Manager Kieran McKenna has added Fulham U23 assistant coach and analyst Charlie Turnbull to his staff as the Blues’ new head of analysis.

McKenna knows Turnbull from the Tottenham academy where he worked as an academy coach and analyst from 2014 until 2016.

He joined Fulham as U13 and U14 coach before progressing into his most recent role at Craven Cottage in September.

Turnbull has also worked with hitting technique and free kick specialist Bartek Sylwestrzak and has a first class honours degree in Sport, Exercise and Health Science from Loughborough University, where he subsequently studied for an MSc in Sport Coaching. He also holds a UEFA A Licence.

McKenna said last week that he was planning to make further additions to his coaching team having named Martyn Pert as his assistant.

“We’re still building the staff,” he said at this lunchtime’s press conference. “At the moment I’ve brought in Charlie Turnbull as head of analysis, who will also work very closely with us on the coaching side.

“Charlie’s coming in from Fulham, where he was U23s coach and U23s analyst. He’s someone I’ve known for a while, a fantastically talented young coach, a fantastically talented young analyst.

“Someone I know will add to our staff team here and the players will respond to and will be able to work well with the players and develop the players and will be a good addition to the club.

“He’s come on on board and we’re still in the process of speaking to one or two people. The club have given me really good scope to add and develop my staff as time goes on.

“No other additions at the moment but there’s still scope going forward to add to the staff team and that’s something that we’re looking at at the moment in terms of the balance of the staff, the balance of the squad that we’re working with and we might use a little bit of extra help and a little bit of a different skillset than we have currently in the building.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Pilgrimblue added 14:25 - Dec 28 All good, better ideas than Cook IMHO. But he'll need time as this is a lot of changes
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chopra777 added 14:28 - Dec 28 Good. Another young hungry coach.
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Edmundo added 14:47 - Dec 28 This feels a bit more logical and methodical, more like the Gamechanger/Ashton approach. Irrational optimism will now be my emotion for the next few weeks.
6

Sospiri added 14:50 - Dec 28 McKenna looks like one of these young Managers who uses data and analysis to win. I think its the way of the future in football; smart people will usually win more matches. The days of Cook and his like are passing I think.
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Bazza8564 added 15:04 - Dec 28 Glad they arent all coming from United, shows the Gaffer knows more about the club than just using people he's used before. Whilst I wasn't against that with cook, it didnt give us quality, just familiarity.
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Lord_Mac added 15:10 - Dec 28 Didn't we take on a sports scientist in the Cook era? A young graduate I think, whose name escapes me. What happened to him?
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therein61 added 15:49 - Dec 28 At least he is(thoughtfully) building with people with some experience and not giving coaching jobs to mates who were clueless and commanded little respect from the players
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markchips added 16:20 - Dec 28 The game is undergoing huge changes and standards are rising all of the time. It is essential the recruitment of coaches looks to the future and encompasses all of the skills required to succeed. If United are having to rethink at their level realistically so do we.
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ringwoodblue added 23:15 - Dec 28 Any modern sports manager who doesn't properly use the data and analytics tools available is not going to succeed so this is encouraging. Cook probably thought analysis was a condition of the rear end!
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brassy added 07:30 - Dec 29 some real ambition at last coybs
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