After recruiting, then promptly de-recruiting Steve Head as the club’s head of recruitment it seems Leeds United are undertaking to sign West Ham United’s head of player recruitment for the same role at Elland Road. In a report in the Yorkshire Evening Post, Phil Hay states that the Whites have approached the London club with the intention of ‘hammering’ out a deal for the services of Martyn Glover as the Elland Road side look to put in place an English head of player recruitment with knowledge of the English leagues as per the instructions of Massimo Cellino.
Leeds fans are itching with anticipation at the actual signing of playing staff after seeing a number of ‘behind the scenes’ changes and thought that recruitment of players would begin in haste with the botched signing of Norwich scout Steve Head, who reached an agreement to sign with Leeds only to have the offer withdrawn after Cellino discovered that his newly-signed player recruitment was due to ‘head’ off on holiday. Amongst the reasons that Cellino gave for the reneging on signing Steve Head was the fact that he had “no time” to wait for Head to begin work at Elland Road, this urgency at least implying that Leeds, Rösler and Cellino have plans in place for the type of players that they are looking to bring in.
As Phil Hay points out in his brief article, Glover was head of recruitment at Blackburn Rovers before he moved to Upton Park to take up a similar role with West Ham. Whilst he is still under contract at the Premier League club, Hay points out that, after parting company with manager Sam Allardyce, the Premier League side are likely “set for a summer of change” as personnel associated with the previous regime are evaluated in a new light. It isn’t only West Ham who are likely to be making backroom changes with Leeds also, as mentioned before, set on making their own changes. The move for Glover from West Ham comes amidst widely-reported news that the Whites are also preparing to sign former Leicester boss Rob Kelly as Rösler’s assistant and a new goalkeeping coach is on the horizon with Cardiff City’s Richard Hartis being the name put forward (see Phil Hay’s Tweet – below).
Also hearing that Cardiff City's Richard Hartis is in line to become goalkeeping coach at Leeds, with Neil Sullivan going back to academy.
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) May 30, 2015
Whilst firming up the backroom staff is all well and fine in that it gives a degree of stability to the club, what Leeds fans are clamouring out for is signings on the playing front as it will be these signings that are the ones tasked with helping create Leeds as a challenging force in the 2015/16 Championship campaign.
