Matt Taylor joins Walsall

We can confirm that Matt Taylor will be leaving his role as our Under-18s Coach to take up the position of Head Coach at Walsall from 1 June.

The former midfielder, who represented Luton Town, Portsmouth, Bolton Wanderers, West Ham United, Burnley, Northampton Town and Swindon Town during a distinguished playing career, joined our Academy coaching team in the summer of 2019 and has led our youngsters in the Under-18 Premier League for the last two seasons, helping to nurture and develop the talents of a number of young players who have made their competitive first team debuts for us during that time, including Harvey White, Malachi Fagan-Walcott, Dane Scarlett, Alfie Devine and Nile John.

Academy Manager Dean Rastrick said: “Matt has been first-class during his time with us, combining his tremendous professionalism, integrity and passion for the game with a real desire to help nurture and improve our young players, to the point that several players he has worked with have been able to make their debuts for the first team in the last two seasons. I hope he has enjoyed working with us as much as we have enjoyed working with him and, with the additional coaching experience he now has under his belt, we wish him the very best as he moves into a first team management role, something he has always aspired to do.

“We pride ourselves on producing not only players but also coaches and support staff here in the Academy and in recent years we’ve seen a number of our staff go on to enjoy first team roles both here at Spurs and elsewhere in the game. Matt is our latest success story in that respect and I reiterate that he leaves with our best wishes for the future. We will provide an update on our Academy coaching team for next season in due course.”