“I have a passion for developing people.”

So says Paul Gardiner, born and bred in Stroud, who clearly is in the right job because he is the driving force behind the hugely successful West Bromwich Albion Development Centre just up the road in Gloucester which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary.

The centre, which Gardiner established in September 2008, is a thriving, go-ahead set-up that has been nurturing and developing the best young footballers in the county, including those from Stroud and the surrounding areas, for the past decade.

A good number of players have made the jump up to West Brom’s academy, based in the shadow of The Hawthorns, after being ‘schooled’ at the development centre at St Peter’s High School – rich reward for Gardiner and his dedicated team of coaches.

“The thing that I’m most proud of is that we’ve had players in every age group at West Brom’s academy from under-9s all the way through to the under-18s, under-23s and the first team,” said Gardiner.

And Gardiner, now 46, is particularly pleased because many of the players who he has done so much to help develop are local boys just like himself.

Like so many football-mad youngsters growing up in the 70s and 80s Gardiner just wanted to play the beautiful game and he was given plenty of opportunity to do so at Rosary Primary School in Stroud, St Peter’s High School and Paganhill Youth Football Club, who were the biggest youth club in Stroud at the time.

Gardiner has very fond memories of his time at Paganhill Youth, who are sadly no longer in existence.

Gardiner leaves no stone unturned either at the development centre or at the academy in his pursuit of excellence, in the days when he was growing up, youngsters were pretty much left to their own devices.

“I received some coaching,” said Gardiner. “For me I just loved playing football, that was what it was all about for me.

“I remember my first manager at Paganhill was Terry Marshall. He knew the basics and used to shout, ‘Get back’, ‘Get your tackles in’ and ‘Track back’.

“I can remember some of the other coaches as well – John Chudleigh, Mike Thwaite and Colin Dyer.”

It was a similar story when Gardiner joined the Royal Navy at the age of 18. Plenty of football but it was just a case of play, play and more play.

By now Gardiner was playing in midfield – “I used to be everywhere,” he said – and to be fair he played pretty much everywhere all over the world as well.

“I played in the Falklands, Africa and the Miami Orange Bowl in front of 4,000 or 5,000 people,” he said. “That was very loud.”

Gardiner, a father of two boys now in their 20s, served all over the world during his 20+ years in the Navy and saw operational tours mainly in the sun.

When he left the service in 2008 he was a Senior NCO and a decorated one as well because he was presented with six medals.

“They’re in a sock drawer somewhere, they never see the light of day,” he said very matter-of-factly.

Towards the end of his time in the Navy, Gardiner was based in Plymouth which meant that he could return home to Stroud at the weekends.

It was around this time - he was in his early 30s - that he first got involved in coaching football.

“I took over Hardwicke Rangers Under-8s, that was the team my youngest son Thomas played for,” he said. “The previous coach had left and they needed someone to take over.”

Vince Hurn, who was running the West Brom Development Centre in Ledbury at the time, came and watched Gardiner’s team play and was very impressed – “We were a well oiled team,” said Gardiner – and invited him along to do some coaching in Ledbury.

By now Gardiner was also doing some scouting for West Brom so his stock was clearly rising.

And after the Ledbury centre closed – and a brief spell with Birmingham City – West Brom approached Gardiner about opening a centre in Gloucester.

The rest as they say is history.

“We started off with two age groups – under-8s and under-9s -plus a couple of goalkeepers,” said Gardiner. “And from there we just expanded it because we got some good boys.

“We now run age groups from under-7s to under-16s with 12 to 16 boys in each age group. And we pretty much have two coaches for every age group.”

Gardiner, a highly qualified coach, including the Premier leagues Elite coaching Award started coaching full time at West Brom’s academy four years ago, he still coaches at the development centre where he has worked so hard to create the right ethos.

“I endeavour to make sure that when the boys leave they are more confident as people,” he said.

“I want to improve their football ability and I want to make them socially better.

“And it’s not just the players, it’s the staff as well. I want them to improve as well. One of our coaches Russ Ralph has achieved his life-time’s ambition by landing a full-time job in football.”

Gardiner clearly has plenty to offer. He has a background in education – he was a leadership instructor for the Navy on the Brecon Beacons – and now works at West Brom’s academy.

And Gardiner retains plenty of ambition. “What next who know’s,” he said.