Former West Ham goalkeeper Jimmy Walker is enjoying his work with the academy.
Walker has been working as a club ambassador and as keeper coach inside the academy.
He told whufc.com: "It was also brilliant to be involved with the Academy as U18s goalkeeping coach – I loved every minute of it.
"I always speak about the Academy with Kevin Keen whenever I see him whilst we're doing our ambassadorial duties, so it came up from there. There are a number of former players back there now – Carlton Cole, Elliott Ward, Kenny Brown…
"The former coach happened to leave, and when I went in to speak to Kev about something completely different, he asked if I fancied filling in for the time being.
"I said to him that I'd never worked with the U18s before and that I didn't know the environment, but he persuaded me and said I'd love it, which I did!
"Kev runs it like a first team, which really appealed to me, and the lads are outstanding young men – I've really enjoyed working with them.
"I've never worked with that age group before, but you can really give them some input and they listen to you and they put it into practice out there on the pitch, which is fantastic to see.
"I think it's a big summer ahead for us.
"If we have a good summer recruitment-wise, as well as keeping hold of the quality players that we have, the Club is going in the right way.
"Hopefully we can kick on from the season just gone and build something really special at this Club."
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