Premier League sporting directors: West Ham’s Mark Noble and other clubs’ football chiefs
The 2022–23 Premier League season saw a number of new senior-level football appointments behind the scenes.
West Ham legend Mark Noble, who only retired at the end of last season, took up his role as the Hammers’ sporting director in January, while Manchester United lured Everton’s Dave Harrison to become their new director of football operations the following month to become – a more administrative role, but an important one nonetheless.
Regardless of their official job titles, the people responsible for overseeing each club’s overall footballing health come under frequent scrutiny during transfer windows, when signings go awry or when teams struggle to get results.
From former Champions League and Premier League winners to legal experts and finance graduates, The Sporting News provides a list of each club’s who’s who.
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Arsenal—Richard Garlick
Garlick, former legal counsel and club secretary of West Bromwich Albion, has been appointed Director of Football Operations at Arsenal after stepping down from his Premier League role following a failed attempt to create a European Super League in April 2021.
The trained lawyer works closely with manager Mikel Arteta and technical director Edu on transfers and planning.
Aston Villa—Johan Lange
After spending more than £100m last summer but only surviving on the final day of the Premier League season, Villa reviewed his transfer policy and appointed Johan Lange as technical director of FC Copenhagen in July 2020 – a day after his predecessor Jesus Garcia Pitarch left the club.
Villa have continued to have a mixed spell in terms of transfers and recruiting figures such as Philippe Coutinho, Leon Bailey, Emiliano Buendia, Danny Ings and Matty Cash since the arrival of the former Wolves assistant manager. Owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens weighed in on Lange’s exit in December 2022, according to Football Insider, but the Dane was still on the ball after the transfer window closed.
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Bournemouth-Richard Hughes
Former Scotland midfielder Hughes played more than 150 games for the Cherries before being appointed technical director by ex-coach Eddie Howe in 2014.
Bournemouth’s new owner Bill Foley relied on Hughes, who spent his youth career at Atalanta and Arsenal, and chief executive Neill Blake to identify targets for the winter transfer window after the American made a December 2022 takeover of the club worth Bournemouth spent just over £50m ($60.2m) in the window and went six games without a win in all competitions in 2023 before beating Wolves 1-0.
Brentford—Phil Giles
Giles was appointed in 2015 to a joint position with Rasmus Ankersen, chairman of Danish Superliga club FC Midtjylland, also owned by Bees owner Matthew Benham.
Brentford were in the Championship at the time. Ankersen resigned in late 2021 to set up a sports investment firm, leaving Giles as the club’s sole director of football.
Brighton & Hove Albion—David Weir
Former Rangers, Everton and Scotland centre-back Weir held various managerial positions behind the scenes at Brighton before becoming technical director – initially on an interim basis – following the departure of Newcastle predecessor Dan Ashworth in 2021.
Most recently, Weir was involved in the appointment of flamboyant Italian Roberto De Zerbi as men’s team manager and former Bayern Munich women’s coach Jens Scheuer as head coach of the women’s team, which competes in the Women’s Super League.
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Chelsea—Christopher Vivell
Chelsea have agreed with Monaco that 36-year-old Vivell will become their new technical director in October 2022 as an army of new senior figures have joined the club following the arrival of Graham Potter as head coach.
Vivell was Salzburg’s head of scouting and recruitment when the Austrians signed Erling Haaland in 2019. The former Hoffenheim scout later switched to RB Leipzig.
Crystal Palace—Dougie Freedman
Former Palace hotshot and Player of the Season Freedman joined the club for the third time when he became sporting director in 2017 and has been instrumental in attracting impressive new talent such as Conor Gallagher, Marc Guehi and Michael Olise to join the Eagles helping the appointment of current manager Patrick Vieira, who has praised the former Scotland striker.
“That’s one of the strengths of the football club: the sporting director who played at a high level, who understands the game, who understands the club and understands the demands of the fans,” said Vieira, calling Freedman’s support “enormously important”. .
Everton-Kevin Thelwell
Former Wolves sporting director Kevin Thelwell replaced Marcel Brands at Everton in February 2022.
Thelwell is said to have put together a 120-point plan for the club when he joined, but his master plan was put to the test as the Toffees battled relegation to the Premier League and head coach Sean Dyche the club’s apparent lack of action on the 2022 transfer /23 defended Fenster days after he succeeded the sacked Frank Lampard.
Fulham-Tony Khan
Tony Khan, a finance graduate who has a similar role at the NFL franchise Jacksonville Jaguars, has been involved in three promotions and two relegations since Fulham’s statistical research department was established in 2015.
