New Charlton Athletic manager Nigel Adkins determined to give youth a chance – cites Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse as prime examples

Nigel Adkins has spelled out his dedication to giving young players a chance at first-team level.

Charlton announced this morning that the experienced former Southampton, Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Reading and Hull City manager was their new manager.

And Adkins met the media on a Zoom press conference this afternoon.

Addicks owner Thomas Sandgaard had already stated that Lee Bowyer’s successor would need to make even more of a success story of bringing through academy players to the senior set-up.

Adkins said: “Every club I have been at there has been a pathway, I’m really passionate about it. If you look at my record, I’m happy to play 17-year-olds in the Premier League – for example James Ward-Prowse and Luke Shaw, just to name two.

“Every club I’ve been at I’ve played the youngsters. You also need to have good senior pros to be role-models for them.

“How can you be in a position to help young players develop? So many of them miss out on the opportunity because the first-team manager has to win on the Saturday. A lot of the time they don’t take the risk of playing the younger players, because the younger players are more prone to make mistakes because they are learning. That’s how you learn, and it could be a costly one that makes you lose the game.

“So it’s about finding that balance. It’s trying to find that balance to help support young men – and women – to grow, develop and understand what is required to be in an elite environment.

“Likewise we’ve got to help the senior players when they transition from the end of their career into one outside of playing, because it is tough. This is their life and suddenly they aren’t playing. How can you help them? It’s about developing players and coaches so they can have a good career, right the way through.”