English club recruits senior Manchester City scouting manager as head of recruitment

Manchester City has experienced another round of departures from their academy and recruitment staff, with Portsmouth making a successful move to acquire one of their key personnel.

This latest departure adds to a series of notable changes in Manchester City’s staffing structure over the past 24 months, with staff moving to clubs such as Southampton, Manchester United, and Chelsea.

At the senior boardroom level, Omar Berrada left City and the wider City Group to become the CEO of Manchester United. He is currently on gardening leave before officially starting his new role at Old Trafford.

In the recruitment department, Joe Shields departed City after successful UK scouting to take up roles at Southampton and then Chelsea.

Other exits from Manchester City include Academy Director Jason Wilcox moving to Southampton, Head of UK Scouting Stewart Thompson joining Chelsea, and National Youth Scout Manager Paul McLaren transferring to Newcastle.

According to information from Jack Gaughan’s report in the latest edition of MailSport’s Man City Notebook, Manchester City’s Northern UK scouting manager Brad Wall is leaving to become head of recruitment at Portsmouth.

Portsmouth is close to securing a return to Championship football next season, leading EFL League One with a five-point advantage over Derby County and Bolton Wanderers.

Manchester City has a player relationship with Portsmouth, with Academy talent Alexander Robertson on loan to the club, although his stay was cut short due to a serious hamstring injury.

It remains to be seen if the relationship between the two clubs will continue into the 2024/25 season, should Portsmouth secure promotion to the Championship.