Who makes transfer decisions at each Premier League club and how well are they doing?

It’s that time of the season again when the transfer window is open and every club in the Premier League is sizing up who might be available.

But who are the transfer gurus — the technical or sporting directors, mainly — and how does their work measure up so far?

Sports intelligence advisory business Twenty First Group has looked at the historic relationship between team wages and points earned and estimated how many points a club should reach based on how much they pay their players. This then gives a figure for how far above (or below) their expected points a club are on course to finish.

According to this data, third-placed Nottingham Forest are currently the most efficient team in England’s top division based on league points (40 from 20 matches) in relation to their wage bill (which is the 14th largest) and are on course to gain roughly 30 more points than would be expected. The only recent instance of a side outperforming their wage bill more than Forest this season are Leicester City in 2015-16, and no one needs reminding where they finished.

But not everyone is getting those results. You might not be surprised that the data shows Manchester United are the least efficient team in the context of their wage bill. As for Manchester City, the reigning Premier League champions are third from bottom.

The days when everything can be pinned on the manager have gone. Enter the transfer gurus, whose job it is to identify the players who can bring success.

Our writers take a look at the relevant people, their work in the transfer market, what they need to do next and how they are seen by their club’s supporters.

 

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In November, Arsenal’s sporting director Edu resigned from his position. The expectation is he will take up a role with the network of clubs owned by Evangelos Marinakis, but for now he is serving a six-month notice period.

His deputy, Jason Ayto, has stepped up as interim sporting director. Ayto has been credited with a key role in the dramatic overhaul of Arsenal’s recruitment department, and has been praised by Mikel Arteta. “Very good, Jason and all the team,” said Arteta in November. “Edu and I probably got a lot of the praise, but the work behind it is done by this guy and Jason has been phenomenal.

Arsenal are in the midst of a recruitment process for a new sporting director, in which Ayto is expected to be a candidate. What’s clear is that during Edu’s time at the helm the recruitment dramatically improved, and supporting figures like Ayto, head of recruitment James Ellis and his deputy Mark Curtis have all been credited with important roles in identifying talent and building relationships.

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Villa’s president of football operations is Monchi, who was recruited in 2023 from Sevilla. He works closely with manager Unai Emery and director of football operations Damian Vidagany, although the latter does not influence recruitment, he facilitates and supports the actions of Emery and Monchi, who have the final say on transfers. In the 18 months at the club, Villa have been limited by profit and sustainability rules (PSR), impacting their ability to upgrade the squad in several positions. Still, Villa’s upward improvement on the pitch has meant greater outlay.

Monchi helped sign Youri Tielemans, Moussa Diaby and Pau Torres, while Clement Lenglet and Nicolo Zaniolo arrived on loan (both have left now). He also supported Emery’s desire to bring in Morgan Rogers and scouted “project players” in Joe Gauci and Kosta Nedeljkovic.

The following summer was his most intense period, having to stave off PSR by selling Diaby and Douglas Luiz and bringing eight new recruits, some of which were influenced by PSR and exchanging players in separate transactions. This included Enzo Barrenechea and Samuel Iling-Junior arriving from Juventus while Douglas Luiz went the other way, and Lewis Dobbin joining from Everton. All three incomings have since gone out on loan. Ian Maatsen and Amadou Onana were the big money additions, with Ross Barkley also Jaden Philogene supplementing the squad (Philogene is now poised to join Ipswich Town after the clubs agreed a £20million ($24.7m) fee, plus £3m in add-ons for the winger).

PSR is a caveat, though the jury is still out on whether Monchi’s impact has been a major success. Torres and Rogers are the only first-choice starters and as shown against Leicester recently, nine of the starting XI were here under Steven Gerrard. Last summer’s recruitment leaves question marks as to whether Monchi is still able to capture the magic he had during his first time at Sevilla, rather than the poor period he had at Roma.

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Richard Hughes’ departure for Liverpool left Bournemouth owner Bill Foley with a vacancy to fill. He settled on Tiago Pinto who left the general manager position he held at Roma this time last year for a new challenge. Foley wanted Pinto to head up a multi-club model in addition to recruiting for Bournemouth’s first team and optimising the academy. Foley’s consortium bought a stake in Hibernian in March and, as The Athletic reported in October, has held talks about taking over Moreirense in Portugal.

Pinto was left a good inheritance by Hughes, especially in the dugout where Andoni Iraola continues to work wonders. Still, credit where it is due. Pinto negotiated a high price for Dominic Solanke and was able to reinvest the proceeds in Evanilson from Porto and Dean Huijsen, a player Pinto loaned from Juventus at Roma. It is still early days though and Pinto’s latest moves for Matai Akinmboni and Julio Soler are long-term development projects.

