Chelsea reach agreement to sign Monaco technical director Laurence Stewart
According to the Evening Standard, Chelsea have reached an agreement and are set to appoint AS Monaco technical director Laurence Stewart as part of plans to build a new look transfer think tank.
Co-owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake are set to restructure the transfer department of the club, and Stewart will form a group that will decide the transfer strategy.
Stewart is an experienced man in the transfer strategy and performance analysis sector having worked as a lead scout and senior recruitment coordinator for RB Leipzig and Everton respectively before.
He was also the head of performance analysis at Manchester City for two years between 2014 and 2016. So, Chelsea are getting someone who has been around the blocks working in different roles that coincide with what they want him to do at the club.
Former Leipzig technical director Christopher Vivell was linked with the club to take up a role, but Boehly has played down that possibility. The latter worked as an interim sporting director during the summer transfer window, overseeing a spend of over £250m on player signings.
But, now it seems that Boehly, along with Clearlake, Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano would step down from involving themselves in player transfer and let the specialists do their job.
Chelsea have already brought recruitment analyst Kyle Macaulay with Graham Potter from Brighton and Hove Albion. They are also set to appoint Joe shields as the director of recruitment.
With Stewart joining the transfer think tank team, the club only has a sporting director role to fill in the upcoming weeks, unless Boehly and co. have other positions in mind.
More Chelsea News:
- Transfer News: Kevin Campbell tips Chelsea to sign Cristiano Ronaldo on loan in January
- Chelsea receive possible encouragement from Frenkie de Jong over a January move
- Report: Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic will push for January exit
Regardless of the fact that the Blues have been in a transition since the takeover, credit must be given to the new co-owners for initially backing the manager in the summer window, and now appointing the right people to make the right footballing decisions ahead of the January transfer window and beyond.