Allan, who is heavily involved within the Brentford B setup with regards to player recruitment, has developed a positive relationship with the Sports Trust and their coaches in recent years, with a number of the players on the programme spending time training with the B Team.
The post-16 football education programme combines studying for A-Levels or a BTEC Level 3 sports diploma while enhancing football skills with experienced coaches. Students will take part in a rigorous training programme at Gunnersbury Park’s state-of-the-art sports facilities and compete in the prestigious Community Education Football Alliance League with the EFL.
Discussing the programme and the opportunity to welcome Allan to one of the sessions to coach, Ryan Peters, who runs the programme, said: “Our post-16 programme gives young people the chance to study five-days per week and they also train with us three-days per week. The idea is to try to help these boys get into the Brentford B setup, or any other professional or semi-professional clubs.
“Both Ellery Balcombe and David Titov have been enrolled on the programme and both have been heavily involved within B Team setup. We’ve had a few of our boys trial more recently but they haven’t quite been able to break into the Club as yet.
“To have Allan come down and show the players exactly what they need to do to improve is everything to help these players. Allan has been part of this for some time now and he knows exactly what it takes so the boys can go away and improve and, hopefully, show him what they can do when the opportunities arise.”
Discussing his involvement in a recent session, Allan said: “It was fantastic to put on a session for the young players at an excellent facility like Gunnersbury Park. To have the opportunity to work with the young players and provide them with a similar session to what you would normally see on a B Team training pitch was really enjoyable as this helps the players understand the sort of level that is required.
“Having been involved with this programme for a number of years I was delighted to work with the players and give them advice and guidance to further their opportunities. Within the Brentford B setup, we’re excited to see the development of this programme over the coming year and hopefully we can invite more of the players into the B Team environment at Jersey Road in the future.”