Stephen Bettis answers Sheffield United Director of Football question amid changes in recruitment

Sheffield United CEO Stephen Bettis has admitted that there are no plans to employ a Director of Football or Sporting Director, as the club looks to restructure it's future recruitment.

The strategy of having a sole director in charge of recruitment and the running of all aspects of the football side at clubs - except coaching the players - is one that is favoured across Europe and has been taken on in England with varying degrees of success.

There are to be changes in United's recruitment this summer, regardless of which division the team finds itself playing in, with former Head of Recruitment Paul Mitchell recently stepping down, though that was expected to happen at the end of the season anyway.

The suggestion is that a Director of Football allows the manager to concentrate on coaching and preparing the players, however Bettis says the club are of the opinion that Chris Wilder, in this instance, will and should have a major say in bringing in players and that adding another person on top of the Head of Recruitment may only serve to complicate matters.

"For us there's no plans to have a Director of Football or a Sporting Director," Bettis told The Star in a wide-ranging interview. "It's just to bring in another Head of Recruitment and strengthen the data analysis below it as well; there will be extra headcount put into the department going forward. But there's no plans for [Director of Football].

"You also have to look at, when you look at our manager, who we brought in for the reasons we did this season, he's heavily involved in recruitment, and always has been. To put another layer of complexity or another person in terms of a Director of Football as well, I'm not sure it works. It works in some places and it doesn't in others. 

"I don't think there's really a blueprint for what's right or wrong, it's individuals. You could have a Head of Recruitment that could be really strong and then what's the difference between a Head of Recruitment and a Director of Football, to be honest? I would say if you are really picking at it, and a Head of Recruitment I suppose does this too, so I might be tripping myself up, but they look at the club as a whole and goes 'right, we need a left-back'. What have we got coming through the Academy, are we blocking pathways? Takes a more top-down view of it, but I think we already do that anyway. I think we are already mindful of that and showed that with what's going on with the Academy and the kids coming through and the opportunities they are getting at the moment. So there are no plans to change, is the answer."

When asked if Wilder will have a say in who the new Head of Recuitment will be, Bettis added: "Ultimately it's not his decision, it's the club's decision but Chris will interview the people and his opinion will be taken into account and valued in that respect, so he will be involved, yes."