Crystal Palace To Bolster Recruitment Department | OneFootball

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Crystal Palace are set to bring in ex-Wolves sporting director Matt Hobbs to fill the gap left by Dougie Freedman’s departure, according to journalist Alan Nixon.

In March, Crystal Palace saw their long-time sporting director Freedman leave the club after eight long years at the club acting as their transfer supremo.

Under Freedman’s guidance, Palace were able to identify young and talented players in the form of Marc Guehi, Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton in the market, doing impressive business.

In the recently closed transfer window, the Eagles acted without a sporting director present at the helm and chairman Steve Parish conducted the business in the final weeks.

Defence was an area Oliver Glasner wanted to improve in the summer, but Crystal Palace conducted the majority of their deals in the latter half of the window.

The club spent time waiting to see what European competition they would be in.

Although Crystal Palace managed to bring in Jaydee Canvot from Toulouse, they saw a deadline day deal collapsing for Brighton defender Igor.

Club captain Marc Guehi was on the verge of a move to Liverpool on deadline day, but Glasner refused to lose the defender without a replacement and threatened to quit, which resulted in Parish blocking the England defender’s exit.

Crystal Palace had an eventful last few days of the transfer window but a lot of deals were left until very late to be completed.

Now it has been claimed that Parish is set to bring in ex-Wolves sporting director Hobbs to fill the shoes left vacant by Freedman.

The 45-year-old joined Wolves as a scout in 2015 and later climbed up the positions to be promoted to sporting director in November 2022.

Wolves decided to restructure their football department in the summer which saw Hobbs leaving his position and he has been out of work since then.

Now Parish will be hoping that the arrival of Hobbs will give them stability in the sporting department and his first test will be in the winter transfer window.

That could see Liverpool try once again for Guehi, while Glasner may want more reinforcements, especially if Palace are still involved in the Conference League.