Wycombe Wanderers have appointed Mike Dodds, Jude Bellingham’s former mentor, as their new first-team head coach.
Dodds has completed a move to the League One side and leaves his role as assistant head coach at Championship outfit Sunderland.
In a statement, Wycombe said: “After a thorough and comprehensive process, we are delighted to welcome Mike to the club.
“Despite the pressures of a mid-season appointment, we took the necessary time to ensure we made the right decision, focusing on the long-term vision of Wycombe Wanderers.”
“His track record in improving individual players developing young talent was a key factor in our decision, as we believe this will be crucial to our long-term success,” they added.
Dodds was Sunderland’s caretaker manager on three occasions after initially joining in 2021 as head of individual player development.
However, he is often applauded for his previous work as an academy coach with Birmingham City.
One of their promising talents during his time there was Bellingham, who is now considered to be one of the best players in the world.
The 21-year-old is a regular starter for England and Real Madrid, who signed him from Borussia Dortmund in a record £115million deal.
Bellingham’s big move came after he shone for boyhood club Birmingham, for whom he made his senior debut at just 16-years-old.
When speaking to talkSPORT in 2023, Dodds gave an insight into the midfielder’s work ethic following their time together in the Midlands.
“One thing he’s always had from a very, very young age, he will never waste a training session, he will never waste a minute in the gym, he will never waste an opportunity to watch his clips back.
“He’s just so laser-focused in every area of his programme, he will never leave a stone unturned. If he feels he’s got a deficiency in his game, he’ll be almost like obsessive with fixing it.
“It’s interesting now that we see that kind of quality that he’s got in terms of bossing people around, being really driven is a real quality.
“Whereas kind of eight or seven years ago that was seen as, ‘Ooo you’ve got to make sure he’s humble, you’ve got to make sure he slows himself down, you can’t talk to people like that.’
“It’s like, ‘Well he can, because he’s got to be able to survive in the first-team dressing room’ and listen there were times when he overstepped the mark.
“Of course there was, he was a young boy but what that did do, when we fostered and kind of enhanced that quality that he had, it allowed him at 16 to go in the dressing room and survive and then obviously take that on.
“What you’re seeing now is someone that’s supremely confident in who they are as a person.
“He’s gone to Madrid and people asked me yesterday, ‘What do you see difference [is]?’ I think he just looks happy, he looks like he’s at a place in terms of Madrid where he feels he belongs.”
Dodds has also worked with Jude’s brother and fellow Birmingham academy graduate Jobe Bellingham.
Jobe featured 15 times under the coach at Sunderland during the 2023/24 season and remains crucial for the Black Cats.
Now at Wycombe, Dodds has replaced the new Luton Town boss Matt Bloomfield at a side gunning for promotion to the Championship.
They are second in League One behind leaders Birmingham, with Wrexham four points adrift of them in third.