Chelsea to move for Brighton head of recruitment Paul Winstanley

Chelsea will raid Brighton & Hove Albion for their head of recruitment Paul Winstanley, according to The Telegraph.

The Blues are trying to set up a new transfer team, and the Brighton chief is on the club’s radar. Chelsea have already held talks about bringing Winstanley to Stamford Bridge.

He could follow manager Graham Potter in moving from Brighton to Chelsea.

Chelsea also took Potter’s recruitment analyst Kyle Macaulay. He worked closely with Winstanley on transfers at Brighton.

Co-controlling chairman Todd Boehly is pushing to reshuffle the club’s transfer pack by bringing in some of the best in the business.

He and Clearlake Capital do not want one or two recruitment specialists – they want a whole team.

The club was pushing for former Liverpool transfer chief Michael Edwards, but he insisted on a break from football. Chelsea then moved for Red Bull duo Christoph Freund and Christopher Vivell.

Freund was close to joining Chelsea but opted to stay at RB Salzburg. Vivell left RB Leipzig and looks close to joining the club.

Chelsea have also targeted former Manchester City youth director and current Southampton head of recruitment Joe Shields.

Shields has agreed to join Chelsea as co-director of recruitment once he completes a period of gardening leave.

Chelsea are also raiding AS Monaco for technical director Laurence Stewart. However, he will reportedly not impact the planned appointment of Vivell.

Stewart has worked at a club using the multi-club network model Boehly wants to implement with Chelsea. He has hired people like Vivell and Stewart with experience in this field.

Chelsea’s president of business Tom Glick also has experience with the multi-club model after helping to establish it at Manchester City.

Boehly has let go of Marina Granovskaia, Petr Cech and Scott McLachlan. He is trying to put a new transfer team in place before January.