going places and Ian Burchnall is a very exciting person to work for. He has a great team underneath him and I want to be part of the collective effort to get the club back to where it should be.
“I know Ian sees his goalkeepers as having a crucial role in the way he wants the team to operate and that really appeals to me – it means I’ll be responsible for coaching a lot of in-possession stuff on top of simply defending the goal, which is great.”
Burchnall added: “Tom comes highly recommended by a good friend of mine at Liverpool, who certainly knows his goalkeeping.
“He’s done a lot of coaching in top academies and has had first-team involvement at Norwich on top of his day-to-day work. This opportunity will allow him to be consistently in and around a first-team environment, which will really benefit him.
“When we interviewed him Tom spoke really well about the way he’s worked in the past and how he feels he can improve our goalkeepers.
“He may be young, but he’s an experienced coach who will be able to take a fresh look at Sam Slocombe and Tiernan Brooks and hopefully take them on the next level.”