Newcastle United are delighted to confirm the appointment of Chris Hogg as lead player development coach of the club’s under-23 side.
Hogg joins the Magpies from Ipswich Town, where he was co-manager of the Tractor Boys’ under-23 side.
The 34-year-old will take over management of the under-23 side from Ben Dawson, who will revert to his role as head of coaching.
Middlesbrough-born Hogg began his playing career at Portman Road and spent time on loan at Boston United before joining Hibernian in 2005.
The centre half spent six seasons at Easter Road, winning the Scottish League Cup in 2007 and the Hibees’ player of the year award the following year.
Hogg – who was made Hibs’ captain in 2009 – made almost 150 appearances for the club before spells at Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Needham Market prior to his retirement in 2015.
Since then, Hogg has worked as a coach at Ipswich’s academy with their under-18 and under-23 teams, and also had a spell as first team coach during the 2018/19 campaign.
“I’m delighted to be here, for several reasons really,” he said.
“First of all, to challenge myself in a new environment and to kick on as a coach, but also to join a club like Newcastle feels like a really good opportunity to influence and impact the programme to develop the young players here, push them into the first team, aid them in their football careers and develop them as people as well, which is really important to me.
“With the young players here – like the Longstaffs and Tom Allan, who has made his debut this year – I think the pathway is opening. It’s about aiding the development of players and adding the quality to help them force that pathway open by being the best they can be.
“The staff here have been doing a good job, so it’s up to me to come and enhance the programme, try and add to it wherever I can and continue the good work that is evidently already being done.”
Ben Dawson added: “We’re delighted to get Chris. It’s been a rigorous recruitment process and he’s done really well throughout each of the stages.
“We wanted somebody to come in and lead the multi-disciplinary team of staff and the group of players, at what is a critical age.
“We’re trying to help the players make that step of breaking through into a first team environment, and Chris has got good experience of that both as a player and as a coach.
“He spent a lot of time at Ipswich and has had opportunities to develop working across the age groups, most recently as joint manager of the under-23s, but he’s also had that experience with the first team as well. He’s a good fit for us.”
Newcastle United can also confirm that Adam Bartlett has joined the club as lead academy goalkeeping coach.
Bartlett, who began his playing career at St. James’ Park more than 15 years ago, will work with the club’s young shot-stoppers at Little Benton.