Respected journalist Stephen McGowan has given an insight into the recruitment workings of Celtic and the future plans of Nick Hammond.
The recruitment specialist’s appointment received some flak from supporters after it was announced that he was only joining on a temporary basis. The club announced that Hammond would join on July 1st “initially across the summer period.”
Things have gone pretty quiet since then but now Daily Mail writer McGowan has given an interesting insight into the inner workings at the club.
In his interesting Mail piece, McGowan says that Hammond has recently appointed a scout to cover players in South America. That adds to the current setup of five scouts: one in mainland Europe, one in North America and three in Britain.
McGowan also says that the Englishman has “plans to revamp the whole set-up.”
Hammond is clearly keen to get started at Celtic
The news should offer a little bit of encouragement to the disgruntled Celtic support. Recruitment has been a major issue for the club in recent years with the failings of Lee Congerton well documented. Celtic have spent millions of pounds on players to sit on the bench with the lack of an obvious succession plan perhaps the most worrying aspect.
There doesn’t seem to be any sort of coherent plan in place at the club. The likes of Mikael Lustig and Kieran Tierney were always likely to move on this summer yet they don’t seem to have been properly replaced thus far.
Fans will hope that Hammond is the real deal. The Englishman has a mixed reputation in England following stints at Reading and West Brom. He does seem to have some good contacts down south but fans will hope that his reach far extends this country.
The South American link is interesting. It seems as if Hammond has spotted an opportunity over there. Celtic have rarely shopped in that market in the past although there have been murmurings about a couple of players this summer.
The Jose Cifuentes rumours make a little bit more sense now.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
