‘So excited’ - Leicester City to Newcastle United move confirmed after St James’ Park visit

Although it isn’t James Maddison or Harvey Barnes, Newcastle United have completed an important swoop from Leicester City.

Claire Burrows has been appointed the Magpies’ Recruitment Operations Manager after three-and-a-half years as Leicester’s Academy Recruitment Operations Manager.

Since joining as the club’s sporting director from Brighton and Hove Albion last summer, Dan Ashworth has gone about restructuring United’s academy by creating a number of key positions.

In the last few or so months, Paul Midgley (Head of Head of Youth Recruitment), Paul Mclaren (Head of National Youth Scouting 13s to 18s) and Ciaran Hughes (Lead Video Analyst) have joined from Manchester City, as have Edward Black (Lead Academy Scout U9s to U14s), Delroy Ebanks (Academy Lead Scout for the South of England), Josh Appleyard (Positional Analyst), Oliver Slater (Positional Analyst) from Arsenal, West Ham, Norwich City and Blackburn, respectively.

In her new position, Burrows will “provide a seamless flow of information between Academy and Recruitment staff” and “co-ordinate and assist local and UK recruitment teams.”

Writing on Twitter after last night’s goalless draw between the two clubs at St James’ Park, Burrows said: “So excited to announce that I will be joining Newcastle United as Recruitment Operations Manager.

“Great club, great city and amazing passionate people. What a time to be joining - the aspiration and ambition of the club is only going up.”

Just like he did at Brighton, Ashworth has implemented a position-specific model, which means staff now scout positions rather than being allocated to a certain region.

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