Celtic manager Neil Lennon has described Nick Hammond as a ‘very good candidate’ to be added as a permanent recruitment staff member at the Hoops, The Scottish Sun report.
Hammond was announced as a temporary appointment at the club in June, tasked with helping the Hoops over the summer transfer window.
A former Director of Football and Technical Director at Reading and West Bromwich Albion, he seemed to replace the presence of Lee Congerton, who left to join Brendan Rodgers at Leicester City.
With a positive couple of months of recruitment behind us, Hammond is now hard at work preparing a report designed to revamp our scouting process.
Lennon sees him playing a prominent role in the future too, going by his latest comments on a permanent Director of Football style appointment.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, he said: “We have got work to do on the recruitment side of things and the recruitment department and maybe the fitness side of things.
“I don’t want too much disruption or too many new faces because there is stability there at the minute which we are very happy about.
“Nicky is working away in the background on writing up a report and away talking to all the other scouts we have on the ground so we will have a good look at that when it’s finalised.
“I certainly think that he would be a very good candidate, put it that way.”
Committing to a clear vision
That Celtic are looking to make serious improvements to the club’s recruitment process should be seen as a real positive. Hammond is apparently being pretty thorough with his review.
The reign of Lee Congerton coincided with great results on the pitch, but it became apparent we weren’t maximising our resources across multiple transfer windows.
It culminated in us being woefully ill-prepared for European qualifiers this summer.
Whether Hammond is appointed or not, the most important thing is that Celtic commit to a long-term vision of improving the team. Ensuring our squad options peak when UEFA matches come around should be a seen as clear priority within that.
Not every signing is going to be a smash hit. There are going to be setbacks with recruitment. However, we can’t find ourselves in a position where a near entire defence is absent for qualifiers because of poor planning.
It should be a process that is robust enough to survive managerial departures and the like. Football is an unpredictable game, but Celtic can take steps to ensure we aren’t regularly caught short.
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