FORMER Burnley Academy Manager Jon Pepper has joined Lincoln City. Pepper worked for the Clarets for five years, from 2016 to 2021, and oversaw their rise from Category Three to Category One status.

EVERTON have appointed former Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid practitioner Jack Nayler as their new Head of Sport Science.

WEST HAM legend Mark Noble has been appointed as the club's new Sporting Director. The 35-year old will officially start on January 2nd and work “closely in support of David Moyes, as well as working with the Board of Directors, providing input, advice, and assistance across all aspects of the football operation.”

GAVIN CHESTERFIELD is leaving Barry Town after 15 years to become the new Academy Manager at Cardiff City.

HEAD of Sport Science Mark Howard has left Burnley after almost a decade. He joined the club under Sean Dyche in February 2013 from nearby Blackburn Rovers.

PAUL McGUINNESS has left his role as Leicester City’s Head of Player Development to help care for his father Wilf, who has dementia.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST have appointed Swansea’s Dan Morris to the new position of Head of Data Insights. Morris has been a data scientist at Swansea since 2017.

WATFORD Sporting Director Cristiano Giaretta has left the Championship club after two years. The Italian joined in August 2020 from Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia.

SOUTHAMPTON have hired Pete Haynes from Cheltenham Town in a revamp of their coaching set-up at Under-18 level. The 28-year-old, who was Senior Professional Development Phase Coach at Cheltenham, has been appointed U18s Individual Coach by the Premier League side.

EDD WEBSTER worked as a data scientist for Manchester City and West Ham. Now he's with another iconic brand: LEGO. He tells TGG how football clubs are (and aren’t) using data, what they can learn from other industries and how people can transition into the profession, just like he did.

DATA is valuable and SQL makes navigating it a lot easier. Our SQL for Data Analysis Masterclass will provide an introduction to accessing and manipulating datasets in a football context.

CARL DARLINGTON has left the Football Association of Wales (FAW) after 17 years to become Everton’s new Head of Academy Coaching.