Chelsea closing in on Southampton’s Joe Shields for ‘Director of Recruitment’ — report

An exclusive report form the Oracle Fabrizio Romano, for whom it’s always transfer season, claims that Chelsea are “closing in” on Joe Shields as our new “Director of Recruitment”, which I presume is a fancy term for sporting director (like we don’t have a CEO but rather a “President of Business”).

With former RB Leipzig man Christopher Vivell set to join Chelsea as technical director to run the overall football operations, Shields would likely slot in on the “data and recruitment” side of things, to work with the scouting department as well as Graham Potter’s recruitment analyst wonderboy, Kyle Macaulay. Meanwhile, Chelsea are also talking to Norwich City sporting director Stuart Weber, as per The Athletic.

Shields is a highly respected recruitment specialist, who had worked at Manchester City’s Academy for nine years before joining Southampton over the summer. He had previously also worked at Crystal Palace and Fulham as a scout. His appointment at Saints was viewed as a rather astute move for them, in the wake of Martyn Glover’s departure to Leicester City, but it sounds like he could be on the move once again just a few months later.