Portsmouth title winner makes swift return to football after quitting Football League crisis club

The 36-year-old has been unveiled as head of Academy coaching at fellow League Two club Salford.

Rose, who quit the Robins earlier this month, follows ex-Swindon head of football Jamie Russell to the Peninsula Stadium as they overhaul their Academy.

Russell has become Academy manager, while also joining the former Pompey favourite in the new-look set-up is former Burnley man Chris McCann as lead youth development phase coach.

For Rose it represents a return to Manchester, having started his playing career in Manchester United’s youth team, although a first-team outing eluded him.

He would go on to feature for Oxford United, Newport County, Fleetwood, Aldershot, Northampton, Swindon, Grimsby, Darlington and Cleethorpes.

Rose, of course, also spent two-and-a-half years at Fratton Park, winning the League Two title under Paul Cook in May 2017.

Now he has linked up with 12th-placed Salford, challenged to boost their Category 3 Academy.

Rose told Salford’s official website: ‘I’ve had a real varied experience in terms of all the phases that I’ve coached across and now I’m going into this role, coaching the coaches if you like.

‘This is an amazing opportunity to learn a great deal, and it’s a bit of a blank canvas in terms of how we can re-design some of the programme, so really understanding and implementing what an academy programme can look like from top to bottom and be able to have the ability to go and implement that, it’s a privilege really.

‘The opportunity to work with Jamie (Russell) was a massive factor, I’ve naturally got some links to Untied which is great but when I spoke to Jamie about it after interviewing, he said to me ‘this is where it’s at’ and the work that can be done, and I felt it was the right step in my development as a coach really.

“I felt ready for a new challenge, geographically it makes sense for me as well because of family which helps, but more than that, the opportunity to really get my teeth into this type of work.

‘I’d like to think my experience of coaching foundation phase, youth development phase, PDP with Swindon and a little bit with Grimsby, I understand how coaches have to coach differently within each phase so I can bring that level of experience to how I will help support and develop coaches here within our academy.’

As a player, he joined the Blues in June 2016 on a free transfer from Northampton and established himself in the centre of Cook’s midfield.

He totalled 64 appearances and five goals before leaving for Swindon in January 2019, while totalled an impressive five promotions in his playing career.