Travis ‘’Bikey’’ Blagrove, one of the assistants at the Craig Butler-led Phoenix Academy, has left the organisation and has set up his own foot ball training base at the Waterhouse Mini Stadium in St Andrew.

One of the founding players of Phoenix Academy, 30-year-old Blagrove is currently mentoring three former Phoenix Academy players who recently left to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Blagrove, who played football in Malta with St Andrew FC during the 2017 season, said he was approached by the players to assist them in their development and after discussing the matter with his family, he decided to leave Phoenix Academy and venture out on his own.

“I decided to start my own project because a few players reached out to me and asked for help with football decisions,” he said.

“I started with a few players, and now I have five more. I am helping them to improve their techniques, football qualities, and mindset. I schedule training sessions with drills I learned in Europe. I moved straight from the Manning Cup competition to Europe, where I absorbed everything I saw and learned. I have implemented all the drills, techniques, and player development skills I acquired in Europe,” Blagrove said.

He noted that he has a lot of respect for Butler and does not anticipate any grievance between them. “I don’t think this should cause any animosity between Craig and me, certainly not on my side,” he said. “I don’t have any hard feelings against him, and I don’t think he should have any against me. I have just decided to venture into my own thing, and hopefully, it pays off and wherever it leads me, I will go.”

Blagrove, a former Jamaica College student, highlighted that he has received a lot of support from Phoenix Academy graduate and Reggae Boyz winger Leon Bailey in this new venture.

He said that Bailey, who plays for Aston Villa in the English Premier League, recently trained with the group at Waterhouse Mini Stadium.

“With the help of Leon, he assists with drills and other training aspects. I have also observed his training from [Belgian club] Genk to [German club] Bayer Leverkusen and Aston Villa, picking up drills from all those places and implementing them into my own programme,” Blagrove said.

He is currently working on his coaching qualifications and training 10 players, with plans to add more in the future.

“I am open to more players, but not too many. I am doing my thing privately, and my biggest squad is about 10 players. I am not looking to go past 10 this summer. Some of the current players want to go to college, and some want to go professional. I am helping them prepare for their preseason, and that’s what I am focused on now,” he asserted.