Ipswich Head of Recruitment returns to Manchester United
Sam Williams: Worked for United for four-and-a-half years before joining Ipswich
Written by Training Ground Guru —
IPSWICH TOWN Head of Recruitment Sam Williams is leaving the club after two years to return to Manchester United.
Williams worked for the Reds from 2017 to 2022, first as an Academy scout and then First Team Recruitment Analyst, before joining the Tractor Boys in April 2022. He had been recommended to Ipswich by manager Kieran McKenna and assistant Martyn Pert, with whom he had worked at United.
At the time, Ipswich CEO Mark Ashton said: "We’re got technical recruitment and data in place, we have scouts in place, but we have been searching far and wide for someone to lead that team. Martyn Pert’s been really influential in helping us with that and we’ve found that person. We are delighted.”
Williams' new role at United is Lead Scout for 17s to 21s, focusing on the recruitment of high-potential talent in that age range. The appointment was led by Academy Director Nick Cox and Director of Scouting Steve Brown and is part of a raft of changes aimed at building a “best-in-class” department that is “fit for purpose in a post-Brexit world.”
Williams will report into United's Head of Academy Recruitment, Luke Fedorenko. The other changes to United’s Scouting and Recruitment department in the last six months are:
- Callum Tongue: Arrived from Ipswich Town, where he was Under-18s coach, as Head of Local Recruitment.
- Ben Clarke: Joined from Cardiff City, where he was Head of Academy Recruitment, to become Pre-Academy Lead Scout.
- Finn O’Leary: Came in from Blackburn Rovers, where he was Recruitment Operations Manager, to become Assistant Lead Phase Scout for the local area.
- Ben McFarlan: Promoted from Scouting and Recruitment Analyst to Academy Technical Scout.
- Connor Hunter: Moved from Assistant Head of Local Recruitment to Lead 13 to 16 National Scout.
- Jamahl Jarrett: Moved to Lead Phase Scout for the South region.
- Stephen Ajewole: Moved from Lead Phase Scout for the South to 17 to 20 Phase Scout.
- Stephen Tierney: Moved from Assistant Lead Phase Scout for the 9s to 11s to Lead 9 to 14 Scout.
