Chelsea have now announced two new signings in the last two days. Nope, not players, but that will come very soon. On this occasion, we are talking about staff.
Yesterday, the club officially announced that Laurence Stewart will be joining Chelsea from Monaco in a new position as technical director to focus on football globally.
Then today comes another appointment, with Joe Shields arriving from Southampton as Co-Director of Recruitment and Talent.
Two big announcements and two big additions as the club look to build a brand new and improved world class recruitment department, with more names expected to arrive also.
It’s clear the direction that the club are heading in, with data-led recruitment and experts in the field leading the team, and then focusing on buying more clubs for the multi-club model, and these top-class appointments are all part of that vision.
Personally, I think these developments really are something to get very excited about as a fan.
Todd Boehly said alongside today’s announcement:
“We have a clear plan and will adopt a modern and data-driven philosophy, focused on elite emerging talent. We’re assembling a deep and collaborative management team who are eager to build a continued sustained winner at Chelsea.”
And that quote right there, is a huge reason to be excited about Stewart in particular, who has had years of experience becoming an expert in data-analysis recruitment.
In April 2021, Stewart said:
“There are many different ways to do this role. I have a certain history and have been on a certain personal development, so I have had more exposure to certain principles, like data, right back from my performance analysis days.
I am very comfortable with understanding data and also its weaknesses, so where are the blind spots, so you don’t fall into any traps.”
I believe this is important because sometimes, the data, or the stats, CAN lie. OK, not factually, but sometimes people prefer to use the ‘eye-test’, and I believe what Stewart is talking about here is using it all collectively and not just the data.
There are no doubts at all that we are getting an absolute expert in the recruitment field, and Shields also comes with an impressive resume and the desired experience. Boehly and co are building something big here!
