Manchester United man confirms exit after accepting ‘fantastic’ Newcastle United offer
With a Manchester United scout expected to join the team, Newcastle United has announced another new hire behind the scenes.
In his first season as Newcastle’s sporting director, Dan Ashworth has made several new hires and appointments, most recently Man United academy scout Andy Basterfield, in an effort to overhaul Newcastle’s academy system.
Basterfield will work with Newcastle as a new regional scout for players aged 13 to 18 in the North West. He has worked at Manchester United for the past 12 years and will retire as the academy talent scout and manager of football in the community.
Basterfield, a PE teacher, FA-qualified tutor, and UEFA B-licensed coach, announced on social media that he has accepted a job offer from Newcastle.
He posted on Twitter, “Excited to have been offered & accepted the role of NW Regional Scout (U13’s-U18’s) @NUFCNewcastle United.”
This season, Newcastle has hired a number of staff workers from competing Premier League teams as part of a covert hiring campaign. Paul Midgely, Paul McLaren, and Ciaran Hughes have all left Manchester City to take on the roles of lead video analyst, national director of youth scouting (ages 13–18), and head of recruitment for young people, respectively.
Eddie Black, an academy lead scout for under-9s to under-14s from Arsenal, was appointed by Newcastle, and Delroy Ebanks, an academy lead scout for the South of England from West Ham. Paul Baker has now been appointed the North of England’s academy lead scout.
Josh Appleyard (Norwich City), Graeme Tiffin (Middlesbrough), Peter Clark (Arsenal), Chris Nix (internal appointment), and Oliver Slater (Blackburn Rovers) will make up Ciaran Hughes’ positional analyst team.
Claire Burrows, a recruitment operations manager from Leicester City, was also hired by Newcastle this week.
She announced her new position as recruitment operations manager at Newcastle United on Twitter, writing: “So excited to announce that I will be joining Newcastle United.
fantastic people, a fantastic city, and a great club. What a moment to join—the club’s aspirations and ambitions are only rising.
In addition to coordinating and supporting the local and UK recruitment teams, Burrows will “ensure a seamless flow of information between Academy and recruitment staff.”
