Sunderland are closing in on the appointment of Stuart Harvey as the club's new Head Of Recruitment, according to Chronicle Live.

The Black Cats are in the process of building an infrastructure to provide success in the future following Kyrl Louis-Dreyfus' takeover of the club earlier this year.

With Lee Johnson as head coach as Kristjaan Speakman working as the club's Sporting Director the next step is to appoint someone to oversee the recruitment of on-field talent and it seems that the club are close to getting their man.

Currently working as Blackburn Rovers' head of talent identification, Tony Mowbray revealed that Harvey was closing in on a move to an unnamed club with the Black Cats emerging as the team in question.

While his appointment hasn't yet been formally confirmed, Johnson was talking up the appointment and claimed that it was crucial to have the candidate in place in advance of the summer window.

Discussing the imminent appointment to Chronicle Live, Johnson said: "Absolutely it's important that the role is filled before the summer.

"Any manager will tell you it's the biggest part of being a football manager, get your recruitment right then it's a lot easier to coach or to manage.

"But if you get your recruitment wrong, it's very difficult to cover because effectively a manager can get - at best - seven or eight percent more out of a squad.

"It comes down to your recruitment. Of course, you can't get them all right, and there's a big blend in terms of level, personality, finances, wages.

"I always think there should be a justice league for managers based on budgets!

"I've been at clubs with the smallest budget and outperformed, and now I'm at a club with one of the biggest budgets and I don't know - maybe we would be halfway down the league.

"But I suppose it's an interesting one for the guys down the bottom of the league who are doing great jobs on small resources."

 

 

The verdict

This will be another big step forward for Sunderland.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has wasted no time in putting his plans in place and that's very exciting as we move towards the summer transfer window.

Supporters will now just be hoping that the club are playing in the Championship so that they can really kick on.