Town confirm Webb as head of operations
TOWN have confirmed that Ostersunds technical director David Webb is to take up the position of head of football operations.
Rumours of Webb’s appointment had come out in Sweden overnight, and the club has now confirmed the former Southampton, Bournemouth and Tottenham behind-the-scenes man will take his post on August 19.
A club press release said: “As the head of football operations, David will work closely with head coach Jan Siewert and head of recruitment Josh Marsh, reporting to the board all aspects of the football operation including recruitment, performance, scouting, analysis, sports science, medicine and the academy.”
Town chairman Phil Hodgkinson commented: “I’m very happy that we can welcome David to Huddersfield Town today. I felt it was important that we took our time to get this appointment right and I’m confident that we have.
“David’s track record speaks for itself. He’s held key roles across the top divisions in England, Germany and Spain, and will add real experience, skills and hunger to the club. It is important to stress that our head of football operations works alongside the head coach here; it is a partnership, not a case of the coach reporting into a sporting director.”
A look at Webb’s history reveals his qualifications for his new role.
WEBB holds a master’s in sports psychology and has been working in football since the early 2000s.
He worked for Crystal Palace’s academy early in his career and is credited with the discovery of Wilfried Zaha. Webb moved on to become academy coach and scouting coordinator at Tottenham before stepping up to become Millwall’s head of academy coaching in 2007.
From there Webb moved to Southampton and was in charge of spotting players aged 15 to 21. It was here that he first worked with Mauricio Pochettino, who arrived at St Mary’s towards the end of Webb’s three-year spell at the club in 2013. WEBB told Joe.co.uk of his time at Bournemouth : “I wasn’t a technical director there; I was their head of recruitment in 2013.
“They’d been promoted from League One, had a small budget and didn’t have much in place in terms of recruitment structure.
“We managed to find players like Callum Wilson, Dan Gosling and Junior Stanislas – all players that are still there now.”
Wilson, in particular, has been a huge success for the Cherries. Plucked from League One Coventry during Bournemouth’s time in the Championship, the striker is now an England international and is regularly picked in Gareth Southgate’s squads. RECRUITED to a similar role to the one he held at Southampton to again work with Mauricio Pochettino, Webb is believed to have played a part in identifying Son Heung-Min as a Spurs target.
Webb also played a part in helping integrate academy players into the first team : England internationals Harry Winks and Dele Alli, for example, who emerged in the Spurs midfield during Webb’s time at the club. OSTERSUNDS have spent the last eight years charging up the Swedish football ladder, largely under the management of now-Brighton boss Graham Potter.
As recently as 2011 they were playing fourth-tier football, but they finished in the top half of the Swedish top flight in each of their last three seasons. In 2018, they even reached the last 32 of the Europa League, claiming a 2-1 away win over Arsenal but losing on aggregate.
Webb joined the Swedish club is technical director last year, and according to an interview with the Daily Mirror in March, was able to convince one Chelsea youngster, Charlie Colkett, to turn down a reunion with former Blue captain John Terry at Aston Villa and come to Sweden instead.
Webb said of the role: “Its a very up and down job. Lots of highs and lows. Your work is out there for everyone to see and it can be criticized, but the other side is that it is incredibly satisfying when you put your faith in a player and that player justifies it. ”
I’m very happy that we can welcome David to Huddersfield Town – his track record speaks
for itself
IN that excellent interview with Joe’s Simon Lloyd, Webb says that around 70 per cent of his role is player recruitment, and his LinkedIn page states that he wishes to go to the top of the game as a recruitment specialist.
However, it is clear that Webb has ample experience in the other areas of the head of football operations job that Hodgkinson outlined, from coaching to scouting to academy to recruitment.
Finding the right candidate for this kind of role is notoriously difficult, and Webb’s recruitment will be a weight off a lot of people’s shoulders – and a joy for all concerned if he is able to bring the right players to the John Smith’s Stadium.