Khan is clearly a multitasker: he was appointed vice chairman and director of football operations in 2017 in addition to his roles as general manager and sporting director at Craven Cottage, and is the founder of TruMedia, a Boston-based analytics company specializing in the sports industry”.
Leeds United-Victor Orta
Spaniard Orta, who was appointed in 2017, apologized to Leeds fans after he sarcastically joined their chants of “sack the board” at a game during a period of fan unrest in 2022.
Orta was part of the senior team involved in the club’s long-awaited return to the Premier League in 2020. The hugely popular manager responsible for that promotion, Marcelo Bielsa, was sacked in February 2022 and successor Jesse Marsch suffered the same fate in the following February.
Leicester City—Jon Rudkin
Rudkin has been the head of Leicester’s Category 1 academy since 2003 and has held that role since his appointment as Director of Football in December 2014.
Rudkin’s first full season coincided with a remarkable season for Leicester and English football, as the side, who had worried about relegation the previous season, went to the Premier League with one of the biggest shocks the game has ever seen -Title stormed.
Liverpool – Julian Ward
An uneven 2022–23 season for Liverpool was marked by sporting director Julian Ward’s announcement that he would leave the club at the end of the season.
Ward was instrumental in signing the likes of Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz and had succeeded Michael Edwards just last summer. His replacement has yet to be announced as the Reds are believed to be considering changing their sporting director structure.
Manchester City — Txiki Begiristain
Perhaps the figure with the most impressive CV on the pitch, City’s Txiki Begiristain won the 1992 European Cup and four LaLiga titles among a long list of trophies as a striker for Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona, scoring six goals in 22 games for Spain, including a goal at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Begiristain, a close ally of his compatriot and current first-team coach Pep Guardiola, was Barca’s director of football between 2003 and 2010 and was appointed by the Premier League side in 2012.
Manchester United-John Murtough
John Murtough held various senior positions at United before being promoted to Football Director in 2021.
Andy O’Boyle joined the club in 2022 as a deputy to Premier League side Murtough, while former midfielder Darren Fletcher took on the role of technical director. Murtough managed United’s worst-ever Premier League season in 2021/22 but he has since drawn praise for appointing Erik ten Hag as manager, with the Red Devils showing clear signs of improvement in 2022/23.
Newcastle United – Dan Ashworth
Before joining Newcastle from Brighton following the Saudi-led takeover of the Magpies, Ashworth worked as Sporting and Technical Director at West Bromwich Albion and Director of Elite Development at The Football Association.
Ashworth spent almost four months on gardening leave while a deal was reached between Newcastle and Brighton after retiring from his role with the Seagulls in February 2022.
Nottingham Forest – Filippo Giraldi
Forest appointed Giraldi in October 2022 after a difficult start to the season that had left them bottom of the Premier League, despite hiring almost an entirely new squad since promotion this summer.
The former Brescia and AC Prato staffer had spent nine years at Watford, who had spent much of his time in the top flight at Vicarage Road.
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Southampton—Jason Wilcox
Wilcox, a Premier League winner and England international as a winger at Blackburn Rovers, ended his 11-year tenure at Manchester City – where he had become academy director in 2017 – to join Southampton in January 2023.
“He fits in perfectly with Southampton,” said Saints chairman Henrik Kraft at the time. “Someone who is hardworking, hardworking and passionate about improving themselves and those around them.”
Tottenham Hotspur — Fabio Paratici
Paratici ended an 11-year stint as Head of Technical Affairs and Sporting Director at Juventus to join Spurs in July 2021, reuniting him with head coach Antonio Conte.
In January 2023, the former defender and midfielder was suspended from his post in Italian football for 30 months as punishment for capital gains violations amid the Plusvalenza scandal, which saw Juve separately deducted 15 points.
West Ham United – Mark Noble
Club legend Noble came through West Ham’s academy to work for the club as a midfielder for 18 years, was voted player of the decade in the 2010s and twice guided them to promotion to the Premier League.
Following his retirement in 2022, Noble and West Ham announced he would return as sporting director in January 2023.
Wolves – Matt Hobbs
After joining in 2015, Hobbs was at one point a part-time scout for the club and was appointed sporting director of Wolves shortly after head coach Julen Lopetegui was appointed in November 2022.
Hobbs is responsible for a variety of aspects of the men’s and development teams, as well as the Wolves academy and women’s and girls’ programs.