Located in the North West of England, Accrington Stanley Football Club are a historic side who currently compete in League One, the third tier of English football.
This region is home to many well-known football clubs, including many competing at a higher level than Accrington. It is therefore essential that Accrington finds ways to gain an edge against its rivals, both locally or nationally.
This is especially true for the club’s academy, who need to develop players for the first team, whilst also avoiding losing young talent too early to other academies.
Accrington’s academy has recently been transformed. Investments have been made to secure its future and maximise its impact on the wider club and community. A new facility has been built, new, experienced staff have been hired and data has been put at the centre of everything they do.
“As part of the restructure of the academy, one of the areas we really identified as potentially gaining an edge on other academies in the Northwest, which is obviously a very crowded area, was to become data driven and to have a drive to be smarter than other clubs by using data to gain that edge.”
-Chris Hough, Head of Academy Operations
We have been working with the academy for three seasons to support their staff and players with data and tools. We recently spent a day at the academy to hear about the work they are doing to develop the next generation of local footballing stars. Check out the video below to watch the fascinating story!
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