Chelsea set to also add Brighton’s head of recruitment Paul Winstanley — report

Chelsea are continuing to piece together the new-look setup for the club’s football operations, and it looks like we’re going for more of a committee approach rather than giving any one person all the power.

The latest name rumored to be joining is Brighton & Hove Albion’s head of recruitment, Paul Winstanley, who’s been in that role for the past eight years, having worked previously in the analytics departments of Derby County and Wigan Athletic. According to the Telegraph, Winstanley has held talks with the club and is “planned” to be appointed in the near future. As with all our other rumored appointments, no official announcements have been made yet.

Winstanley is expected to join a new-look “transfer team” alongside fellow new arrivals Joe Shields (Southampton) and Laurence Stewart (Monaco), as well as Graham Potter’s personal recruitment guru Kyle Macaulay. Winstanley and Macaulay had already worked together at Brighton for the previous three years.

Meanwhile, fellow new arrival Christopher Vivell is set to take the technical director role. It’s unclear which of the new arrivals, if any, will be named sporting director, though it’s also been suggested that Todd Boehly might stay on in that role for a bit longer as well. That was supposed to be just an interim arrangement, so hopefully we stick to that plan in the end, once all the new appointments are in place. Maybe we’re still holding out for Michael Edwards or Paul Mitchell or whoever?