Former Norwich City player Rob Newman is on the verge of becoming West Ham’s new head of recruitment.
The 57-year-old has been involved in the scouting set-up at Manchester City since 2008, heading up their recruitment work in Spain previously, and taking on senior roles, currently holding the position of international scouting and recruitment manager.
Newman is thought to still live in Norfolk and had been working regularly as a pundit for the Canaries last season, on the club’s matchday NR1 Live show, also previously coaching at Langley School alongside former teammate Darren Eadie.
The former defender made 249 appearances for Norwich City between 1991 and 1998. winding up his Football League career at Southend United and eventually became manager for 18 months in the fourth tier.
A short stint in charge of Gorleston followed in 2004 before becoming assistant manager at Cambridge United and picking up the reins following relegation from the Football League in 2005, leading the Us to mid-table but losing his job early in his second season.
He became former Norwich defender Kevin Bond’s assistant at Bournemouth for a couple of years but when that came to end was briefly a scout for Steve Bruce at Wigan before getting involved at Manchester City in the scouting department.
Claret and Hugh understands Newman is currently on gardening leave from Manchester City but looks sets to join the Hammers in is new posiotion very soon.
As a club, we have a horrendous reputation in the transfer market and we always seem to end up behind the curve when it comes to transfers. Usually, last to pick up on the talented up and coming players, before they explode onto the scene.
The appointment of someone as good at what they do as Rob Newman is long overdue and would possibly be the biggest appointment at this club since David Moyes.
I hope that we can get this one over the line because it’s all about margins these days and having this advantage over similar-sized clubs would be a massive boost to our club.
Cat, I think stating ‘horrendous reputation’ is a big harsh.
OK, so there have been plenty of ‘busts’ and ‘flops’ but there has been some dynamite deals done over the past 40 years.
For every bust there’ll be a win or a good purchase
I just hope isn’t expecting to have the sort of budget they have at Citeh….
Welcome Rob, we’re all wishing you every success in the project.
It is not meant to be a blanket statement… but our transfer dealings are mostly protracted and that for the most part is because we are behind the curve and not in front of it… IMHO….. it is the way that it has been for many years!
The idea behind this appointment is to be the club that gets there first. Moyes is spot on in prioritising this problem with the club.