Portsmouth hunting for key appointment

Pompey academy manager Mark Kelly. Picture: Joe Pepler

The Blues are still searching for Dave Wright’s successor following his departure for Brighton.

The club’s head of academy performance and recruitment has now worked out his notice period, after The News revealed he’d been poached by the Premier League side in October.

Pompey are continuing their process of finding the right man to fill Wright’s position, as they consider the structure of their youth set-up.

Academy boss, Mark Kelly, explained getting the best candidate to liaise with other roles the club are looking to fill is an important consideration.

Kelly said: ‘We’re looking at the moment.

‘We're interviewing for a couple of different roles and a couple of different things.

‘That will all come out as we go along and we’ll reveal the structure when needs be.

‘But there are a lot of different things happening at the minute.

‘We’re currently putting things in place to get those done.

‘But I am looking at a few different areas, a few different roles and the way that they’ll all manage.’

Eyes will be on who comes into Wright’s academy role, with his appointment heralded as a coup when he was brought in last February to lead a youth overhaul.

It proved to a short stay for the 38-year-old, however, after he was tempted to Brighton after FA technical director, Dan Ashworth moved to the Amex Stadium.

Wright follows Mikey Harris to the Seagulls, after the academy coach left Pompey 14 months ago.