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Brentford’s owner Matthew Benham, director of football Phil Giles and head coach Thomas Frank all play a major part in their transfer operation but the bulk of the work is handled by technical director Lee Dykes.

He spent time with Carlisle United and was Bury’s sporting director when they were expelled from the EFL before he joined Brentford in 2019 as director of recruitment. Dykes impressed Brentford’s hierarchy with a data model he used to identify undervalued players — he fit the club’s ethos perfectly. Following the departure of Rasmus Ankersen, Dykes was promoted in June 2022.

His first transfer window in the summer of 2019 was a huge success as Brentford signed Bryan Mbeumo, Pontus Jansson, David Raya, Mathias Jensen and Christian Norgaard. Dykes and his scouting team will analyse the performances of a potential signing and during negotiations highlight games where they think they performed well but provide constructive criticism too, which is often appreciated by players.

Other key signings Dykes has played a significant role in include Ivan Toney, Igor Thiago, Fabio Carvalho, Yoane Wissa and Keane Lewis-Potter.

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Brighton & Hove Albion

David Weir became technical director on an interim basis in February 2022, then permanently three months later, when Dan Ashworth left for Newcastle. The 54-year-old former Everton, Rangers and Scotland central defender had been Ashworth’s assistant and, before that, loans manager.

The worldwide player-identifying algorithm of owner-chairman Tony Bloom is the starting point for Brighton’s recruitment operations. Weir leads the process, supported by Mike Cave, who spent nine years at Fulham in academy roles. Weir’s assistant technical director took over as head of recruitment after Sam Jewell joined the exodus to Chelsea in May 2024.

It is too soon to judge an unprecedented spending spree by the club of nearly £200million on nine signings in the summer 2024 transfer window. Ibrahim Osman, Amario Cozier-Duberry and Malick Yalcouye went straight out on loan to aid their development. Record buy Georginio Rutter (£40m) is performing well in the attack, but Ferdi Kadioglu, Mats Wieffer, Matt O’Riley, Yankuba Minteh and Brajan Gruda have all been hampered by injuries.

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Chelsea

Chelsea have two co-sporting directors in Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart. The former officially started work in December 2022 after leaving Brighton with the latter joining from Monaco two months later. Co-director of recruitment and talent Joe Shields joined from Southampton in January 2023 while director of global recruitment Sam Jewell began last May after also joining from Brighton.

Winstanley and Stewart lead the recruitment structure with the support of co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali. Their task has been to build a squad of young, talented players on long contracts. Chelsea now have the youngest team in the Premier League so the recruitment structure have certainly delivered on that score. The plan was to complete most of the rebuild from January 2023 until August 2024.

No club has spent more during this period, but a lot of revenue has been raised from sales too. Most of the current first team have joined over the last two years, but not all can be classified as a definite success. Axel Disasi, Joao Felix, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Christopher Nkunku and Mykhailo Mudryk, who is currently suspended for failing a doping test, cost well over £200million but rarely start Premier League games.

There have been signs Chelsea are on an upward trajectory but fans are impatiently waiting for the first bit of silverware under the new ownership.

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Dougie Freedman became Palace’s sporting director in August 2017. He made 368 appearances for the club, scoring 108 goals and also served as assistant manager, caretaker manager and permanent manager. He left acrimoniously for Bolton Wanderers in October 2012, but after his sacking by Bolton and a 13-month spell at Nottingham Forest he returned to Palace. His excellent track record of signings as manager which formed the core of the team promoted to the Premier League in 2013, was a major reason.

Freedman has switched Palace’s recruitment strategy, adding younger talent to improve and sell for a profit, with players such as Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise and Marc Guehi arriving. But he has yet to complete the latter part of that strategy, with Palace holding on to most of their talents; Olise’s departure to Bayern Munich in the summer was due to his release clause being triggered.

If Freedman can prove he is able to sell at the right time, he will have proven himself as incredibly valuable. But the majority of his signings have proven successful, with few misses. Palace’s budget is the lowest among the established Premier League clubs and with that in mind, it is hard to find significant failings in their additions.

But this summer’s signings of Daichi Kamada, a player wanted by manager Oliver Glasner, and their major arrival Eddie Nketiah, have still to prove themselves.

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Everton

Kevin Thelwell has been Everton’s director of football since February 2022. The former Wolves and New York Red Bulls chief succeeded Marcel Brands and was brought in to encourage a more ‘collegiate’ approach after years of interference from then-owner Farhad Moshiri and the club’s board.

