The Management Team

Elite Soccer Academy was formed by Phil Gridelet and Les Conway, who both have considerable experience in the game.

All our coaches are handpicked locally and mostly via our connections with the Middlesex Football Association. Phil personally overseas all of our coaching programmes with a formula that we know works for the development of young people.

Phil Gridelet

Phil’s professional playing career spanned a period of some twelve years.

He was originally part of Barnet's promotion side to the Football League under the colourful management of Barry Fry.

He was transferred to First Division Barnsley for a record fee and later to Southend United where, under then Manager Ronnie Whelan, the team nearly reached the play-offs to the Premiership.

He has also held Assistant Manager positions at non-league Harrow Borough and Hayes.

Phil is qualified to UEFA B standard (and is working towards his UEFA A licence). He primarily focuses on coaching at youth level. He is a member of the Professional Footballers Association and has links and connections to numerous professional and semi professional clubs.

Les Conway

Les has been involved with grassroots football since 1998.

As a Club Chairman, Les secured grant funding from the Football Foundation which then progressed onto the award by the Football Association of their Charter Standard mark – one of the highest that can be attained by clubs at grassroots level.

Amongst many other roles at club and league level, he has also held the office of Welfare Officer with specific responsibilities for child protection, health and safety.

Les is a member of the Football Association Coaches Association.

The Coaching Team

Aaron Mitchell

Holding a BTEC National Diploma in Sport, Aaron has been coaching in the youth game for some time. Sport has played a huge part in his life and he believes that a healthy lifestyle is the cornerstone for social wellbeing for young people in particular.

Amit Vadera

Amit coaches as part of the National Curriculum and runs various lunchtime/after school clubs and holiday camps in Barnet, Harrow and Hillingdon. As part of his Sport Science degree, which he undertook at Brunel University, he completed research into conditioning methods to develop the speed and agility of footballers.

David Lubczanski

David developed his playing career both at youth through to adult level. His coaching experience has spread over a variety of youth teams at various levels with a view to developing core skills whilst maintaining enjoyment for the game.

James Townsend

Having played for over ten years, noticeably with Staines Town in the Blue Sqaure South League and working closely with the coaching staff, James has taken his first steps into coaching. Amongst other positions, he takes charge of sessions at the Cambridge United Academy along with other after school clubs and local grassroots teams.

Kay Eden

As well as achieving a Bachelor of Sports Science degree, Kay has worked as a school teacher and assisted as a football coach. Having acquired a depth of experience, she is keen to get the best out of children in everything that they do.

Liam Graf

Liam has worked within a number of different football coaching environments. Most notably in the past year at Ruislip Town Youth, where he provided assistance with player fitness and technical development for a variety of young age groups. His passion is for making football fun and bringing out the best in others, while also aiming to further his own knowledge through progression of the FA coaching badges.

Peter Prickett

Peter has a strong background in delivering sessions to children at all ages and in a variety of environments. These range from local authority projects and programs, grassroots, within schools along with County FA. His belief is that there is always something new to learn for all abilities.

Sophie Conway

Sophie has been coaching since September 2003 and has held various responsibilities including coaching girls. She has an interest in numerous aspects within sport in general such as management, development as well as coaching. She recently completed a Sports Studies degree at the University of Hertfordshire conducting research into why there is difficulty for female coaches to progress in the game. Sophie now also holds the role at Elite as Academy Manager.

Stuart Grabski

Stuart has been working within the grassroots game and developing youngsters for around ten years. He also worked within a local First School running their football programme.

Yasar Latif

Holding an NVQ in Sports Development and having studied at degree level in football and community sports coaching, Yasar has acted as the Head of Recruitment and Development Officer at grassroots level. He has also worked in various positions at Arsenal and Brentford. As part of the role at Arsenal, he was required to develop and implement a coaching programme for local primary schools. Yasar is also a qualified goalkeeping coach.