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Brentford to appoint women’s coach in landmark moment for men’s game

Brentford are set to appoint former Leicester City women’s team manager Lydia Bedford as the new head coach of their Under-18s boys side, Telegraph Sport can reveal, in a landmark moment for women’s coaching within the men’s game.

Bedford will be taking on one of the most senior coaching roles ever held by a woman at a men’s Premier League club, in what will be seen as a significant step forward for inclusivity within such a male-dominated profession. No female coach has ever managed a men’s professional side in England and, even at the youth level, women in coaching roles of this nature at elite men’s clubs have been extremely rare.

In terms of Premier League clubs, the current England women’s Under-17s manager Natalie Henderson previously coached at Newcastle United’s boys academy, and she was understood to have been the first woman employed full-time by a Premier League academy. Lower down the men’s pyramid, Manisha Tailor has coached at QPR in a number of roles since 2016, while Hannah Dingley has been similarly blazing a trail as Forest Green Rovers’ academy manager since 2019. But it is believed Bedford will be the first woman to take charge of a top-flight boys Under-18s outfit.

She has held Uefa’s Pro License qualification since 2019 and has extensive experience with England’s youth international women’s teams, having managed the Under-15s, Under-16s and Under-17s.

Bedford spent the final three months of the 2022-23 Women’s Super League season as part of Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall’s backroom coaching team as an assistant coach, working alongside the Swede as the north London club reached the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League and finished third in the WSL.

She previously managed Leicester in the women’s top flight for just under 12 months, avoiding relegation in 2021-22, but was sacked in November 2022 after a losing start to the season. Her replacement at the East Midlands side, Willie Kirk, oversaw Leicester’s survival on the final day of the campaign last Saturday.

According to sources, Bedford informed Arsenal’s women’s players of her departure in recent days, and goes with their warmest wishes for the future.

The 35-year-old previously spent seven years with the Football Association, and was the Women’s Super League’s youngest manager at the time when she took over Leicester in 2021. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/ 12/10/lydia-bedford-interview-woman-behind-englands-brightest-young/

In her career she has worked with many of the current Lionesses senior squad when they were earlier in their development in the youth international setups, including stars such as World Cup-bound duo Manchester City’s Lauren Hemp and Manchester United’s Ella Toone. Bedford earlier began her career as a PE teacher in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 2009.

Last November, after the success of England’s women winning the Euros, the FA reported that the number of female coaches working in affiliated teams across England was up 75 percent compared to the same point in 2021.

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