Thelwell’s task has been challenging. With Everton’s financial situation fraught, he was asked to balance the books, improve the PSR situation and still keep them in the Premier League.

There have been PSR breaches, parts of which pertain to the time before he joined the club, and relegation battles — but Everton have just about kept their head above water. Thelwell’s contract expires at the end of the season, so new owners TFG have an early decision to make. They have already made their first big call with the exit on Thursday of Sean Dyche as manager.

The general view in the game is that Thelwell has done a decent job in tough conditions. Under him, player identification, on the whole, has been positive, but a lack of funds has often led to sticking plaster solutions. There have been misses. Neal Maupay, famously, while Beto and Jake O’Brien have not forced their way into the team.

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Fulham

Fulham has a streamlined recruitment team, ultimately overseen by Shahid Khan, the club’s owner and chairman, who signs off on the transfer budget. In terms of identifying talent, scouting, assessing the data and then getting a deal done, the key figure below Khan is his son, Tony, with input from chief executive Alistair Mackintosh and first-team head coach Marco Silva.

Tony Khan also heads up the data analysis with the recruitment team. Mackintosh is Tony’s day-to-day contact, with the chief executive focusing on the finances of a deal, while Silva also suggests key targets to suit his playing style and needs.

Fulham spent just over £90million in the summer, bringing in players such as Emile Smith Rowe from Arsenal for an initial £27m and Sander Berge from Burnley in a deal that could rise to £25m.

They needed to reduce the average age of the playing squad, and that is something they achieved by moving on some of the old guard, including letting Willian leave on a free at the end of his contract.

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Ipswich Town

Gary Probert is director of football operations and has been in the role since November 2021. Bristol City’s former academy manager arrived with a reputation for overseeing the development of young talent and was one of four staff members who joined from Bristol City in 2021 following chief executive Mark Ashton’s move from Ashton Gate.

Ashton is the public face of Ipswich’s executive team and led on the recruitment of manager Kieran McKenna. He is responsible for completing transfers once targets have been identified. Probert comes from an academy background like McKenna, but took a more “outside” role in his appointment. Head of recruitment Sam Williams departed in February to re-join Manchester United.

The recruitment that has particularly stood out was in January 2023 and 2024, with the club in the promotion picture and the necessary signings made. Big money was spent in the summer of 2024, predominantly on young talent with potentially high re-sale value. Liam Delap has unquestionably been an excellent signing, but there are question marks over not agreeing a new deal with goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky and spending £8million on Arijanet Muric.

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Leicester City

Jon Rudkin has been the director of football for just over a decade, stepping up from his director of academy role in December 2014. He was originally an academy coach and as academy manager he oversaw the club’s rise to category one status. He had no director of football experience when he was promoted by former chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha but quickly became his right-hand man and football advisor, continuing after Khun Vichai’s death with his son and successor Aiyawatt ‘Khun Top’.

He is the most powerful man at the club on the football side, but the sacking and selection of managers is still ultimately made by the chairman and owner. He is heavily involved in all transfer deals, although recruitment is a collaborative process involving the head of recruitment, the recruitment department and manager.

From 2014 to 2021, Leicester enjoyed incredible success, but they have been on the decline since 2022, chiefly because the club’s ambition to compete in the top eight saw them increase their budget massively and they had to halt recruitment because of PSR concerns.

Rudkin is seen by a section of the fanbase as the man who should be held accountable for Leicester’s decline, particularly after some poor recruitment and spending decisions. The calls for ‘Rudkin out’ have grown over the last couple of years, and will increase if Leicester endure a second relegation in three seasons, with continued PSR issues.

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Liverpool

Richard Hughes is Liverpool’s sporting director and has been responsible for the club’s day-to-day running since he was recruited from Bournemouth in 2024. His appointment was the first major decision by Michael Edwards after he agreed last March to return to the fold as Fenway Sports Group’s CEO of football.

His first transfer window last summer was relatively quiet with Federico Chiesa (£10.6m from Juventus) the only incoming. Liverpool also agreed a £29m deal with Valencia to sign goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili at the end of this season. Hughes inherited a difficult situation with the key trio of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold all down to the final year of their current contracts. He’s been in charge of negotiations over new deals but talks have become protracted and uncertainty remains.

The decision to appoint Arne Slot has been the biggest achievement of Hughes’ tenure. Fears Liverpool would face a tricky transitional period as they adapted to life after Jurgen Klopp have been dispelled. Hughes missed out on Liverpool’s top summer target after midfielder Martin Zubimendi ultimately opted to stay at Real Sociedad. However, it’s hard to see what the sporting director could have done differently given Liverpool only moved for the Spain international after being given assurances he was keen.

