Swindon Town is pleased to announce the appointment of David Byrne as Head of Player Development.

The position will bring together an area of the Club which encompasses the Centre of Excellence, Youth and Reserve Team football.

Swindon Town believes that this is a key area of development for its business in the future and, accordingly, has asked David Byrne to fill this role in order to provide a good basis of home grown players for the future.

Andrew Fitton, Chairman of Swindon Town FC, commented:

"Swindon Town has long had a reputation for finding and successfully developing young players though, too often in the past, they have either slipped through our fingers or been sold in order to meet financial rather than football objectives.

"Clubs at all levels below the Premier League have to see themselves as development clubs - finding and developing players who will hopefully represent STFC at The County Ground for a period of time, but who may move on to a higher level.

"David Byrne, in his time at Swindon Town, has shown himself as having real talent in this area having been crucially involved in identification and development of players such as Ben Tozer, Sean Morrison, Callum Kennedy and in the recruitment of players such as Simon Cox."

The appointment of David Byrne as Head of Player Development will also provide a stronger link between the youth and reserve teams.

"Given that we are reducing our squad size and looking to integrate more Youth players into the senior system, the combination of the role with that of looking after the Reserve Team is necessary.

"We would expect an increasing number of home grown and Youth players to be playing Reserve Team football in the future, supported by Senior players who are either recovering from injury or working on regaining or maintaining match fitness.

Fitton added: "We have been planning this reorganisation for some time and I am delighted that David has accepted the role - he was the natural choice."