Leeds United confirm another Elland Road exit and reveal further changes — YEP 11/11/24

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By Graham Smyth

Leeds United have confirmed an Elland Road exit and revealed further changes to their recruitment structure.

Last week it emerged that technical director Grétar Steinsson was to leave his role and take up a new post in ownership group 49ers Enterprises' executive global football structure.

His departure has been followed by that of Jordan Miles, who only arrived at Elland Road in February of this year.

Miles became head of recruitment after a spell with Aberdeen but the YEP understands he is to pursue a new opportunity elsewhere.

Leeds have elevated Alex Davies to the role of head of recruitment. Davies has spent more than 13 years at the club, working as an analyst, heading up the analysis department and moving into scouting.

Adam Underwood will widen his role as head of football operations to take a lead on player trading, which has until recently been the remit of Nick Hammond.

Hammond, who joined the club in the summer of 2023 to assist with a difficult transfer window, is to remain involved as a football consultant.

It is not yet clear if the changes to Leeds' recruitment operations are in any way related to what CEO Angus Kinnear described as 'healthy tension' over transfers in the summer.

Speaking after Daniel Farke's comments about signing 'young, interesting' players with a lack of proven experience at Championship level, Kinnear told The Square Ball: "In recruitment discussions there's always tension, and there should be tension, and I think it's healthy.

“There is tension between the data team and the scouting team and the coaching staff and the manager and the ownership. But I think we had really good, constructive dialogue with Daniel. There are no players that everybody wasn't fully aligned on before we secured them.

“The process is much more collaborative than it has been historically. So everybody has a say. But Daniel and the recruitment team knew that the board supported us pretty much unconditionally in terms of the players that we targeted and the players that were available to us.

“I probably give us a B+ if I was to grade the window in terms of what we wanted to do."

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