IN DEPTH Ryan Maye - Twenty five years in coaching now he’s Swansea assistant to Matos Sunday, 21st Dec 2025 21:52 by Keith Haynes It has been heralded as a very astute move by many in football coaching circles, the recent appointment of Ryan Maye into a supporting role to Vitor Matos doesn’t seem to have anything other than positivity about it. Vitor Matos and Ryan Maye met on their FA coaching courses in Wales. Maye, now 44 will hopefully settle in west Wales with his wife and two children has been on a twenty five year coaching journey at some of the countries elite football clubs. Being appointed at Chelsea in 2000 as Football Development Officer started that journey. He was at the club for four years before moving to Glasgow Rangers as Senior Development officer, a role he maintained until 2006. From there his relationship with West Bromwich Albion started, and for just under seven years he went through three roles in educating coaches on performance, heading the foundation phase at the club then heading up that department. His long term roles at the Hawthorns saw a two year stint at the FA educating England’s youth coaches, and yes at a time when Steve Cooper was there, just before he took his U17 side to a World Cup win. The picture forming here is a young coach learning and developing his own methods through sport and indoctrinating young minds into a sense of personal reflection. Yes, it’s coming again, the old fabled ways have taken a dramatic turn in recent times, but they are back. There’s nothing new to any of this but applying that to a sports setting is to a degree. We shall leave that here for now. But for a bigger picture on Ryan Maye we have to return before we end. Returning to the Hawthorns in 2017 Ryan took the title of Head Of Academy, overseeing coaching development and leading on the implementation of the academy structure. This is where Aston Villa found out about Ryan Maye. They have been dipping into the Baggies coaching staff for a while. And this is how he made his name in leadership and mentoring. We are now edging closer. That was 2019, and this was the chance that Ryan had been looking for. Appointed Head Coach, including coaching, coach development & mentoring support he would also lead the academy and head up the management and development of all coaching staff. Ryan would now be able to implement new systems, after all he did write the A and B coaching and planning schedules for the FA. Ryan was influenced by Villa Academy Director, Mark Harrison, a visionary in academy circles at Villa. Ryan was able to implement his ideas concentrating on certain methods he had learned, developed and practised on his long journey to Villa Park. This is where Ryan could now deliver these principles as a noted leader. We now approach an area of this feature where some will find it challenging, merely down to the words chosen by Ryan to explain his training beliefs. He brought forward the training blueprint for Aston Villa utilising his numerous qualifications, especially a PGCE connected to Sport, a degree that is widely welcomed in education. As is his BSc sports coaching degree. To obtain these qualifications is one thing. They very much compliment Ryan’s chosen profession and despite some long learning periods when understanding the written word, there are many training sessions to assess and it is a long long road at times. It is implemented at every age group level. Jacob Tanswell who is the Aston Villa reporter for The Athletic describes Maye as the best secret in coaching, well, the secret is out now. The Athletic were reporting on Maye just a few days ago, clearly his Swansea appointment under wraps. Ryan believes in some pretty deep methodology in his coaching which does reflect what Russell Martin strongly believes in. Ryan has been applying these techniques at the highest of academy levels for a good few years. He has the time and space to develop not only himself but the Aston Villa blueprint which despite being described at times as basic it does reveal a more simpler route to success. Ryan will develop the players in his charge at Swansea and he will be using what some consider to be harsh recognition of physical behaviours in individuals. This can come in cognitive recall sessions where the physical is transferred to the emotional giving the player better recognition of the emotional side of their game. Ryan explains, “I think one of the lessons that I've learnt around planning is the importance of the psychological and social language used in a session. The more I look into it and the more I learn about it, I’m certain that the integration of 'power words' and using psych/social strategies can really help to unlock technical and tactical outcomes, even physical outcomes, with individual players.” This is at times a dangerous area for coaches who are not qualified to manage the fall out from players. Whether Russell Martin did this effectively in his feedback sessions or not he completely lost Morgan Whittaker and Michael Obafemi. He nearly lost Joel Piroe too until his father stepped in and talked some sense into him. A player being asked to reflect on their own ‘failings’ as such then delivered with an ‘affective’ emotional impact about that topic under discussion will react in certain ways. Self centred individuals or people who don’t understand this type of education will hit out. They will blame everyone else but themselves, did I mention a couple of ex Swansea players above ? They just don’t like feedback that pushes back on the player to seek their own solutions mentally. Most have been told how good they are all their lives, so personally I welcome Ryan Maye to the Swans. That’s affective learning. And that’s what Ryan explains above. His psychological and social approach as he describes it is far better coming from an assistant who is also developing relationships between players and staff than the head honcho. It’s a great insight into the him as a developer of young men in the modern game. Facing up to personal responsibility is the key and recognising it’s your attitude that can change it and nobody else, now that is the game changer. We hope you have enjoyed our work into an appointment we believe could well determine the immediate future at Swansea City.  ⚽️ Ryan Maye qualifications. * UEFA Pro Licence Notable success * Advisory Board Member for League Coaches Association (LCA part of the LMA) Additional Qualifications * BSc Sports Coaching Degree  Photograph : AVFC Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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