In September 2012, Norwich announced that they were creating
a centre of excellence at Brantham, just outside Colchester, in
conjunction with Brantham Athletic. Head coach of the new centre
is Angelo Harrop, whosigned for Brantham at the beginning of the
2012/13 season but had sicne moved to Wroxham. He is being assisted
by Needham Market skipper Pip Boyland and Arron Hall, son of Brantham
Athletic manager Tony Hall. All three are Level 2 qualified coaches
Gregg Broughton, head of recruitment
for Norwich Citys Academy, said: From Norwich Citys
point of view we are looking to identify boys between 12 and 15
years old in the area. The mechanism we have put in place means
once they have been identified they can come along and train at
Brantham Athletic, and if they do well they are then invited up
to the Academy at Norwich City. With the club going for Category
One status one of only 16 in the country to do so
we wanted to choose a club that sends out the right message to
the boys and their parents. Angelo runs his own coaching company
and knows the local football scene well. He is a young, enthusiastic
and driven coach who we felt was the right person for this opportunity.
Harrop has previously played for Rushden & Diamonds' U19-21
, Colchester United U8s -U19s, Wales U15's, FC Galakticos in Romania,
Leiston FC, Needham Market FC (twice) and Stanway Rovers FC. He
has coached at Northampton Town and Stanway Rovers and in the
USA with the MLS.
His father Geoff was Director of Youth and Youth Team manager
at Torquay United and Colchester United. He later joined Norwich's academy.
Harrop trialled with AFC Sudbury in July 2013.
He then spent time with Stanway Rovers as manager and Director of Football. He was also head coach at Brightlingsea Regent in 2016/17. He also played for Stowmarket in 2017/18. He also owns and runs Sports Coaching Specialists since 2011. he has also scouted for Ipswich and played for Leiston and Needham Market.
On 22nd June 2021 he was appointed joint-manager of AFC Sudbury along with Rob Andrews.
In 2022 he became manager of Braintree. They won the National League South play-off final in May 2024 to return to the National League for the first time since 2019.