Rob Williams delighted to return as Walsall academy manager

Following Miguel Llera’s departure in January, the Saddlers have moved to appoint his successor as Williams returns to the club after previously being head of coaching from 2017 to 2019.

He rejoins Walsall after spending the last two-and-a-half years as head of academy coach development at Shrewsbury Town.

“The overriding feeling is one of excitement,” he said.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been here last time and I think we’ve got a real opportunity to push and drive the programme forward.

“I was here from September 2017 to September 2019 in the head of coaching role and there’s a number of staff still in the academy programme that were here at the time so those relationships already exist which I think will really help me in terms of coming back in and start to instil some of the things that we’re going to do moving forward.

“I think we’ve got an opportunity to get this academy back to where it was a number of years ago and potentially become the best Cat.3 in the country. That’s the ambition, that’s the drive that I’ve got.

“My job is to instil that into the staff, support the staff and put processes and procedures in place to help us all develop the programme to where it should be.”