English Premier League giants Chelsea are set to name Joe Shields as their new ‘Co-Head of Recruitment’.
Roman Abramovich’s successful era at Chelsea came to an end when the English government sanctioned the Russian due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Abramovich then decided to sell the club and it was the American businessman Todd Boehly who became the new owner. After his acquisition, Boehly began to restructure the club. Along with Abramovich, former director Marina Granovskaia left the club.
Boehly himself took over the vacant position of athletic director. Over the next few weeks, he spent £260m and secured many big signings. But shortly after that, he fired his Champions League-winning manager, Thomas Tuchel, in controversial fashion. British manager Graham Potter was brought in to replace the manager as Chelsea moved into a whole new era.
Joe Shields agrees to join Chelsea
Now, having secured a new head coach, Potter wanted to recruit professional candidates to run the club and handle the transfer business. The idea was to secure a new sporting director by the end of this year and give him some time to plan for the January transfer window.
Chelsea tried to sign Christophe Freund but it didn’t work out their way. Finally, they are now close to securing at least one of their targets.
According to the Athletic, Joe Shields is very close to becoming the next manager of Chelsea.
Shields, 35, recently joined Southampton in a similar role, just three months ago. But now it is understood that he has given his confirmation for the new role of ‘co-director of recruitment’ at Chelsea.
This has come as a huge surprise for Southampton and Shields have been asked to stay away from their stadium and training ground until the matter is resolved.
Now, interestingly, Shields may have to serve a six-month notice period at Southampton before joining the Blues. But the Saints are thought to be able to let him off by taking some cash from Chelsea.
The Blues have yet to make an official deal with Southampton but will reportedly do so soon.
In addition to Shields, Chelsea are looking to add 4 more pros in some new roles. Stuart Webber, who is currently Norwich’s manager, could be the newest on the list. In general, Boehly wants to fill out the entire backroom staff as soon as possible.
