Aston Villa have named three academy coaching appointments.

Tony Carss will join as Under-23 Senior Professional Development Phase Coach, Gerrard Nash will become Lead Under-18 Professional Development Phase Coach and Adem Atay who will take up the role of Under-18 Professional Development Coach.

Carss moves to Villa from Blackburn Rovers where he was Head of Coaching. He has also worked as a senior coach in the Huddersfield Town Academy and will now lead the Under-23s at Aston Villa.

Nash has most recently been working with the FA of Ireland as their High Performance Coach and previously worked at Ipswich Town as both Under-18 Lead Professional Development Phase Coach and Under-23 Senior Professional Development Phase Coach.

Atay will join from Ipswich Town where he was the Under-18s Head Coach and Assistant Academy Manager.

Nash and Atay will work alongside Karl Hooper who currently works with our Under-18s, while Sean Verity will take on the role of Assistant Academy Manager and Assistant Head of Coach Development.

Mark Harrison, Academy Manager, told Villa's website: “We are delighted that Tony, Gerrard and Adem are joining us after a thorough recruitment process.

“They will bring with them a wealth of experience in player development and their appointments will also strengthen our player development coaching strategy.

“This will allow us to support individual player development further as we will now have three outfield coaches at both Under-23 and Under-18 level."

He added: “These appointments underline again the central importance which the Board place on the constant evolution and development of our Academy."