The signing of Chiesa has not worked out so far with the Italy international struggling for fitness while he has come under scrutiny for not getting contract extensions for Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold wrapped up. But he can only make offers within a financial framework acceptable to the owners.

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Manchester City

These are Txiki Begiristain’s final months as City’s director of football and, for much of his 12-year reign, he has been synonymous with the club’s success.

Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Fernandinho, Erling Haaland, John Stones and Ilkay Gundogan are among the A-listers signed on Begiristain’s watch. There is City’s success in developing players through their “emerging talent” department then selling them for big profits. And don’t forget Begiristain’s biggest success: without the former Barcelona executive in place, it is unlikely Pep Guardiola would ever have arrived in Manchester.

Begiristain can look back on seven Premier League titles – six with Guardiola, one with Manuel Pellegrini – and the treble of 2023.

But it is ending in difficult circumstances (Begiristain will be replaced by Sporting CP’s Hugo Viana at the end of the season) and there are legitimate questions to be asked when an ageing City side have looked so vulnerable in the last couple of months. More than anything, Begiristain (and Guardiola, in fairness) appears to have miscalculated plans for big rebuild in the summer of 2025, rather than a year earlier.

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Manchester United

United’s new football leadership structure was supposed to be finalised with the appointment of Dan Ashworth as sporting director in July, only for him to depart just five months later. Whether the 53-year-old will be directly replaced remains to be seen. Following his departure, fellow INEOS appointees Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox have split the typical responsibilities of a sporting director between them.

The only transfer window under the oversight of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS saw a spend of around £200m but could be described as a mixed bag, at best.

Noussair Mazraoui has looked like a steal at €15m and Manuel Ugarte has improved, while Leny Yoro should be a mainstay of United’s defence for many years to come.

The jury remains out on Matthijs de Ligt, whose signing was influenced by Erik ten Hag, and Joshua Zirkzee’s future is up in the air after a challenging start. Ashworth was across the summer signings but arrived with a reputation for overseeing operations rather than spotting talent and striking deals, and cannot simply be blamed for any missteps now he has departed.

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Newcastle United

Paul Mitchell was appointed as sporting director in July, bringing with him a significant reputation from his time at Southampton, Tottenham, RB Leipzig and Monaco.

His arrival caused unease, essentially taking some power away from Eddie Howe, the head coach, who spoke about “boundaries” and the need for everyone to understand their remit. Ashworth had been placed on gardening leave in February before his defection to Manchester United and it had left a vacuum.

In the interim, Newcastle had reverted to the transfer committee who had operated immediately post-takeover, with the then-owner Amanda Staveley, alongside Steve Nickson, the head of recruitment, and Andy Howe, the assistant head of recruitment, and the head coach, leading transfer decisions.

Mitchell has assumed responsibility and been charged with making Newcastle’s business more sustainable in a PSR-governed world. Nickson and Howe continue to scout players and Mitchell insists the head coach retains the final say on incoming players.

Mitchell’s first transfer window was widely seen as a failure, with no additions made who strengthened the first XI and a failed pursuit of Crystal Palace’s Guehi. While Mitchell’s assertion that he played a “supporting role” to a “predetermined strategy” have been contested by others inside the club, regardless of who set the approach, there is significant mitigation for how the summer turned out, given the sporting director only arrived in July and Newcastle faced significant PSR constraints.

January will be a test of both Mitchell’s burgeoning relationship with Howe, given tension between the pair existed during the previous window, and of the sporting director’s acumen and credentials. Yet it would be fairer to judge Mitchell following the upcoming summer, given significant squad surgery is likely to be deferred until then.

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Nottingham Forest

George Syrianos was appointed as global technical director last summer, meaning he also helps to shape the development of Evangelos Marinakis’ other clubs — Rio Ave of Portugal and Olympiacos of Greece.

Syrianos, formerly head of analytics at Stuttgart, has since played a huge part in Forest’s success, with Elliot Anderson and Nikola Milenkovic among the club’s best transfer picks last summer. Anderson was valued at around £15million from Newcastle United in the £35m package that saw Forest’s third-choice goalkeeper, Odysseas Vlachodimos, move in the other direction.

Milenkovic, who cost £11m from Fiorentina, has been one of the signings of the season. Both look like transfer-market snips now Forest are pushing for Champions League qualification as the surprise package of the season.

