Birmingham City revealed that Julian Gray has returned to the club to join the Blues’ academy.
Birmingham City have brought back former winger Julian Gray this summer to train in the club’s expanding academy. Gray, 44, played for the Blues from 2004 to 2007, scoring in the Second City Derby against Aston Villa, suffering relegation and winning quick promotion from the Championship under Steve Bruce.
Gray, who also played for Crystal Palace, Coventry City, and Walsall before spending a few years in Cyprus at the end of his career, retired in 2014 and began coaching. Gray returned to Arsenal, where he began his career, in the summer of 2021 to take up the role of under-18s assistant coach.
He has since returned to Blues, where he will take over as the club’s new under-15s manager as part of Knighthead’s academy overhaul. Gray, who holds a UEFA A License, is one of many former Wast Hills players who have returned to the club to help it achieve Category One status.
This summer, Blues appointed Mike Scott, a highly experienced coach who has returned to his boyhood club, as the club’s academy head coach. He works with academy director Mike Rigg and academy manager Liam Daish, and he made the decision to hire Gray.
“We had some strong coaches apply for this role,” he explained. “Julian was picked because he is an excellent coach who offers detailed information, can illustrate from a playing standpoint when coaching, and will contribute knowledge and expertise to the program. Julian is also an excellent mentor for young people, and he will be another person in the building to encourage youngsters as they develop on their path to becoming professional footballers.
“In addition, Liam Daish, our Academy Manager (Football), myself, and the staff are beginning to put processes in place to support individual-specific development across the business end of the programme; his knowledge as a forward will be valuable to players who want to follow in his footsteps and play in the Premier League for this club in the future, as Julian did when we were previously at that level.
“For us having former players who want to come back because they have such an affinity to the club and want to help take us forward is a real asset to the development of our young players and will continue to take this fantastic academy and club in a strong direction.”
In addition to Gray, Blues have signed former players Marcos Painter and Jonathan Grounds, both of whom have appeared in Blues lineups in recent years.
“It’s terrific to see a number of former players returning to the Academy as coaches, such as Marcos Painter with our Under-16s and Julian with the Under-15/16s. “We also have Maik Taylor as our first-team goalkeeper coach,” Scott continued. “In my short time here, I can say we have some fantastic coaches in all age categories.
“Having a mix of coaches with professional playing experience in the Premier and Football Leagues not only helps grow the knowledge they can share with the players, but also the coaches in the building, who can pass on some precious nuggets they learn from them to the players. My coaching experiences have consistently shown that having a good coach/teacher working with an amazing coach/player may be extremely beneficial to the learning environment.”
