Chelsea want to appoint Brighton’s Paul Winstanley

Chelsea looking to hire Brighton’s head of recruitment Paul Winstanley

According to the Guardian, Chelsea are looking to continue their transfer department rebuilding and are aiming to hire Brighton and Hove Albion’s head of recruitment, Paul Winstanley.

They have poached two important figures from the Seagulls, having hired manager Graham Potter and recruitment specialist Kyle Macaulay after sacking Thomas Tuchel on September 7.

The Blues are also close to appointing AS Monaco technical director Laurence Stewart and Joe Shields is due to arrive to take up the director of recruitment role once he is done with his gardening leave at Southampton.

Winstanley was a performance manager for Wigan Athletic between 2003 and 2008 and worked as a match analyst for Derby County for six years between 2008 and 2014. Since then, he has been at Brighton.

Although the 43-year-old has not been around the blocks with regards to working at different clubs in his current role as a head of scouting/recruitment, he has worked together with Potter and Macaulay when the trio was at Brighton.

So, this could be a shrewd appointment made by Todd Boehly and co, knowing Winstanley is aware of how Potter works and what profile of players he is after in the transfer market.

Boehly worked as an interim sporting director in the summer window to oversee player signings of over £250m, with help from former manager Thomas Tuchel.

However, now it seems as if the co-owners will back off from involving themselves in making player recruitment decisions, and let the specialists do their job.

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

They could still be looking to hire a sporting director though, a person who can be a direct link between the manager, recruitment department and the owners. Former Liverpool director Michael Edwards has been linked, but he is on a sabbatical at the moment and Boehly’s offer didn’t push him to cut short his holidays.