Syrianos’ influence also goes back to identifying players to win promotion in 2022, as an advisor to the board, and recommending new targets, including Taiwo Awoniyi, Orel Mangala and Moussa Niakhate, to keep Forest in the top division.

Crucially, Forest have also started to make substantial profits on players — it was the money from the Mangala (to Everton) and Niakhate (to Lyon) sales last summer that ensured the club complied with the Premier League’s spending rules.

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Southampton

Southampton are yet to replace Wilcox, their former director of football operations, who left the club to take a technical director role at Manchester United in April 2024.

Mark Bitcon, who joined in 2023 as their performance director, was promoted to director of football operations ahead of the 2024-25 campaign, but the suggestion is he deals more with performance as opposed to signing players.

Football agents note that Rasmus Ankersen, a co-founder and CEO of Sport Republic, the group that majority owns Southampton, and Phil Parsons, the club’s chief executive, are the main contact points when it comes to recruitment, although Darren Mowbray’s title at St Mary’s is head of recruitment.

Given his seniority and status, the consensus among intermediaries is that Ankersen is the man responsible for the club’s recruitment.

Since Sport Republic acquired its shareholding, there has been plenty of investment, with more than £200million being spent on signings, but the quality of those players has left the club bottom of the league and seemingly going down without a whimper.

They have missed the target more often than not when it comes to signing quality players — think of the £40m-plus they spent on Paul Onuachu and Kamaldeen Sulemana in the 2023 winter transfer window — and that is why the overwhelming majority of supporters will say the recruitment has been woeful.

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Tottenham Hotspur

Johan Lange is in charge of transfers after joining from Aston Villa in October 2023 as technical director. Lange stepped into the shoes of Fabio Paratici who resigned from his role as managing director of football five months earlier.

Lange has remodelled the recruitment department to be more data-focused with the help of Rob Mackenzie and Frederik Leth who he brought with him from Villa. At the beginning of last year, Spurs parted company with six of their longest-serving scouts and there has been change in the recruitment setup at academy level too.

It will take a few years to see whether Lange’s changes have paid off. He deserves praise for beating off competition from Barcelona for Lucas Bergvall and Brentford for Archie Gray. Ange Postecoglou’s No 1 target in the summer was Dominic Solanke and Lange delivered.

However, Tottenham’s injury crisis raises questions about whether they did enough in the summer to equip Postecoglou with a squad capable of playing twice a week, in the Premier League and the Europa League.

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Majority shareholder David Sullivan and Tim Steidten, the technical director, are responsible for identifying transfer targets.

The 2023-24 season was Steidten’s first and when Chelsea stalled on signing Mohammed Kudus, Steidten assured the Ghana international of playing time under former manager David Moyes. When West Ham missed out on signing Harry Maguire in the summer of 2023, Steidten pushed for Konstantinos Mavropanos, but the centre-back has struggled with consistency since joining.

Steidten played a big role in the 2024 summer signings of Jean-Clair Todibo, Crysencio Summerville, Niclas Fullkrug and Luis Guilherme and an overall £120million expenditure on nine arrivals. But only Todibo, Summerville, Maximilian Kilman, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have been solid additions. In terms of Todibo, Steidten’s sales pitch was key to the defender rejecting an offer from Juventus to join.

However, Steidten was asked to stay away from the training ground by former manager Julen Lopetegui, who was sacked on January 8. It was not the first time this had happened. In May 2024, when Moyes was manager, Steidten was told he could not enter the club’s first team dressing room at Rush Green or the London Stadium. Moyes left last summer to be replaced by Lopetegui.

Since the appointment of Graham Potter, Steidten has returned so it will be interesting to see how he and the club perform in January as they prioritise signing a striker and midfielder this window.

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Wolverhampton Wanderers

Matt Hobbs has been Wolves’ sporting director for just over two years, having been promoted following the departure of Scott Sellars. Hobbs was previously Wolves’ director of recruitment so his promotion meant he took on wider responsibilities for the football operation while retaining overall control of the scouting system.

The choice of Hobbs, with his recruitment background, over Sellars, with more coaching expertise, signalled Wolves’ desire to move away from reliance on Jorge Mendes’ Gestifute network for recruitment.

The jury is still out to some degree. Hobbs has enjoyed successes such as Craig Dawson, Joao Gomes and — while it is still early days — Jorgen Strand Larsen, but there are others like Santiago Bueno and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde who have flattered to deceive.

There is mitigation, though. He has been forced to work within severe financial restrictions and with Fosun, the conglomerate which owns the club club, regularly shifting the goalposts. Also, Mendes is still a big player with Fosun so there are some deals over which Hobbs has little or no control.

(Top photos: Getty Images)